The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) has changed the date and format for the business session of its 2020 annual meeting based on COVID-19 proclamations by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The 2020 annual meeting business session will now be held at 10 a.m. on Dec. 18. The rescheduled business meeting will be held virtually with only county voting delegates invited to participate in person from designated locations in their region. 

The gathering originally scheduled for Dec. 8 and 9 in Des Moines has been canceled.

There will be a statewide election for the office of IFBF vice president during the business session. In addition, there will be elections for the Internal Study Committee and delegates to the 2021 American Farm Bureau Fed­­eration Annual Convention, which will be held virtually Jan. 13-14, 2021. In addition, IFBF Districts 2, 7 and 9 will hold elections for district directors.

Educational webinars

All Iowa Farm Bureau members are invited to participate in a virtual annual meeting series of three educational webinars, which will begin the week before the annual IFBF business session. 

The webinars are being held in lieu of the annual meeting’s traditional breakout sessions and, this year, will provide a closer look at some of the lessons learned through COVID-19, from supply chain disruptions and the future economics surrounding agriculture. 

The IFBF webinar series, which is free for members, kicks off with a webinar titled “Lessons Learned from Responding to COVID-19.” It will be held at noon Dec. 10 and will feature Reynolds Cramer, president of Fareway Stores; Jessica Dunker, executive director of the Iowa Restaurant Association; and Ron Prestage, president of Prestage Farms. 

The second webinar, "What’s the Future of Agriculture?”, will be held Dec. 15 at noon. It will feature noted risk management specialist Joe Kerns of Kerns and Associates.

The third webinar, on Dec. 17 at noon, will look at the economics of agriculture heading into 2021. The webinar, called “Economics Facing Agriculture,” will feature Jackson Takach, chief economist at Farmer Mac and others. 

To register for the webinars, go to https://bit.ly/3pXkVoN.

 

Registration delayed for IFBF'S 2021 Young Farmer Conference

The registration for the 2021 Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) Young Farmer Conference, originally scheduled to open on Dec. 1, has been delayed. IFBF is in the process of determining if a live event can still be held in late January or if the meeting needs to be converted to a virtual format. Please visit www.iowafarmbureau.com and watch the Spokesman for updates as details are finalized.