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Four key changes are being made to help streamline policy proposals submitted from counties to the state’s policy development committee.

• Training will be developed and offered to county leaders to promote quality policy development processes. The focus of the training will include how to develop local policy that directs local programing objectives, how to write effective state and national policy and how to educate members on the wide array of resources Ohio Farm Bureau offers county Farm Bureaus for exploring new policy topics.
• The policy submission process for counties to follow will differentiate between new state and national policy proposals and “reaffirmations” of existing policy.
• Counties will be required to submit background information with new policy proposals that describes the rationale and outlines the need for the policy to better help the policy development committee understand the context of the proposal.
• A new timeline will be established to give the policy development committee and OFBF annual meeting delegates more time to review proposals ahead of their respective voting sessions.

The policy development timeline for 2018 is as follows:

• Sept. 6-7 – First state policy development committee meeting
• Oct. 9 – Date for policies to be placed in the system
  • Note: Policies submitted after the Oct. 9 deadline will not be given to the state PD committee for extended review but will be reviewed at the November state PD committee meeting.
• Nov. 1-2 – Second state policy development committee meeting
• Nov. 6 – Electronic version of policy books sent to organization directors and state trustees
• Nov. 9 – Delegate mailing of policy books
• Nov.14 or after – In-District delegate/state trustee meetings
• Dec. 6-7 – OFBF annual meeting