Delta County Fair Board Minutes 11.07.2023

Delta County Fair Board Minutes November 7, 2023

Delta County Administrative Building – Delta, Colorado 

Members in attendance: Jennifer Craig - President, Ryan Bates – Vice President, Kelsi Buhr – Treasurer, Cristen Chermak - Secretary, Phillip Hulet – Member (via Zoom), Gary Peebles was not in attendance. Jen called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.

Guests: Bill Hunt 

Treasurer’s Report

Invoice totals: $1180 – Market Sale Committee - Accounts Receivable includes two invoices to the Sale Committee, one from last year and a new one for this year. I have asked them to help me figure out why the one from last year is not showing as paid. It could have been paid and not recorded, or it could have been overlooked. Either way, we will get that figured out. 

Checking balance: $79,385.20 

Money Market balance: $20,593.82 

Ryan moved to accept the Treasurer’s report. Jen seconded the motion, and after a vote, the motion was passed. 

CSU Extension Report 

4-H enrollment is open, and the kids are doing a toy drive for Toys for Tots through December. 

Guests 

Heather Grant and Brenda Jensen were present to hear discussion regarding the youth producer class proposal. Jen informed members of the Board that the Bred and Fed Committee has proposed adding a youth producer division. Bill Hunt, Amy Perkins, and Ted Cunningham were also present for that discussion. 

New Business 

• Jen stated the need to establish the board for this year. There are not any open positions, but it is to make sure everybody wants to stay on the Board. Phil agreed to stay on the Board and Jen had a conversation with Gary Peebles previously who indicated he was interested in staying on the Board. Without any current member wanting to leave the Board, Jen moved that we keep the Board in place. Cristen seconded the motion, and the motion was passed. 

• Regarding the Market Sale Committee invoicing – the matter is Old Business and New Business as well. The Board also needs to invoice the MS Committee for their portion of Fair alcohol and ice. Additionally, the MS Committee agreed to pay for half of the porta cooler expense – or the expense for the day of the sale. The cost was $250 dollars for the week. Kelsi will send an invoice to the MS Committee. The County is purchasing two portable coolers – four depending on the cost. 

• Fair theme - Suggestions for the theme were: 

  • 1. A Celebration of Rural Joy 

  • 2. Harvest Hoedown: Celebrate the Bounty of the Season 

  • 3. Frontier Fiesta: Step Back into the Wild West 

  • 4. Rustic Roots & Festive Fun 

  • 5. Where Fields Meet Fun 

  • 6. Barnyard Bliss & Midway Merriment 

  • 7. Harvesting Smiles, Mile By Mile 

  • 8. Fair Frenzy: Where Fair Takes Flight 

  • 
    

• After discussion regarding votes submitted by Board members, a motion was made, seconded, and passed to set option 4 - Rustic Roots and Festive Fun as the 2024 Delta County Fair Theme. 

• Royalty/Ambassador discussion Discussion at the last Board meeting included morphing the royalty program into a fair ambassador program in hopes of increasing the number of kids who will participate. Jen stated that changing the program would allow for opening participation to youth not necessarily equestrians, and specifically not having to be all girls. The concern is that interest in the royalty program has been slim the past several years. If we do not expand the program, it may not be sustainable. 

Changing the program would allow young men to participate as well. The program would continue to have these young people to represent Delta County by going out meet people, talk to people, establish connections, get some good public speaking experience. If they were equestrians, they still could ride in the parades. We would formalize the process like the Premier Exhibitor program at the Fair and in the Fair Book. 

Jen sent a very rough draft of rules to Fair Board members. The program would be set to select three participants a year - one junior, one intermediate, and one senior to represent and promote the Delta County Fair at events across the state of Colorado. The mission would be to give young men and women the opportunity to attend Fairs and Festivals Conferences, community events as well as workshops to develop interpersonal communication skills, public speaking skills. Additionally, the youth would develop personal and professional connections to promote the Delta County Fair in their capacity as Delta County Fair Ambassadors. Upon completion of their year as a Delta County Fair Ambassador, the participants could be awarded a $1000 scholarship on behalf of the Delta County Fair Board. 

