News for Student NAMA Members - Fall 2009

Sizzling in AtlantaIn keeping with the 2009 NAMA Agri-Marketing Conference theme of Solutions with Sizzle, the University of Florida team was sizzling when they took First Place for the second year in a row during the Student Marketing Competition in Atlanta! Hours of planning and preparing for their product, Sun Fruit, sent them again to the top of the competition. Sun Fruit is a sweet, healthy, and safe new citrus fruit that recaptures the grapefruit market lost to those whose medications cause negative interactions with grapefruit. Second place honors were awarded to the University of Wisconsin – Madison and Third place to Purdue University. The other three finalist teams were: North Dakota State University, The Ohio State University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (in alpha order). Congratulations to all the finalists for making it to that elite round!

NAMA oncAMpus

2009 ConferenCe reCAp

John Deere SignAture AwArDThis was the 2nd year for the new John Deere Signature Award for student chapters. The Award was designed to create a new level of recognition within the NAMA Student Careers Program. It gives heightened exposure to outstanding student chapters who excel in encouraging student opportunities for increased business knowledge, academic excel-lence, leadership development and community citizenship. The University of Florida was the big winner in this award, too, taking First Place. Second Place went to Iowa State University, followed by Univer-sity of Wisconsin – Madison in Third. In Fourth and Fifth Places, respectively, were the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and University of Wisconsin – Platteville.

outStAnDing StuDent ChApterIowa State University won First Place Outstanding Student Chapter for the second year in a row. Second place was awarded to New Mexico State University; third place went to the University of Wisconsin – Madison and fourth to Illinois State University. In addition, six chapter improvement awards were given. Four of those went to Iowa State University and the other two were awarded to the University of Wisconsin – Madison and New Mexico State University.

outstanding AdvisorDavid Englund – AIB College of Business

outstanding professionalAndrea Brossard Martin, with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, nominated by the University of Wisconsin – Madison

outstanding professional Chapter Heartland Chapter, nominated by Illinois State University

SCholArShip winnerS$4,000 ScholarshipSuccessful farming/fergie fergusonJenna Nicole Green – University of Florida

$1,000 ScholarshipsColle+McVoy/new holland ScholarshipBret Herndon – University of Nebraska – LincolnMoKan ScholarshipLacey Altwegg – Kansas State University

$1,000 ABef ScholarshipsLaura Witte – University of Nebraska – LincolnEllen Leibbrandt – University of Nebraska – LincolnSarah Butterfield – The Ohio State University

$500 ABef ScholarshipsLaura Larson – Iowa State UniversityJodi Marshall – University of Wisconsin – PlattevilleDarrin Rahn – Iowa State UniversityBrenna House – Delaware Valley College

MonSAnto ContinueS Support of the ABefWe are entering our third year of Monsanto’s pledge to the Agri-Business Educational Foundation (ABEF) of $30,000 over a 3-year period. This contribution is to support the Student NAMA Marketing Competition held in conjunction with NAMA’s Agri-Marketing Conference in April. We greatly appreciate their support! About the ABef The primary goal of the ABEF is to provide today’s agri-business students with the tools they will need to succeed tomorrow. These tools include industry knowledge, leadership skills, networking abilities, public speaking experience and critical analysis skills. The development of these skills clearly will help students and young professionals as they build successful agri-marketing careers. Any success they experience will obviously benefit the industry as a whole. As members of the agri-business industry, we are more than just professional peers. We share a fellowship and ABEF extends this fellowship to the young people planning to enter our industry.

