President’s Message — March 1999 (Rick Tubbs)

President’s message	March and April, 1999

Greetings from south central Kentucky. As I write this, my final President’s message, the hog market is slowly emerging from the lowest prices in the past 60 years. Industry restructuring continues and no one is sure where things will settle out. Amidst the chaos, the AASP has continued to provide us with leading-edge information and the opportunity to sharpen and, indeed, change our skills if we feel that it is needed. I have certainly enjoyed my 3 years as an AASP officer and the past year as President. It has been a learning experience and has kept me in contact with people who are setting the standards in swine practice and in delivering service to their clients. I appreciate all the help I have received from many of you, all the members who serve on the various committees, and especially Tom Burkgren and Sue Schulteis in the AASP office.

When I ran for AASP Vice-President 3 years ago, I set the following as my goals for the organization:

• improve the competitive position of swine practitioners in the North American and global swine industries;
• improve and expand the district continuing education activities supported by the AASP;
• build on our relationship with the NPPC and assist them in making pork the meat of choice by the year 2000;
• improve our support of the AASP Foundation and expand its activities;
• see our already excellent journal, Swine Health and Production, become the premier place in the world to publish swine-related research and clinical information;
• continue the membership-driven focus, but expand to include more producer- and consumer-driven activities, including more attention to food safety and its impact on export markets; and,
• define the swine practitioner’s role in food safety.

When I was interviewed by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association following last year’s AASP meeting and before beginning my year as president, I put food safety and antibiotic resistance issues at the top of the list of priorities for the AASP to address.

Some of these goals have been achieved, some partly fulfilled, and others are still works in progress. Some will never be entirely met but will remain ideals to work toward.

Some highlights that occurred during my 3 years as an officer were:

• opening our own office in Perry, Iowa;
• bringing Tom Burkgren on full time as Executive Director, along with Sue Schulteis as his administrative assistant;
• the changing of the guard at Swine Health and Production as Bob Morrison, our first editor, ran for AASP office and relinquished the editorial position to Cate Dewey;
• an active AASP member, Leonard Seda, being elected to serve the AVMA as as their president;
• along with Iowa State University and the NPPC, bringing the IPVS Congress back to the United States in 2002;
• the opportunity to work with a large number of you on various committees and working groups;
• serving on the Editorial Board of SHAP and working with the behind-the-scenes people who make it an excellent journal; and
• Connie Schmidt’s work with the AASP Foundation.

There weren’t many low points during the entire time, but one of them was the death of Wally Brandt, our AASP historian for several years and a real friend to swine practitioners.

As I prepare to join the ranks of AASP past-presidents, a renowned group of individuals I’m not sure I belong with, I want to encourage our membership. We need to remain active in our organization as we move forward and continue our service to swine veterinarians and ultimately to producers and consumers. Your new AASP president, Al Scheidt, and the other officers have ambitious agendas for the organization. They will need a lot of membership input to achieve them.

Thanks for the opportunities this organization has afforded me and happy swine practicing!

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