Recently Eickman’s attended the 85th annual American Association of Meat Processors’ (AAMP) Convention and Cured Meat Championships.
Each year the national convention is in a different state, and this year we were in Omaha, Nebraska. If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ve probably heard something about our conventions, but this one was extra special as Tom Eickman was president of the association, and this was “his” convention.
Tom stepped into the role of AAMP president at last year’s convention in Charleston, SC, and for the last year has been working diligently with staff and fellow board members to not only keep the association going as is, but to improve and further the already great job that AAMP does, and to plan the convention in Omaha.
Whether it’s helping other plant members or dealing with legislation or EPA challenges, it’s been a busy year of meetings and travel. While tiring, it’s also been very rewarding and a great honor. We’ve gotten to attend other states’ conventions that we normally wouldn’t have, we went to Omaha ahead of time with a hand-picked committee to help plan the convention, and many other with other great experiences.
The convention was the largest to date and really topped off a great year, and it’s one we’ll remember for a lifetime. There were a lot of things to do and meetings to attend, but we had a special time. From hosting the President’s Reception to kick off the convention, to the emotional yet upbeat closing reception where Tom’s presidency came to an end (with a standing ovation!), there were so many great memories.
Making it even more special, was the large group of our family members that attended to show their support. We had family from Illinois, Missouri, and even Montana, including Tom’s uncle and namesake Tom Oar, who was the keynote speaker for the Thursday morning opening session (You may know him from Mountain Men). We really thank him for taking the time to travel to Omaha, and he took on the many photo requests with his well-known patient smile.
It was so great to spend time with family and friends (many of whom are truly like family). We enjoyed catching up with other operators as well as connecting with the suppliers of the items we need to do our jobs from equipment to seasonings to casings and other supplies.
It’s been so busy leading up to the convention, especially with the power outage we were dealing with, that we only grabbed a few items for competition, but we were thrilled on Saturday morning when we found out we won two awards: Reserve Grand Champion (2nd place) for our Bone-In Ham and Champion (3rd place) for our Dried Beef (We missed 4th place on our Bacon by 1 point out of 1000)!
I can’t possibly sum up everything that was great about the AAMP convention (and this past year), but if you were a part of it, thank you! And as always, a special shout out to our employees that held down the fort while we were away!
-Katie Eickman