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Nationwide Insurance appreciates its relationship with Ohio Farm Bureau, and its agents are working hard at signing up new members, according to the head of Nationwide Property & Casualty Insurance Operations.

Speaking at Farm Bureau's annual meeting, Steve Rasmussen said Nationwide agents signed up 27,000 new Ohio Farm Bureau members in the last membership campaign.

"This is part of a continuing effort to meet growth goals," he said during Farm Bureau's kick-off lunch. "We're proud to find new and innovative ways ... to bring new people into the fold."

During his speech, Rasmussen talked briefly about services that Nationwide offers to Farm Bureau members, including new equine coverage, a policy for ATVs and special liability protection for "agritainment." In January, Nationwide plans to start offering a new small farm policy called CountryChoice, which will offer broader coverage than homeowner coverage and is less complex than large farm policies. Rasmussen noted that Nationwide has continued to cut automobile rates in Ohio.

Nationwide is proud to co-sponsor the new Our Ohio television show with OFBF because the show helps connect people outside of agriculture with Farm Bureau and Nationwide, Rasmussen said. In August thousands of Nationwide employees joined farmers in downtown Columbus to celebrate the official launch of the Our Ohio brand.

A record number of hurricanes made the year challenging for Nationwide, Rasmussen said, noting that the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina was the worst that he's ever seen.

"It's been a difficult task trying to bring people's lives back together," he said before showing a video that documented the damage caused by several hurricanes this year and how Nationwide helped the victims. Nationwide and its employees donated $1 million to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to the video.

"The 2005 hurricane year has been nothing short of devastating," Rasmussen said.

Despite the record number of hurricanes, Nationwide will still have a "reasonable" profit this year, he said.

"I feel very good at where Nationwide will end at in 2005," he said.

Rasmussen concluded his speech by thanking Ohio Farm Bureau members for their hard work and dedication.

"Thank you for all of your help and for being good customers of our organization," he said.

Caption: Steve Rasmussen discusses the highlights of Nationwide's year.