KALAMAZOO COUNTY FARM BUREAU, INC. Board Meeting Minutes MONDAY, July 18, 2016

Present Kelly Leach Anders Swenson Sarah Pion Todd Weinberg Bill Schultz Lisa Robb Karl Guenther  Cliff Lipscomb Carl Bratton Steve Gazdag Gary Barton Kathy Buckham Brigette Leach

Pledge The July board meeting was called to order at 8:15pm by President Kelly Leach. The meeting was held at the Kalamazoo County Farm Bureau office.

Minutes The board reviewed the June minutes. Cliff Lipscomb made a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Karl Guenther seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

Financial The board reviewed the financial statements for June, including any variances. Todd Weinberg Statements made a motion to approve the financial statements as presented and to place them on file. Karl Guenther seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

Membership The board reviewed the membership list for May. Cliff Lipscomb made a motion to approve as presented. Karl Guenther seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

Regional Sarah Pion gave her report. A copy of the report is on file. Rep.

Insurance Copy of report on file. Report

Old Kelly Leach and Steve Gazdag gave a report on the District 1 Policy Development Kickoff that was. Business in Jones MI. There was a good turnout. Some discussion included the road commission issues, Brady Township and drones.

Lisa Robb reminded the board of the upcoming Hop tour on July 27th. We would like to fill the bus so if anyone is interested, please let Lisa know.

Cliff Lipscomb gave a report on the “Family Fun on the Farm” event at George and Kathy Buckham’s on 8/27/16. There is another planning meeting tomorrow at 1pm.

New The board discussed nomination for the Volunteer of the Year Award that is due 8/1/16. If anyone Business thinks of anyone let Kelly or Lisa know.

The board discussed the Ag Communicator of the Year Award that is due 9/1/16. The board decided to nominate Wild Bill and Cindy Ireland from WIN 98.5.

The Annual PD Meeting will be 9/19/16 at the Schoolcraft United Methodist Church. There will not be a board meeting prior to that but if we need to have one at some point that month we can do it by way of conference call. The board discussed FarmPac. Last year we contributed $1,000. Karl Guenther made a motion to contribute another $1,000 this year. Cliff Lipscomb seconded the motion. The motion was passed.

Kelly Leach discussed with the board the Kansas Farm Bureau visit/tour and dinner at Avalon Farms on 8/3/16. All board members and spouses are invited and should receive invites in mail any day.

Sarah Pion discussed with the board the MFB grants. There were three questions she had for the board: 1. Should we still do 2 cycles of grants or just one? – the board agreed on 2. 2. Should there be a cap on the grants? – the board agreed that the amount should be left up to the grant committee. 3. Should there be joint grants? – the board agreed this too should be left up to the grant committee.

Kelly announced that there is a cabinet meeting with all the county presidents in district 1 with our district director next week. She will present the request from Tillers to the other counties to see if there is interest in contributing.

Kelly announced that there is a proposed by-law change from MFB that covers the membership qualifications.

Kelly announced that she received notification from MFB with the possible BCBS revenues for next year. They are projecting more revenue in the hopes of our Legacy Medigap subscribers will change to a Medicare Advantage plan.

Kelly announced that Clay Rhoades has a drone now and asked if we would share some of his videos on our Facebook page. The board agreed to.

Kelly announced that we were asked to contribute to the fair again this year the same way we did last year. We gave $100 to the kids who made finals in their show. It was decided no because we did not budget for it his year.

Cliff and Kelly discussed that they will set up a meeting with Joanne Jones of the County Road Commission to discuss the load permit issues.

The board reviewed the CAG minutes.

Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 9:39pm.

Submitted by, Lisa Robb, Secretary/Treasurer