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When Mother Nature has allowed, county Farm Bureaus have met to kick off their 2007 membership campaigns. Several counties had to reschedule their meetings due to ice, snow, sleet and freezing rain.

In Richland County, Organization Director Korre Boyer combined a legislative affairs meeting with the kickoff and invited speakers Mike Oehlhof of Country Star Co-op and Rep. Steve Reinhard (R-Bucyrus) to talk about a proposed ethanol plant in the county.

In Franklin County, the kickoff had a fun and games atmosphere, with volunteer workers being able to win prizes for playing Cornhole and for correctly matching up various member benefits with whether they were a local, state or national benefit.

In Jefferson County, Farm Bureau youth were greatly involved in the kickoff activities. Monica Wetherell is the adviser of the new Jefferson County Farm Bureau Youth, who were just organized in December 2006 and already has nearly 25 members. Fifteen youth members came an hour before kickoff to help move tables, decorate and clean up after the evening. During the meeting, they bring the food inside and helped distribute door prizes. "Pretty much wherever they were needed, they helped," Wetherell said.

Beyond helping at the kickoff, the youth council members are allowed to participate in the membership campaign, just as the other volunteers, but they have their own membership contest that the county Farm Bureau organized. The youth member who signs the most new members gets $50, and the youth member who signs the most total members, new or renewal, gets $50. Wetherell said many of the kids in the council are not from Farm Bureau families, so there is a lot of opportunity for the youths to get their parents signed as members. "They are excited," she said.

Wetherell wanted to start a youth council to help her county Farm Bureau earn achievement awards in every county program area. Without a youth council, she knew the county would never reach that goal. In the past, the few youths in the county who wanted to participate in Farm Bureau Youth programs had to join up with a surrounding county because there just wasn’t enough interest. She said she knows a lot of kids through 4-H, and with the help of Cordelia Roth, the youth council is now up and running. Roth is the current youth representative to the county Farm Bureau board.

She said the council has a nice mixture of kids, ranging from ages 10 to 18. The council’s future plans include going ice skating and bowling; they meet the second Tuesday of the month.

Captions: (Top) Cordelia Roth, Evelyn Zimmer, Amanda Grafton, Kylee DeHamer, Heidi Hickle and Clinton Grafton (pictured l to r) were among the 15 Jefferson County Farm Bureau Youth members who assisted with the county membership kickoff. Photo courtesy Jefferson County Farm Bureau.

(Bottom) Rep. Steve Reinhard was a guest speaker at the Richland County Farm Bureau kickoff. He spoke to members regarding a possible ethanol location in the county. Photo by Lynn Snyder.