Colorado Farm Show was a blast
I want to thank everyone who stopped by The Fence Post booth during the Colorado Farm show in Greeley last week.
I had so much fun visiting with readers and those who returned to the magazine after taking a few years off and some who had never subscribed to the magazine but after hearing about it from friends and neighbors decided that they needed to subscribe.
I heard a lot of readers lamenting the loss of columnist’s Gwen Peterson, Baxter Black and Jack Hanks. Many were friends and neighbors and others who just enjoy reading their writings.
Many of you told me how much you enjoy reading my Editor’s Note, which warmed my heart. In fact, I didn’t hear anything negative about my rantings, which was amazing. Over the last nearly 40 years in journalism I have grown used to girding my loins before attending meetings and conferences waiting for the critics to give me a proper tongue lashing.
It was especially gratifying because we have ad sales representatives who drove three or four hours to spend time in the booth and I think if you ask them, it was well worth the travel time.
The only complaints I heard were from people who were getting their magazines late. Although this is the fault of the U.S. Postal Service, we take it very seriously and try to find out why these issues are happening and if there is a way to speed up service.
I forward these complaints to Amy Oster our distribution manager who has had some success in getting the post office to take notice, but there is no guarantee. But she does her best so if you are having issues with delivery, I urge you to call her at (970) 392-4409, or email aoster@thefencepost.com.
We pay the same amount of postage whether you get your magazine on time or not, so we absolutely are interested in getting the magazines to you as quickly as possible. We also have information in our magazines that we know our readers need in a timely fashion.
I was impressed with the crowd at the Colorado Farm Show as well. I think we all missed it during the COVID lock downs and were eager to visit with people we haven’t seen for a while.
I must admit, I’ve not always had a good time at farm meetings. In the early 90s, I was typically the only woman in the room, and nobody wanted to sit anywhere near me. It was like being a woman and a reporter were bad juju.
One of the most uncomfortable situations I went through was when I attended a grain dealer meeting in Fargo, N.D. Unbeknownst to me, my editor had written an opinion piece in the local paper about how grain elevators were ripping off farmers and a copy of that editorial was being passed around the booths at the expo. So here I was happily walking along waving and greeting people I knew without a clue. Finally, someone pulled me aside and told me to read the article. After that I looked for the closest exit, ran to my vehicle and drove home. Luckily, I had enough info to write a story.
Again, thank you all for the good wishes and see you next year.
