MARLBOROUGH, Mass. — The Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) made a clean sweep of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Awards of Excellence for states with similar size memberships. These annual awards are given to states that demonstrate excellence in the programs that they implement and complete during the last year.
“For the second year in a row under my guidance, MFBF has demonstrated its excellence by receiving all awards possible in this category,” said MFBF President Ed Davidian, who farms in Northborough. “The staff and our membership really deserve a pat on the back for a job well done. Congratulations to everyone!”
These awards are broken out into four categories, which include advocacy; engagement and outreach; leadership and business development; and membership value. All of these categories require a written application explaining programs that MFBF implemented during the past year.
For example, in advocacy, the staff wrote-up and explained how the organization created an Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) Committee at MFBF, which set out to determine the scope or nature of the complaints MFBF was hearing about the program. To do so, the committee developed and distributed a survey to APR landowners. The goal was to provide objective information to aid in changing policy, regulations and operating procedures that will strengthen the APR program.
For engagement and outreach, MFBF staff discussed Ag Day at the State House, Livestock on the Common, Camping for a Cure, policy twilight meetings and Hampshire and Franklin counties’ tractor rides. They also included in the application a results section, which explained how these programs benefitted MFBF’s membership.
MFBF outlined its leadership roundtable and mini courses for business development to show the organization’s value in the leadership and business development category. These programs help to provide the organization’s members with skills that necessary to run their businesses and be the future leaders of MFBF.
In the final category, membership value, MFBF staff outlined its membership recruitment and retention strategy, as well as its promotion of the member benefits package. The programs in this category are made possible by MFBF’s active membership base, which helps to divide larger projects into small tasks.
The awards will be presented in January during American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting that is set to be held in Nashville, during which a representative from MFBF will accept them.
–Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation
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