2009-2010 CAreerS CoMMitteeChairCurt BladesSuccessful Farmingcurt.blades@meredith.com Vice Chair Wes Meador Rhea + Kaiser Marketing Comm. wmeador@rkconnect.comCompetition ChairKristen MarshallNicholson Kovac Inc.kmarshall@nicholsonkovac.com Committee Members Matt Bornhorst Agriculture Future of America matt.bornhorst@agfuture.orgRandy HappelTwo Rivers Marketing Grouprandyh@2rm.com

What’s Happening in the Chapters

illinoiS StAte uniVerSityIt’s been a busy summer and fall for the Illinois State University NAMA chapter. This summer, ISU NAMA provided refresh-ments to participants on one of the tours conducted as part of the 2009 International Farm Management Congress, held at Illinois State University in July. NAMA members distrib-uted juice, pastries and fruit to IFMA members as they toured local grain farms. Over forty students attended an ISU NAMA-spon-sored panel discussion by four human resource specialists. These specialists, representing GROWMARK, Farm Credit Services, Land O’Lakes, and Farm Bureau, provided students a wealth of information about participating in a career day, résumé writing and interviewing. This career development activity was designed to prepare students for the upcoming NAMA-sponsored Illinois State University Department of Agriculture Career Day.

ISU NAMA member, John Robinson, and NAMA faculty advisor, Aslihan Spaulding, distribute refreshments at an IFMA Congress tour to a grain farm.

Jeff HartzWyffels Hybridsjhartz@wyffels.com Deron Johnson Rhea + Kaiser Marketing Comm. djohnson@rkconnect.comMarvin KokesNat’l Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.mkokes@beef.org Claire Simmons Monsanto claire.p.simmons@monsanto.comMichelle TollefsonPfizer Animal Healthmichelle.tollefson@pfizer.com Advisor representatives Laura Cheney Michigan State University cheneyl@msu.edu

Stacey NoeIowa State Universitysnoe@iastate.edu executive Committee liaisons Beth Burgy Broadhead + Co., Inc.Ken DeanHigh Plains/Midwest Ag Journal Robert Ratliff ProfitableFarming.com Corp.national office ContactDeborah BrummelNational Agri-Marketing Assn.debbieb@nama.org

iowA StAte uniVerSityAnother year is under way and ISU NAMA is excited to be “Thinking Outside the Barn.” The ISU chapter has many goals and high expectations for the year; and to get things moving, they came up with their own market-ing campaign “Thinking Outside the Barn” to recruit new members to the club. The theme will be incorporated throughout the year in club promotions and activities. To kick off recruitment, the club participated in the Ag Freshman/Transfer BBQ and Club Fest to inform students on the campus about the opportunities available through NAMA. On August 27, the first meeting was held with a large turnout of both new and returning members. Ice cream was enjoyed while attendees listened to a presentation from Stephanie Vinton, the current Iowa NAMA professional chapter President. For the Septem-ber meeting, a guest speaker is planned as well as a scavenger hunt.

MiSSiSSippi StAte uniVerSity The Mississippi State University NAMA team has hit the ground running for the 2009-2010 year. MSU NAMA participated in on-campus recruiting activities to encourage membership growth. MSU’s NAMA Team has also diversified and now includes members from various Mississippi State Majors. The Club has also been responsible for creating the brand-new Agricultural and Environmental Economics Club, which has the ultimate goal of getting more Ag students involved in on and off-campus activities. The Team has selected a new and unique product to be marketed at this year’s competition. The Club has begun researching this product’s market potential and profit outlooks. This product promises to be exciting and a strong competitor in the Spring Competition. MSU NAMA has also become involved in volunteer work. Team members have contributed over 50 hours to the Mississippi State-sponsored Habitat For Humanity House. MSU NAMA feels that philanthropy is a great way to not only help the local community, but also develop critical teamwork and communication skills.

KAnSAS StAte uniVerSityIt has been an exciting five months since National Competition last spring. Immediately after returning from Atlanta in April, we got to work looking forward to the 2009-2010 school year. In evaluating our 2008-2009 chapter, we decided we could make a few changes to our program to improve our club and make the process of preparing for National Competition smoother and easier for the team, as well as more beneficial to all members. Our first challenge when school began this fall was recruitment at the K-State College of Agriculture’s Watermelon Feed. We had an impressive amount of interest resulting from our display and NAMA officers and members being available to talk to students throughout the evening. We are also excited to have some new members from disciplines outside the College of Agriculture, primarily in the College of Business Administration. With a couple new changes, including creating a class at K-State to help give the marketing team a head start on the process of choosing a product, developing an Executive Summary and preparing a presentation for Nationals, our marketing team is off to a great start for the fall! We are currently working to narrow down our choices to choose our final product for competition during our class meetings. We have a lively NAMA chapter this year which, as a whole, is looking forward to a very successful year and excited about the improvements we have made to our chapter, thus far. We look forward to seeing everyone at competition in Kansas City in the spring!

