Nevada FB Annual Meeting--Welcome BBQ & Day 2

NVFB President Hank Combs

Hank Combs of RC Farms and Recycling in Las Vegas, Nevada is the Nevada Farm Bureau President, and after formal election at the end of the annual meeting, he will continue to remain our PResident for another year.  Hank does a great job and has a lot of work coming up--winter is a busy time for Farm Bureau (why?  Well, what better time for farmer's to get together than the cold season when the crops are dormant--it may not work for everyone, but that is when the majority of Farm Bureau's big events are held.  In December he heads to Washington D.C. to meet with the Presidents of the rest of the States' Fram Bureaus, in January it is on to the Annual American Farm Bureau Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, and then February brings the Farm Bureau's National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida. A lot of time and effort goes into serving in the Farm Burea, but there is a lot of pay-off as you see the results of the work you do trying to educate about and preserve such an important industry.

Welcome to Winnemucca from Humboldt FB County President, Arlow Nielsen

Welcome to Winnemucca from their Mayor, Di An Putnam

Lincoln County Members (I am not prejudice, just from there, too, so they are the lucky group that got my camera's flash)

Jule Wadsworth, Secretary/Treasurer, JoAnn and Bevan Lister, Co. President, and Paul Mathews, State Vice President.

Welcome to Nevada Farm Bureau Policy.....

Voting Delegate Session

Doug Busselman is our Executive Vice-President at Nevada Farm Bureau and our key lobbyist.  He is always on top of what is happening in Nevada legislation in regards to agriculture or what should be happening and helping to keep us in-tune so that we will have the policy in place to protect or promote our needs.

Our current policy is shown on the screen during the delegate session with any proposed changes, so that we are able to read and discuss it as a delegation.  County Farm Bureau's are given voting delegates based on the number of voting membership that their county has.  A month or two before state meeting we are assigned several areas of policy for each county to very closely look at and see if there are changes to be made.  The proposals are then brought together at the Open Resolutions meeting which is usually held by video conference several weeks before the state meeting.  By the time we meet for state meeting it has all come together for the voting delegation to meet and decide on.

President Combs, and Vice President Paul Mathews, run the delegate session.  Which progressed very quickly and efficiently at this meeting.  Changes are discussed and voted on then added or excluded, while Doug types them all up in order to put them all together in our policy book.  You can find current policy on our webpage at nvfb.org

And, I figured I had better show the other side, too, the delegates!  Don't let them fool you, if the right policy subject comes up, they can be a VERY lively group!

Lincoln County Delegates, Jule W. Bevan and JoAnn L.

Did I Mention the Food??



Matt Scramlin, of AFBF, was in town for our state meeting from his home in Virginia.
Here he is visiting with State FFA Officer Kadee Buckmaster, and Craig and Marlene Shier of Humboldt County.  Marlene is the Vice Chair for the Women's Leadership Committee and was instrumental in helping put on the meeting in her home county.



One thing about Farm Bureau Meetings is that you never go without good food.  As the people who produce the food, we know what is good and we always have plenty of--Oh, and if you have never had the Tri-Tip that Winnemucca's FFA Chapter can cook, well, you are missing out!  They sponsored our Welcome BBQ the first night, and with the help of the NV FFA State Officers, did an excellent job of serving it, too!

YF&R Members at the State Meeting.  The State FFA offers us a great opportunity for recruitment and so we try to involve them each year in our annual meeting and Discussion Meet.  Here are Three current officers, Jordan, Aly, and

The Silent Auction....

Each year a silent auction is held and county's are asked to bring donations for the auction--a couple of items that represent their county or agriculture or just fun stuff they know others will be interested in.  Over the course of the meeting people browse the selection, placing bids, trying to bid items up for others, and sometimes getting quite competitive.  At the end of the meeting the bids are closed and the winners are announced.  The money raised is divided between the Women's Leadership Committee, The Heritage Foundation and the YF&R.  So thanks for all who support it!!  And, I must say that I am really enjoying my chokecherry jelly and hot pads!

Just a couple more odds and ends......

I took a couple pic's just to show the people and what was going on--the final one is President Combs with our newest addition at the Farm Bureau office in Sparks, Zach Allen, who does all of our media coordination and technical stuff like the website and the journal, etc.  This was his first meeting with us and we are so glad he survived to start getting ready for the next!