Page 10 - MFB State Annual Meeting 2018
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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Report
Welcome to the 99th annual meeting of the Michigan Farm Bureau! It
has been an amazing year of leadership from our members as this organization we call Farm Bureau rolls forward to meet changes
and challenges that will keep the organization strong for the next 100 years.
In 2018, great member leaders
championed legislation that saved agriculture millions of dollars by protecting agricultural sales tax provisions, fought for regulatory certainty with sweeping changes to DEQ operations, helped elect 84 percent of Friends of Agriculture to office, continued to grow Great Lakes Ag Labor Services
to help address a labor issue that is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and worked with thousands of children to appreciate agriculture through Promotion & Education programming. It is an honor to work with the best Farm Bureau staff in the country to help members perform the unapologetic advocacy needed to bring member-driven
policy to fruition. Moving forward, we will continue to create opportunities as directed by policy in a world where the only certainty is change.
Our membership is changing. Today, we are blessed with nearly 41,000 regular members. That’s a drop of nearly 10,000 since 2000 and the number is declining. This change is countered by the growth of Farm Bureau Insurance as associate membership will reach 200,000 in the not so distant future. It is a fact that we (county and state Farm Bureau both) would not be able to accomplish current policy and programming goals without the membership resources Farm Bureau Insurance provides. In an uncertain future, our ability to unite efforts as members, organizations and companies is tantamount to viability.
Today, the relationship of Michigan Farm Bureau with Farm Bureau Insurance is the most mutually beneficial it has ever been and the opportunities are vibrant. We understand that the majority of folks who see the red and black “FB” when they drive by home, county and agent offices do not distinguish
a difference in our companies; we’re just Farm Bureau.
When I get the opportunity to review Young Farmer award applications and read the answer to the question “What are the top issues affecting agriculture?” a consistent response
is “connecting with the public about agriculture.” While “the public” is pretty big, in the near future we will have over one quarter of a million people who we call members that are part of the “public.” We have the opportunity to help our insurance company differentiate from other insurance companies in
a very competitive market by sharing the good we do by
 


















































































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