Written By: Jeff Hines

This was a great year to showcase our State Bid Calling competition held in Stevens Point this past January 28th. We had 17 competitors competing for one of 10 spots to go onto the State Fair held in West Allis this August 7th, 2018. The novice champion will join the 10 finalists to make 11 auctioneers competing for the Wisconsin Auctioneers Championship. The 10 finalists are Stan Jones, Dave Lulich, Mark Oberholtzer, Joe Mellem, Christopher Sund, Ray Henry, Randy Stockwell, Kale George, Kathy Packard, and Jenny Gehl. The novice champion is Matt Zimmerman.

I encourage everyone to plan to attend this event and cheer on your favorite auctioneer. This last year for the first time we had live streamed the competition and created a People’s Choice Award. I congratulate Kathy Packard as being presented with our 2018 People’s Choice Award. We are looking for more venues so get can get more people involved which will result is more success in future years to come. If anyone has ideas or wants that they would like to see implemented with this competition, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or the WAA. I encourage all auctioneers to plan on attending the 2019 Conference and Show and compete.

David Allen is our 2017-2018 champion and has represented the WAA in events such as the Governor’s Auction, the Cheese Auction, 4-H Golf outing and more. This event not only gets you involved with other statewide events, it builds your business connections and showcases your professionalism. I hope everyone is having a great year and hope to see you all on August 7th in West Allis. If not then, I am looking forward to seeing you all in January at our Conference and Show.