Participants would be required to live in Delta County there and be enrolled in Delta County 4-H or FFA. They would also be required to be a member in good standing. All members in good standing would be eligible to apply. Age limits would be the same as current junior, intermediate, and senior programs. Applicants would apply like current scholarship programs. There would need to be a deadline for the application to be submitted. 

Selection would be conducted by a committee including Fair Board members and community members who would interview applicants. In addition, two superintendents for the program would be important. Superintendents could do an interview and select the kids from the applicants to submit for consideration to the committee. 

After selection, the job of the Superintendent would be like what Theresa is doing now - lining up events for the ambassadors to attend - whether it be rodeos, parades, fairs, and/or festivals. There are numerous opportunities at Stock Show and State Fair that these kids could be involved in as well as local/regional activities. The superintendents would need to help organize this because we would want this to be a really good experience for the kids. 

The Fair Board would cover entry fees for things like Fairs and Shows but they would be responsible for their travel expenses. State FFA officers are responsible for travel expenses and applicants would know that ahead of time. Additionally, ambassadors would be expected to behave according to the rules of conduct of the Colorado State 4-H program. Violators would be relieved of any further participation. Ambassadors selected would be announced during the fair like the way royalty is announced currently. 

Also, a point of consideration would be ensuring that ambassadors would need to be readily identifiable - like the royalty has the chaps. Ambassadors would need something so that it is obvious - whether it is a jacket or something else that ambassadors would be able to keep. Another option would be shirts with their title and name embroidered on them. 

There are a couple of ladies interested in being superintendents. Of course, we need to talk to Teresa about it because she has done a ton for this program. Jen stated that she would contact Teresa. Riley Horsham would like to serve as an ambassador this year as the senior ambassador which may not be possible this year, but she would be so helpful for the two younger girls who are serving as royalty this year and she is enthusiastic about it. Sarah is interested in being a Superintendent, and there are a few other people who are also interested in being superintendents. Superintendents will have to be enthusiastic because it is going to take a lot of legwork. 

Jen indicated that the Board needed to vote regarding whether to move forward with the ambassador program or not. Additionally, do we want to offer Riley Horsham and Lisa Bayless a chance to be senior ambassadors and have them apply. We could vote to select an ambassador mid-season. Both of those girls were interested in being queen and they could not. Phil moved to continue moving forward with the creation of the ambassador program. Jen seconded the motion and the motion passed. 

Jen will take suggestions on the rules for the program. Board members can email suggestions to Jen and include things that need to be edited and changed with the hope that the Board can vote on the official rules at the next meeting. Jen will reach out to Teresa, Riley, and Alyssa. 

• Heritage Hall – Cristen introduced discussion regarding the closure of Clubb’s in Delta and the opportunity to obtain display items from Mr. Clubb to utilize in Heritage Hall for the fair. As discussed during earlier meetings, finding opportunities to update displays in Heritage Hall is one of the goals set by the Fair Board. Cristen listed several items that are available and uses for them in Heritage Hall. She has been in touch with Mr. Club about the current availability of items. 

Cristen also mentioned that glass cases currently used in Heritage Hall were repaired right before fair this year because they were broken and chipped on the edges. Jeff put an acrylic sealer on to smooth them out to make sure no one was injured. Additionally, Ryan obtained a couple of display items that were utilized in the Pantry area this year. They worked very well. Cristen also obtained a few items Clubb’s prior to the fair that were used in the Craft/Ceramics area. Cristen was asked to obtain pricing information for items of interest and get back to the Board with those prices. 

• Nomination Process – Jen passed out examples of forms that might be used to facilitate extending the process for beef, sheep, and goats. The forms will be available online. There is a step-by-step process. Entrants will enter the County Fair tag and designate whether the animal is Bred and Fed. Three or four pictures will also be uploaded - front view, side views, for pigs and sheep. Additionally, beef entries will require brand inspection papers or bill of sale to be uploaded. 

The deadline will be February 3rd. Tags will be handed out in both Hotchkiss and Delta to ensure they are easily accessible. We will have ear taggers available for check-out and we will probably stick with the white tags. Check-out will be for a 24- to 48-hour period depending on location. The check-out procedure will require return of the taggers within the specified time or be billed at replacement cost. The exhibitor will be responsible for designating animals as Bred and Fed. So, as part of the documents that need to be uploaded, a Bill of Sale will have to be included. At the bottom of the Bill of Sale will be an affidavit of Delta County Bread and Fed. 

