../AS FARMERS 

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ORGANIZATION NOTES 

 By O. D. Brissenden 



THE flood-tide of new Farm Bureau 

 memberships continues in every 

 county where drives are or have re- 

 cently been held, in every section of 

 Illinois. Membership which was ' at 

 109,023 February 1, had apparently 

 passed the 110,000 mark by the middle 

 of the month, when this was compiled, 

 and it was still going strong. 



Achievement of the long-range goals 

 totalling 117,000 in the state by Sep- 

 tember 30 of this year seems entirely 

 possible if every county will set up a 

 program designed for this purpose. The 

 earlier the better! 



lohn C. Spencer, right, hands 46 new 

 Farm Bureau membership contracts to 

 White County Farm Bureau Organization 

 Director I. C. Campbell. A total oi 142 

 were signed in the recent drive. 



Membership maintenance meetings 



continue, with a total of 35 meetings, 

 including the employed personnel of 

 48 county Farm Bureaus, reached by 

 the end of February, reports W. P. 

 Sandford, lAA director of sales serv- 

 ice, who is working in collaboration 

 with H. B. Claar, L. B. Hornbeck, and 

 John C. Moore on this program. March 

 and a large part of April are already 

 well scheduled. 



Reaffirmation of long-range goals, 

 and, in a few cases, increases in them, 

 have been the order of the day in the 

 afternoon conferences with directors 

 and executives. Employee attendance 

 at the evening meetings has surpassed 

 that of last year, when the "MM" 

 meetings were first held. Enthusiasm 

 for Farm Bureau on the part of those 

 who work for it and its subsidiaries is 

 at a high point, and all realize the pri- 

 mary importance of membership ac- 



Harry Claar, left, lAA organization field 

 man, and John C. Bigelow, Marion Farm 

 Bureau COD, right, pay a wager they lost 

 to C. Glenn Jones, Marion vice-president, 

 in a recent organization drive. Claar and 

 Bigelow agreed to parade around the 

 Marion County Courthouse square in 

 bathrobes if the 20th Century team oi 

 organization workers defeated the 19th 

 Century team. The 20th Century won by 

 a score of 23 in the drive that produced 

 134 new members. 



quisition and especially of membership 

 maintenance through good ser^'ice to 

 members. 



Iroquois county set a record for new 



memberships in this years drives, when a 

 contest between young and old workers 

 in *the county brought in a total of 242 

 contracts. J. S. Dorward and L. T. Berg- 

 strom captained the teams. C. J. Johnston 

 is COD. 



DeKalb went into second place in this 



respect when its workers turned in 175 

 contracts in their recent drive. 



Bureau county, whose mark of 165 was 



high for quite a while, is putting on a de- 

 termined cleanup effort, and C. A. Markman, 

 COD, reports, we are now past 200 and 

 there is more to do." 



Menard county brought total member- 

 ship to 833, one short of its long-range 

 goal, by signing 80 members in this already 

 highly-organized county. 



Dick O'Dell, COD of Piatt county, has not 

 had the terrific drive figures reported by 

 some others, but in the past three months 

 his regular reports show no less than 210 

 new members ! 



LaSalle county workers went on a ram- 

 page in their drive and signed 1 16 new mem- 

 bers, COD Earl Hayes reports. 



Kenneth Flake, Fulton COD, reports the 

 grand total of 129 for the drive there. 



John Spencer, a volunteer worker in 



White county, signed what is believed to 

 be the individual high total so far, when 

 he brought in 46 contracts personally. The 

 total for the drive was a thumping 142. 

 White county now has 880 members, 50 be- 

 yond the long range goal set last year. 



Marion county's drive, climaxed by Harry 



Claar's parade around the courthouse attired 

 in dressing gown and straw hat, brought 

 in 134 new members. . .a great achievement 

 in a month of great achievements. 



Bond county let the contest motif work 

 fully in its drive, which reached the splen- 

 did total of 100 new contracts. 



George Dirreen, COD in Cass county, re- 

 ports that an intensive drive brought in 51. 



Emmett Keim, COD of St. Clair county, 



was pleased when the volunteer workers 

 rang up a total of 82. 



Henderson county workers believed "it 



can be done," and proved it when they 

 signed 69 new members. 



Steve Sofranka, new Wayne county COD, 



had the experience of hearing his volunteers 

 report a total of 61 at the end of the first 

 drive directed by him. 



Edgar county's best drive, in the opinion 

 of H. Zeis Gumm, COD, was a dandy, with 

 84 new contracts resulting. 



Jasper county workers went up and down 

 the roads there, and the harvest was no less 

 than 81 new members. 



On toward the long-range goals — now! 



Coles county reported 120 new members 



signed in a recent drive, and its goal is 

 now raised to 1400. 



Macoupin county reported 80 new mem- 

 bers signed in the drive which terminated 

 Feb. 15. 



Left to right are Eldon Branch, Earl Loomis 

 and Hershel Campbell, three Marion 

 County Farm Bureau members who 

 worked as a team in a recent campaign 

 and signed 31 new members. They live 

 in Tonii township. 



H. T. Swigart, county organization di- 

 rector for the DeWitt County Farm Bureau 

 sinc&1937, is retiring from his position be- 

 cause of ill health. Mr. Swigart has per- 

 formed an outstanding job in his county, 

 and has been very active in community af- 

 fairs, serving as president of the High 

 School board, and on many other civic 

 boards. 



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I. A. A. RECORD 



