We just had our kick-off meeting starting our membership campaign for 2014. Bob Luther will be our chairman and is looking to complete this year’s campaign before March 17.
This campaign has a goal of increasing our membership 2% over last year’s total of 7,738 members.
Why do I mention this here and now? Because it is important for you to be aware of what Farm Bureau does for farmers and all of our members who are associates, either Nationwide policy holders, or just interested supporters of the farming community.
It is through memberships like yours that we can continue to fight the battles that need to be won in order to continue to provide food and fiber at an affordable cost to our citizens. It is also through your membership that we continue to sponsor programs within our county to further your understanding of agriculture. It is up to you to take advantage of what we offer.
In the past year, we held nine community events, eleven educational seminars, continued to support the Ag-mobile, and placed our educational Kiosk at the Akron Zoo, Summit County Library, and at Hale Farm. We sent two educators to the National Ag-in-the-Classroom Conference in Minneapolis. We awarded seven $1,000 (renewable for four years) scholarships. We continued to update our Member Directories and our website. We also continued to support 4-H, The Summit County Fair and numerous charitable organizations.
I am proud of our board members and the program activities that they work on to support. I am also proud of our members who pitch in when asked to help make this a stronger organization.
We have a lot of work planned in the county for the upcoming year. We also continue to support OFBF in coming up with a new model for membership so that Farm Bureau can be more inclusive and better present its objectives in light of a shrinking on-farm population.
It is important that people know that milk and meat come from a cow and not the shelf in the grocery store. Our job as farmers is to help educate people in how food gets to their table. To accomplish this, we need your help. Encourage others to join Farm Bureau or perhaps further our educational efforts by making a charitable donation to the Mobile Learning Laboratory Project, Inc. [a tax deductable 501(c)(3)organization].
In January, my wife Connie and I were fortunate to attend the American Farm Bureau Meeting held in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. While there, we heard key note speaker retired General Stan McChrystal ,USA, address the assembly.
He emphasized that until he learned to let those under him be empowered to do their jobs, things just did not get done in a timely, efficient manner. His subordinates were taking too much time in first getting his approval for things they already had the power to control. Once that road-block was removed, his accomplishments increased ten-fold.
It is time for us to do the same.
We have to remove our old paradigms and explore new ideas to not only increase membership, but also promote our educational efforts. We welcome your suggestions to help us get our message to those who do not have access to someone with a link to agriculture.
Let us all strive to be advocates in support of Ohio’s number one industry — AGRICULTURE.
Pete Schanz