The TDCAA publications committee will be meeting this spring to discuss potential new book ideas, and there are two specific ideas on which we'd like input from members:

(1) an update of TDCAA's old livestock manual that would be written by Boyd Kennedy from Parks & Wildlife and Gene Snelson from the Texas Animal Health Commission. Gene would be contributing information about livestock/avian health concerns, including disease outbreaks. Other topics covered in the 1995 edition of the old "Livestock Laws" included: (a) branding & marking livestock; (b) selling & transporting livestock and hides; (c) butchering & slaughtering; (d) estrays; (e) theft; (f) damaging property & injuring livestock; (g) trespass; (h) shooting on public road; and (i) search & seizure issues.

Would an update be helpful? If so, what should it cover?

(2) Publishing an "Offense Report Manual" for patrol officers that was written by Ken Sparks and is provided by him to local law enforcement. Ken's manual has been "borrowed" and reproduced by many counties. It includes descriptions (and elements) of the most common offenses and ways of committing them along with an appendix of handy things, like forms for taking witness statements, legal warnings for video statements, juvenile statement guidelines, list of crimes to report to a school, blood withdrawal requests, family violence dismissal policy -- just a bunch of handy forms.

We'd love to gauge the level of interest among TDCAA members in this manual, including in what format it should be published.

We'll have a sample manual available for review at the TDCAA January "Take Two" Annual Conference. Stop by the book table to take a look, and please let John McMillin (book sales guy) or I know what you think. Or please e-mail (beckham@tdcaa.com) or post your thoughts on these two topics.