Nominate someone you know for the Professional Development Awards of Excellence. These awards will be presented at the 2008 Trends in Agriculture fall meeting, November 11-12, at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

The awards honor NAMA members based on outstanding achievement in each of the Professional Development Areas (PDA): (1) Marketing Communications; (2) Product/Species Management; (3) Public Relations; and (4) Sales. Nominees must be NAMA members. Nominators should target individuals with direct planning and execution responsibilities in the respective Professional Development Area from agribusiness and related companies.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Select a nominee. This nominee should excel in one of the four professional development areas. Consult the eligibility requirements closely.
2. Fill out the application and then address the three Areas of Excellence. Include your contact information, if NAMA has questions regarding the application, the nominator will be contacted.
3. Send the application and narrative to NAMA by September 1, 2008.

Nominees will be judged solely on their write-ups. Please do not send any other appendices, video-tapes, or samples. There are no entry fees.

Judging Criteria for the awards is as follows:

Achievement (40 points): Describe the nominee’s accomplishments on the basis of innovation, Professional Development Area knowledge/expertise and overall industry impact. How has the nominee distinguished themselves among industry peers in the same PDA? Primary emphasis should be placed on achievement within the past 18 months.

Professional Development Area (PDA) Responsibility (40 points): Describe the nominee’s responsibility for the respective PDA. Reveal how the nominee has capitalized on opportunities for success in the respective PDA. How has the nominee’s excellence in the respective PDA enhanced their skills and increased networks and relationships for their organization?

NAMA Involvement (20 points): Describe how the nominee’s service has had a significant, positive impact on NAMA. Provide details regarding the nominee’s consistent participation and commitment to NAMA. How have the nominee’s activities served to enhance the image or to foster improvements of NAMA?

The deadline for submitting nominations is September 1. If you have any questions regarding these awards, please contact Jenny Pickett at [email protected].

To download the nomination form in an Adobe .PDF format, visit http://www.nama.org/awards/PDAapplication.pdf.

You can also fill out the form on-line at http://www.nama.org/awards/pdaonlineform.htm.

For more information on the awards, visit http://www.nama.org/awards/pdaawards.htm.

The Agribusiness Forum name has changed to Trends in Agriculture. The meeting will held, November 11-12 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center in Kansas City.

Why the name change? “We wanted to re-energize our fall meeting and felt that by focusing on trends in our industry, we could keep the information fresh, interesting and exciting each year,” according to Kenna Rathai, KBR Communications and chair of the Trends in Agriculture committee.

This year, Trends in Agriculture will focus on rural lifestylers, which is a significant growth market for many NAMA members. Sessions will cover some of the new research on this target audience, digging into their purchase drivers and motivations, and a panel will discuss their successes and pitfalls in marketing to rural lifestylers. There will also be speakers outside of agriculture who have faced similar challenges in shifting some of their focus to capturing a new audience in a changing marketplace. Stay tuned to the NAMA e-News for the latest information on the fall Trends in Agriculture meeting.

Sponsorships are now available. As a sponsor of Trends in Agriculture, your organization will be noted as a front runner in supporting up-to-the-moment industry information.

Additional benefits include:

• Recognition in the program booklet and from the podium during the session;
• Recognition by signage at the sponsored event (if applicable);
• Recognition in post-Trends articles in the AgriMarketing magazine;
• Recognition on the NAMA Trends in Agriculture Web site page;
• and, first right of refusal for sponsorship of the same item for the 2009 Trends in Agriculture

If you are interested in sponsoring a session or event at this year’s meeting, contact Jenny Pickett in the NAMA office at (913) 491-6500 or via e-mail at [email protected].

The Trends In Agriculture takes place prior to the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) convention. The Forum will take place at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center which is near the NAFB hotel.

Special thanks to Broadhead + Company for the Trends In Agriculture logo design!

Nearly 40 NAMA members from both the Badger and Chicago chapters enjoyed networking opportunities and a great day of golf at the Badger/Chicago NAMA Golf Outing on May 29th at Hawk’s View Golf Club in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Golfers of all experience levels joined in the fun for 18 holes of championship golf. The dinner and awards program recognized the top teams and winners for each of the hole contests, including the Hole 17 Get-On-The-Green contests provided by UW Platteville NAMA students.

Thank you to all event hole sponsors – Bader Rutter, Bock & Associates, Dairy Herd Management, Farm Progress, Hoard’s Dairyman, Iowa Farmer Today, Morgan&Meyers, Open Roads, Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications, UW Platteville and World Dairy Expo, and door prize donors – Accelerated Genetics, Case IH, DTN/Progressive Farmer and The Mosaic Co. Special thanks also to Penton Media for sponsoring the beverage cart and to all participants for their part in helping make this year’s event a success.

Leaders from the MoKan NAMA chapter hosted a planning meeting on June 26 at the Osborn & Barr offices in Kansas City, to discuss the upcoming programming year for their chapter.

Some of the topics that MoKan will focus on for the year include meetings on rising gas prices, and food prices and how the recent Midwest floods might affect commodity and food prices, in addition to a Creative Summit. Other topics included, body language in the workplace as well as social activities such as baseball games and bowling.

Attendees at the meeting included: Melanie Acklin, Specialty Fertilizer Products; Colleen Gerke, John Deere; Michael Berry, Osborn & Barr; Christy Borrowman, VML; Jenny Pickett, National NAMA; Ken Dean, High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal; Amy Bugg, Two West; and Tyler Kelley, Osborn & Barr.

We have some outstanding membership news for you! NAMA membership is up 6% (a net of 100 new members), since January 1, 2008. Congratulations to all the chapters for their recruiting efforts and welcome all new members!

We’ve grown since June 1! Please join us in welcoming:

Badger
Sandy Cashman, EPIC Creative
Sarah Galdi, ABS Global, Inc.
Katie Tenpas, EPIC Creative

CAMA Ontario
Robert Boyer, ON Communications, Inc.

Cornbelt
Halley VanderHeyden, Kleffmann Group, North America

Eastern
Yuyun Hartono, Gibbs & Soell

Midlands
Shaun Schleif, David & Associates

Southeastern
Crafton Pease, The Crafton Group, Inc.
Rick Radermacher, Bigelow Advertising