The exhibitor will take this form to the producer and have them sign the form. Also required will be Delta County scrappies tag information for goats and sheep. Pigs must be ear notched - which has been a requirement for the last several years. Bred and Fed groups will have a big role in collecting the names of producers in the county to distribute to those kids who are looking for Bred and Fed animals. 

This procedure will streamline the entry process. It might be a little painful this year, but it will become part of the process for everyone. An online process will be more efficient and help us not miss producers. We did have producers who said they did not know when the sign up deadline was. Jen has gone through the fair book and added in the nomination process pertinent to each species. 

In the future, we will be having discussions regarding how to move forward with a youth producer program. It has been suggested that we show by breeds, or the Bred and Fed group moves toward becoming an association. A Delta County Youth Producers group - producer driven, producer awarded. There are a lot of ideas out there. 

Jen also indicated that if livestock superintendents need any report or form, they simply need to submit a request to her. Brand inspections, Bill of Sales, etc. are available and can be built into Superintendent books. Having all the brand paperwork this year was helpful. Having pictures of each entry in the superintendent book will simplify things a lot. One set of pictures for each entry make it simple to ensure the corrected animal is in the pen. 

The goal is to make the fair kid driven. It is important for kids to participate in all aspects of the fair. Jen shared that when she became a Fair Board member, we never had a kid ever help us set up the beef barn or the show. That is something that has evolved through Jackie requiring kids to be involved and be a kid workforce. It was a missed learning opportunity for kids. Kids should be responsible for helping pull together the fair. This is part of the program. 

Kelsey made a motion to accept the nomination process as Ryan has written it. Phil and Cristen seconded the motion. The motion passed. 

• Family Nominations - One of the things requested of the Board last year was to have a family nomination process. This process will allow families to nominate animals and declare the owner of the animal at the pre entry deadline which is June 21, 2024. What that would involve is that if siblings register a steer, they both must nominate it online and then by June 21st one of them must claim entry for that steer and the other one cannot. If there is a duplicate entry, then that animal cannot show. The benefit of this process is that it gives kids a chance to determine which animals are working best with them. Another benefit would be if an animal is lost and there are two kids and three animals, one kid is not left without an animal. Most counties around us are following this procedure. Most of our rules were taken from Mesa County's rules. A motion to accept the family nomination process was made by Jen and Phil seconded the motion. The motion passed. 

• Terminal Sale - The Board has pondered this matter previously. One of the issues we have at the fair is this huge shuffle of animals once they leave the fairgrounds that are sold through the sale. A lot of animals out of the buyback group are taken back home or bought by other people. One situation that occurred previously was someone who bought a lamb off the buyback and showed it at the State Fair. We do not dictate that our sale is terminal. What some people have done is either buy it off the buyback and substitute another animal so that the count stays even. What needs to happen is to somehow prevent all of that shuffling from happening. It is hard on the people who are taking the buyback animals because they are constantly being approached and a little bit harassed to get some of these animals exchanged. It does take some buy in from the community, but the terminal sale rules the rule would lead would read that the Delta County livestock sale is a terminal sale – not the show. 

To be clear, it is not the show that is terminal. The rule would ensure that every animal sold at the Junior Market Livestock Sale is henceforth owned by the buyer. The animal must either go directly to the slaughter or the buyer of any female animal may opt to take that animal home for breeding purposes only. Gary asked that this be included in the rule because some people pay a lot more money for an animal because it is a breeding animal. We could possibly cut back on what some of those animals sell for if we do not allow them to go home. We still need to designate that they cannot go anywhere other than to be used for breeding stock. Any exhibitor found to be in breach of this rule will not be allowed to show livestock at the Delta County Fair the following year. 

A list of animals sold at the Delta County Junior Market Livestock Sale will be provided to the Colorado State Fair Livestock Office. Most counties follow this procedure. The State Fair Livestock Committee will know which animals should not participate in the Colorado State Fair. We can also provide a list for the Stock Show if we want. Because the State Fair is directly after our fair, it is the event where this situation arises the most. 

