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Do Business Projects 



Aid Large Membership ? 



Yes, Say Records. Advisers Tell How 

 They Keep Members Informed 



(Not*: Following it the report of the Organ- 

 ization and Information Conference h^d on 

 Jan. If, at Bock I eland.) 



IN THE Organization Section of the 

 Conference conducted in the ball 

 room of the New Harper Hotel on 

 Jan. 18 at Rock 

 Island the discus- 

 sion took an in- 

 structional turn 

 rather than one of 

 definite recom- 

 mendations. 



Discussions were 

 limited to three 

 topics : 



1. Discussion 

 of the Program of 

 Work and Its Ef- 

 fect on Member- 



Bamborouth ship Maintenance. 



2. Who Should 

 be Members. 



3. The General Discussion of the 

 Continuous Membership Agreement. 



Early in the conference, it devel- 

 oped that there are three general 

 types of county Farm Bureau pro- 

 grams prevailing among the Bureaus 

 of the state. They are as follows: 



1. Those county programs heavily 

 loaded with projects of a commercial 

 nature. 



The Bureaus following this type of 

 program have rather generally shown 

 increases in their membership. In 

 all cases, however, they strongly em- 

 phasize the establishment of differ- 

 entials in some way or another, so 

 that Farm Bureau members may be 

 favored over the non-member. 



Educational Projects Good 



2. The second class of county pro- 

 grams with a large majority of educa- 

 tional projects and little or no com- 

 mercial work. 



The thought was advanced that this 

 type of program tends to increase 

 and maintain membership, if the ad- 

 ministration is such as to keep a great 

 number of members busy and carry- 

 ing responsibility. It calls for a 

 highly organized system of commit- 

 tees and leaders widely scattered over 

 the county. 



3. The third type of program 

 seems to be a more evenly balanced 

 type containing both educational and 

 commercial projects. The thought de- 

 veloped was that this type of progrram 

 appeals to a larger percentage of farm- 

 ers than the highly educational, or 

 the highly commercialized type of 

 program. It was recognized, however, 

 that conditions vary in different coun- 

 ties, and in different communities, and 

 that a careful study of local conditions 

 should govern the type of program 

 which Farm Bureaus should carry. 



Who Should Be Members 



The second general topic under dis- 

 cussion was "Who Should be Mem- 

 bers." 



Discussion showed that in some 

 counties anybody who is interested in 

 ag^riculture is permitted to join. Oth- 

 ers follow the policy of making a more 

 or less careful selection of the pros- 

 pects, thus tending toward a selected 

 membership. There seemed to be quite 

 a division of thought on this matter. 

 Several things, however, of importance 

 were brought out in the discussion. 



Joint Memberships 



The joint membership agreement as 

 it now prevails in most counties be- 

 tween father and son, landlord and 

 tenant or partners in the farming 

 business was given the most considera- 

 tion. It was pointed out that this joint 

 membership agn^eement will be a great- 

 er obstacle in the future than it has 

 been in the past with commercial 

 activities developing, through which 

 Farm Bureau members are favored 

 by dividends of one kind or another. 

 It is diflScult to determine just who 

 should get dividends from some sort 

 of commercial venture, or who should 

 be entitled to serve in case a project 

 is confined to members only. 



Several representatives of county 

 Farm Bureaus who spoke on this par- 

 ticular subject urged that the tend- 

 ency should be toward limiting mem- 

 bership to the individual rather than 

 accepting partnership of father and 

 son, or landlord and tenant on a joint 

 agn'eement. 



Continuous Membership 



From this subject the discussion 

 drifted to the continuous membership 

 contract now in use in several coun- 

 ties. Several men representing Bur- 

 eaus using this contract reported very 

 favorably on it. There seemed to be 

 no difficulty expressed from counties 

 using this type of contract in the mat- 

 ter of collection. They all reported 

 that it seemed to them that this agree- 

 ment would tend to cut the cost of 

 membership maintenance. The pres- 

 ent policy of the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association is to encourage the use 

 of the continuous membership agree- 

 ment, but allow the counties to de- 

 cide between this type of agreement 

 and the straight three-year form com- 

 monly in use over the state. 



No definite recommendations were 

 made in the org^anization branch of 

 this section of the meeting. 



Collection Section 



The treasurer of the Association in- 

 troduced to the meeting Mr. Welk of 

 Tazewell county, Mr. Quisenberry of 

 the Mid-West Claims and Adjustment 

 Service. The two services were stat- 

 ed by the treasurer to cover the field 

 of Farm Bureau membership collec- 

 tions. The character of the service 

 rendered by Mr. Welk had fully dem- 

 onstrated its beneficial application to 

 cases in arrears where personal service 

 seemed to be indicated. The service 

 offered by Mid-West Claims and Ad- 

 justment Service had demonstrated its 

 effectiveness, particularly in its appli- 

 cation to cases where payment was de- 

 liberately evaded and refused. In Mc- 



Lean county, where the Farm Bureau 

 cooperated fully, out of an accumula- 

 tion of old items, some $6,800 had 

 been recovered, in a complete clean-up 

 of all past due items remaining un- 

 paid; after so-called "collection serv- 

 ices" and "commercial lawyers" had 

 failed. 



Mr. Welk and Mr. Quisenberry ad- 

 dressed the conference briefly, relat- 

 ing their experiences and describing 

 the respective services. 



Advisers Talk Publicity 



The discussion of publicity was con- 

 fined to two topics, namely: 



1. Outstanding publicity projects. 



2. Legitimate newspaper publicity, 

 and reaching the non-member. 



Farm Advisers Kercher of Vermil- 

 ion county and Foard of Bond county 

 discussed the value of outstanding 

 projects in placing the name of the 

 county Farm Bureau before the farm- 

 ers and general public of the county 

 in a favorable light. 



A 30,000 acre alfalfa campaign in 

 Vermilion county, and how it suc- 

 ceeded in gaining the attention of 

 farmers and the public through news- 

 paper publicity, was outlined as an 

 example of this type of project. Mr. 

 Foard presented information regrard- 

 ing the publicity value of his lime- 

 stone-legume project. 



j How To Succeed j 



It was generally agreed that the suc- 

 cessful county Farm Bureau must give 

 considerable attention to the selection 

 of at least one or more projects that 

 serve to add prestige to the county or- 

 ganization and place its name favor- 

 ably before both farmers and city peo- 

 ple, through the publicity it or they 

 gain for the county organization. 



Getting acquainted with the editors, 

 cooperating with reporters and press 

 representatives, and keeping the mem- 

 bers informed through interesting ar- 

 ticles in the official organ about the 

 activities of the Farm Bureau were re- 

 commended as essential to an ade- 

 quate publicity program. 



Other Advisers Speak 



The subject of reaching the non- 

 member through newspaper and other 

 publicity was discussed by Farm Ad- 

 visers Whisenand of Henry county, 

 Lloyd of Hancock county, Shaw of 

 Peoria county, and Checkley of Lo- 

 gan county. 



The important points revealed by 

 the discussion of this question were 

 that: 



1. Publicity should be made a ma- 

 jor project in every Farm Bureau 

 program. 



2. Regular releases to the daily 

 and weekly newspapers of the county 

 concerning Farm Bureau activities are 

 needed to acquaint the non-member 

 with the program, and influence him 

 to become a member. 



3. Community meetingrs, particu- 

 larly in the summer time, are valu- 



(Continued on page 10) 



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