Ohio Farm Bureau wins top award from national bureau

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Farm Bureau Fed­er­a­tion (OFBF) received the top honor for a state orga­ni­za­tion dur­ing the Amer­i­can Farm Bureau Federation’s (AFBF) 2013 annual meet­ing this week in Nashville, Tenn. OFBF was pre­sented the Pin­na­cle Award, which rec­og­nizes out­stand­ing accom­plish­ments in pro­gram­ming and membership.

Qual­i­fy­ing it for the Pin­na­cle Award, OFBF also received the President’s Award for supe­rior pro­gram­ming in lead­er­ship devel­op­ment, mem­ber ser­vices and pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Addi­tion­ally, Ohio won the Award for Excel­lence in all five pro­gram­ming areas includ­ing the President’s Award cat­e­gories plus edu­ca­tion and out­reach, and pol­icy devel­op­ment and implementation.

Ohio com­peted against other state Farm Bureaus of sim­i­lar size in the awards program.

“This shows what mem­bers work­ing together can accom­plish,” said John C. (Jack) Fisher, exec­u­tive vice pres­i­dent of Ohio Farm Bureau. “Our mem­bers, staff, friends at Nation­wide and all our part­ners should be very proud of their organization.”

Two Ohio county Farm Bureaus, Hamil­ton and Wayne, were among the top 25 county pro­grams hon­ored with AFBF’s County Activ­i­ties of Excel­lence Award. Hamil­ton County was rec­og­nized for its pro­gram “Mak­ing Farm Bureau Rel­e­vant to the Equine Com­mu­nity” while Wayne County was hon­ored for its pro­gram “Ani­mal Agri­cul­ture Edu­ca­tional Kiosks.” Both Ohio coun­ties exhib­ited their pro­grams at the AFBF trade show.

Also dur­ing the national con­ven­tion, Ohio’s dis­cus­sion meet win­ner, Brad Heimerl of John­stown, advanced to the Sweet 16 round of the national com­pe­ti­tion. Ohio’s Out­stand­ing Young Farmer, Erik Scott of George­town, and Excel­lence in Agri­cul­ture win­ner Greg McGlinch of Ver­sailles, also rep­re­sented Ohio in the national contests.

Accord­ing to Fisher, Farm Bureau’s goal is to make a pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence for its mem­bers and their com­mu­ni­ties. “Awards like these val­i­date the work being done every day by Farm Bureau mem­bers across the state,” he said.

Posted by Tina Murdock on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.