Farmer Jerry has a small farm in Minnesota. He has chickens, pigs, cows and ducks. Each day he wakes up at dawn and feeds his animals.

One day he was feeling tired and slow. Boris the Pig and Hattie the Chicken noticed it right away. Hattie thought it would be helpful if they would get up early the following morning and make Farmer Jerry a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs. Doug the Duck walked away, shrugging his shoulders. "What a dumb idea," he thought. "The next thing you know, Jerry the farmer will want it every day."

Connie the Cow tipped her head and said, "Sounds OK, but if you want milk from me, you better get it tonight because I have plans tomorrow morning." Boris the Pig looked at all of them in terror. "Hattie, that's a great idea," he said, "but all you have to do is contribute. I have to commit!"

What kind of ASA member are you? Are you Hattie, who has great ideas, sees the needs, contributes by attending affiliate meetings, reading AutoInc., attending NACE and CARS?

Or are you Boris the pig, who gives 150 percent, belongs to the local board of directors, works on the operations committee, attends ASA national meetings, either has sat on the national board or has plans on running for office? If you belong to something, you give it all you have.

Thank goodness we have both Hatties and Borises as members.

Now, Connie the Cow and Doug the Duck leave a little to be desired. But we need all viewpoints to make the right decision. If everyone were the same, we would not need an association or, for that matter, other things that are important to us.

We shouldn't get carried away by negativity either. No one would want to be part of an association run by a bunch of Doug the Ducks. As you know from working with people, negativity is easily spread. It only takes one bad apple to ruin the basket.

As your ASA board of directors and ASA staff study each issue, we look at how our decisions will affect our members. Our first concern is for the membership. We know we will never make everyone happy, but we try to make the majority happy. If you're attending Industry Week, please stop by and see us at the ASA booth at CARS (Booth 102) and the ASA booth at NACE (Booth 6033). We are always happy to meet our peers. I also hope you made plans to attend ASA's Celebration of Excellence, where we'll recognize our AMI graduates and our members.

Thank you again for being part of our barnyard. As an organization striving to be the best of the best, we hope you are inspired to the same greatness we are. Be a Hattie or a Boris, and we will be closer than ever to achieving our goals.

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