Outstanding Young Farmers of America - Awareness Effort

One of the primary responsibilities of the Agricultural Issues & Public Relations Committee is to carry out NACAA’s responsibilities with the Outstanding Young Farmers of America program. Foremost of these responsibilities is the solicitation of nominations. I am pleased to report this past year an outstanding 80% of the nominations came from our membership. Thank you to everyone who nominated one of your outstanding farmers.

In an effort to increase nominations, the Agricultural Issues & Public Relations Committee will be hosting a teleconference explaining the program, how it benefits farmers, how it benefits our membership, and the nomination process. The procedures for participating in this teleconference are:

1. Regional vice chairs will forward this correspondence along with a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation (attached to this e-mail) to the appropriate state leadership within each Extension Region.

2. Interested parties are encourage to print off the presentation (or have it available on screen) for viewing when calling in for one of the interactive teleconference.

3. The teleconferences will be held on the following dates: June 18^th, 3:00 p.m. central time, and June 25^th 10:00 a.m. central time.

a. The call in number is: 1-866-503-5760

b. The conference code is: 2177943700#

The Outstanding Young Farmer Program is sponsored by Deere & Company, supported by the Outstanding Farmers of America Fraternity, and the National Association of County Agriculture Agents. The program is administered by The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce.

I hope each of you will join in for the teleconference. If you have questions or need additional information please contact your respective regional vice chair.

North East - Glenn Rogers, VT 802-524-6501, extension 210

North Central - Dan Downing, MO 573-882-0085

Southern - Jerry Clemons, AR 870-246-2281

Western - Norman Suverly, WA 509-422-7245

Nominations are due each year to the U.S. Jaycees National Headquarters no later than August 1^st, 2009. Please take a moment to visit the Jaycees web site (OYF - U.S. Jaycees) and submit a nomination on behalf of one of your outstanding young producers.