ABEF GOLF OUTING
The ABEF hosted its annual Golf Outing during the 2009 Agri-Marketing Conference to help raise money for the Student NAMA Careers Program. The ABEF Golf Outing took place on Tuesday, April 14, at Stone Mountain Golf Club in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Golfers endured the water soaked ground for what turned out to be a beautiful day of golf. Taking third place in the golf outing was Matt Herman, DTN/The Progressive Farmer; Matt Bradford, DTN/The Progressive Farmer; and Dave Patterson, John Deere Credit. Second place went to Sandra Cashman, Epic Creative; Dave Fedderson, Cabela’s; Dave McSparron, Red River Farm Network; and Tim Oliver, Morgan&Myers. First place winners were Bob Bunker, J.L. Farmakis, Kelly Schwalbe, BCS Communications, Dennis Duncan, Ag Alert and Brian Kroshus, Lee Agri-Media.

Special thanks also to the sponsors of the ABEF Golf Outing: Farm Journal, Penton Media, Bock & Associates, Charleston/Orwig, Iowa Farmer Today/Missouri Farmer Today, and Successful Farming. We look forward to another successful Golf Outing next year in Kansas City!

ABEF CENTURY CLUB
The ABEF Century Club, which was launched at the 2004 Agri-Marketing Conference in Kansas City, raised $2,100 at the 2009 Agri-Marketing Conference. Investing in the club provides the opportunity to step forward and help advance the future of agribusiness. Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and the Century Club support is totally dedicated for investing in scholarships for tomorrow’s leaders.

The Century Club’s goal is to have today’s agribusiness leaders contribute $100 for today’s youth. You can be a part of this select group of individuals committed to enhancing the opportunity for tomorrow’s leaders. The list below contains professionals who joined the Century Club by the end of the 2009 conference. Don’t be left out, sign yourself up now! Visit http://www.payment.nama.org/centuryclub.htm.

John Riley
Ron Claussen
Jan Ford
H&P Company, Inc.
Mick Sibbel
Leigh Ann Cleaver
Vicki Henrickson
Beth Burgy
Lyle Orwig
Leon Westbrock
Mike Gustafson
Bill Howard
Tom Taylor
Gary Vorpahl
Russ Parker
Tom Davis
Marvin Kokes
Marjory Walker
Allen Barkve
Tim Price
Cliff Becker

ABEF AUCTIONS
The ABEF Silent Auction and Online Media Auction raised over $46,000 for the Student Careers Program. This is almost double from last year! Items in the auctions ranged from wine to media packages to iPods. Special thanks to all who donated and bid on items in the Auctions this year!

ABEF STUDENT RAFFLE
Attendees had a chance to win a Dell 50″ High Def Plasma TV courtesy of Penton Media at the 2009 Agri-Marketing Conference. NAMA Student chapters sold tickets in advance as well as at the conference for a chance to win the TV. The winning raffle ticket was sold by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who sold the ticket to Russ Parker, J.L. Farmakis. Congratulations on the new TV!

Over $4,600 was raised from the Student Raffle and schools received $5.00 for each ticket sold, meaning $2,300 of that money will be returned to the student chapters to help cover expenses to next year’s conference. The school that sold the most raffle tickets received $100 and the second place school received $50. In addition, the student who sold the most tickets received an additional cash prize of $100. This year’s top selling school was Virginia Tech and second place honors go to Delaware Valley College. The student selling the most raffle tickets was Becky Ashton, Virginia Tech.