Adopting this rule means that if you buy somebody's bunnies you cannot give them back. It is sad, but it does mean we are going to have to make sure we have a facility set up for small animal slaughter. 

A motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the terminal sales statement. 

• Producer’s Class - Jen sent out a SurveyMonkey to gather data. We have had two ongoing discussions with Bred and Fed. One of these discussions has been that it would be nice to have our breeding shows be bigger and more robust. It would be a good thing to celebrate the fact that a lot of kids in our county have breeding stock. They just do not bring them to the fair. 

The second suggestion was to have a producer’s class that would allow for an exhibitor to bring a family raised animal of any species - just beef - produced either by their parents, their grandparents, or siblings - so first degree relatives only. The exhibitor could enter a producer's class. The idea gets complicated after that. Essentially, there would be a class besides the market class. Those animals could be entered in their market classes. Then at the end of the market show, they could go into the producer’s class. We could determine a top youth producer animal. It could be instead of the market class. In that case, there would be a separate class in the market show. We could have the first place animals from all the different market classes compete. The first place animals from the producer’s class could compete in the champion drive. That is one way to consider it. 

There could be a separate event as well. An animal that we consider a champion, or a first place animal could sell differently at the sale. It could be just an entirely different category. There could be a market show and a producer’s show. We would need to decide exactly what that means and looks like. There are a ton of variables. 

Jen asked for idea of what everybody thinks umm and so the first thing I kind input from the Board. We either have the bandwidth this year to try to make the breeding shows bigger or start the producer’s class. Jen thinks we can do one or the other financially and just overall focus on one. In a way it is a little bit of a duplication of the Bred and Fed idea. She added that she was questioning the direction the Board should head so that is what the SurveyMonkey was created to address. 

Jen received only 31 responses, which was something for the Board to keep in mind. The first question on the survey was: Would you consider showing a breeding animal at the fair for a cash prize? 90% of the kids who answered - 28 kids - said yes, they would consider showing a breeding animal for a cash prize. The question was rephrased asking if they would consider showing a breeding animal for a buckle as a prize. Only 87% said yes to the buckle as a prize. The third question I asked was: Do your siblings, parents, grandparents, or you produce market livestock? Of the kids who answered, 90% - or 28 of them- said that their family does. Of those 28, 24 said they show their family grown animals in the Delta County fair. Of those 24, 17 said they would enter a producer’s market class instead of a regular market class. Jen did ask for comments as to why they answered the way they did. There were more questions than comments. Comments ranged from overwhelmingly indicating they would enter a producer’s class instead of the regular market class if there a champion and they could sell high in the sale to 58% of the 24 said that they would enter a producer’s class in addition to the regular market class. Lindsay Todd – NF FFA Teacher - told us that exhibitors felt that they would not want to come back for that another class. They would either prefer to do the producer’s class or the market class. Again, there were questions asking the definition of the wording “terminal sale.” 

The idea was that exhibitors would enter a producer’s class if they got to sell higher in the fair and if there were champions, but it would be separate from the market show. Regarding the survey, Jen’s general feeling was that we should take more time to hash out the producer’s class. Her opinion was that she thinks it needs more development before we put it into action. She offered that it was her personal feeling but was open to discussion for sure. Jen also suggested that the Board could develop the breeding show with a lot of advertising and a big cash prize. For example, her thoughts were that if we said something like - if we have ten breeding animals, or more in a class, we will give a $500.00 cash prize for the top animal in the class. If there are 5 to 9 entries, we will give it $250 prize, or if there are less than 5 entries, we will give a $200 prize. We could focus on making the breeding shows more robust while we try to formulate and figure out how to mesh or figure out Bred and Fed and Producer’s classes. Although there was further discussion, there were no motions put forward. 

Jen asked members of the Board to other mention any additional topics for discussion. As nothing further was introduced, she asked for a motion to adjourn. Kelsi moved to adjourn the meeting. Ryan seconded the motion. The motion passed and the meeting adjourned at 7:30 pm. 

Cristen Chermak 

Delta County Fair Board Secretary