What a normal winter we have had
so far. No global warming this year! Another year has come and gone and what an exciting year it has been! In October, I awarded the 4-H Key Award to Morgan Fox for her outstanding 4-H career. At our Annual Meeting in Manchester, Ben Jahnke was elected as our new GLCFB Young Farmer and Agriculturist Chair. Joe Wollinger moved from that position to Mackford Director. Joe also filled a vacant position in District 5 on the state YFA Committee. Congratulations to both of you.In December, Joe Wollinger, Ben Jahnke, Heather Cotterill and Sean Wilke represented Green Lake County at the Young Farmer Get-Away, held in conjunction with the WFBF Annual Meeting, held at the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells. Joe Wollinger, Steve Kutz, Dave Gneiser and I were the four delegates to the WFBF Annual Meeting. Many informative sessions were held ranging from concerns about HSUS to the 2012 Farm Bill taking shape in the coming year. Two outstanding members from Green Lake were recognized, Ben Jahnke for his graduation in the Farm Bureau Institute program (he will go on a trip to Washington, D.C.,in April with the class) and Jim Hebbe as a finalist in the new Aldo Leopold Conservation Award Program with the winner to be announced on Earth Day 2011. In Monday’s delegate session, Joe Wollinger introduced a resolution to halt any further expansion of the prison farms and any new dairy facilities which was passed by the voting delegates. Heather Cotterill started the WFBF Institute Leadership Training Program at the beginning of the year to help her grow her public speaking and leadership skills in Farm Bureau and in the community.
The Young Farmers have two outings planned, the first outing is at the Goose Blind on Saturday, February 26 for pizza and cards and the second outing is March 11 at Nordic Mountain in Mt. Morris for a family tubing party. With every New Year, there are always things that change in our lives and so is true in Farm Bureau. The Board of Directors and I have given a new position to Yolanda Woloszyn as Fund Raiser/Events Coordinator. This position will include duties of planning brat fry's, coordinating the fruit sale and working with the Fair Committee in running the food stand at the fair. She will be working with the newly formed Fair Committee which meets again at 7pm, on February 28. All GLCFB members are invited to serve on the committee and help with our biggest fund raiser. Deb Raemisch will serve as our new county secretary, working with members and WFBF in a cooperative effort to handle our office and book keeping needs. You may ask why we made the change. Many other counties have gone to this system with a large savings to its members.
Green Lake County Farm Bureau is made of many outstanding members whom you can see in my report. I, on behalf of the Board of Directors, would like to say thank you to the Women’s Committee for their years of work at the fair and a special thank you to Yolanda Woloszyn for her years as our office secretary.
Please have a safe and successful planting season.
David Wilke, Green Lake County Farm Bureau President.