new MexiCo StAte uniVerSityThe New Mexico State University NAMA Chapter has started their Fall semester off in full throttle! Our students had an exciting summer by traveling to the 19th Annual International Food and Agribusiness Management Association Symposium in Budapest, Hungary, in June. We had several students present papers and compete in the case study competition. Our members were privileged with the opportunity to network with numerous professionals and students from around the world while touring several European countries.

north CArolinA StAte uniVerSityThe Agribusiness/NAMA club at NC State held a welcome back meeting on August 31st, 2009. At this meeting, the officers introduced themselves, the fall meeting dates were given out, and a social event was announced. On September 14th, we had professors from our Agriculture and Resource Economics Department come and speak to us about graduate schools and professional schools. We will have a social on Tuesday, September 22nd at Bada Wings. Some of the officers are helping with CALS Tailgate on September 19th. The ARE Department will have a booth to represent the department. The officers will be able to share information with alumni about the club and what events we are doing. This semester we will have speakers from a variety of companies. Some of those companies include Coastal AgroBusi-ness, Duplin Winery, John Deere, and Cape Fear Farm Credit. We will also be participating in the Milk Booth at the NC State Fair in October.

Club member Laura Vann and Dr. Arnie Oltmans (co-advisor) manning the Department of Agricul-tural and Resource Economics table.

The chapter has been working on new recruitment efforts with incoming freshmen. We started the semester with a very successful interview workshop with one of our former NAMA presidents, Jacob Penn. Our events for the Fall semester include Alumni tailgating, a scavenger hunt, intramurals, meetings with agriculture business representatives, community service, bowling, Aggie Week, and working on our marketing plan.

north DAKotA StAte uniVerSityThe North Dakota State University Student Chapter of NAMA is off to another great start. Building upon the successes of last year, our chapter is already making great strides towards overall chapter improvement. With last year’s students taking fifth place in the national marketing competition, we have been able to spark a growing level of interest in our activities across campus. We hope that this, along with expanded recruiting efforts, will help us continue to grow. This year we are also embarking upon a new strategy regarding involvement with our professional chapter. The Northern Prairie Chapter of NAMA and NDSU NAMA are working hand-in-hand to develop and implement activities that will benefit both chapters. By coordinating our efforts, we are working to improve the overall awareness of our groups as well as help each other recruit members and sponsors.

A recent example of this was the Big Iron After Hours event which followed the Big Iron Farm Show on September 15th, 2009. The event was much like a typical after-hours event, except it was geared towards promoting interaction between students and professionals. NDSU NAMA members brought fellow non-member students and professionals invited fellow industry representatives. Big Iron Exhibitors were also invited to attend. NDSU NAMA students helped plan the overall event with our professional chapter and handed out booth drops during the show. In all, there were about 25 students and around 75 industry representatives present. The event has created network-ing opportunities for both the students and professionals and allows us to also recruit new members. This, along with other recruiting tactics, will help our chapters grow throughout the year and be successful into the future. We look forward to sharing more great news as another exciting year progresses.

uniVerSity of neBrASKA - linColnNebraska NAMA got off to a busy – and entertaining – start this fall. They hosted their first ever impromptu marketing competition and rounded out the first three weeks of the semester by participating in recruitment and campus-wide events. The “So You Think You Can Market!” competition was featured on the NAMA display at the Fall Club Fair, where members Cassidy Robinson and Brenda Walla got students excited about the competition and handed out business card size announcements. Over 25 students (divided into teams) competed in the event, which involved a quick review of marketing guidelines, seven minutes of preparation time, and presentations by the teams. Judges gave feedback to each team, chose winners and awarded prizes. NAMA members are taking the competi-tion to Nebraska DECA’s state-wide fall conference as part of a fun and educational workshop where high school students will learn more about Agri-Marketing.

texAS A&M uniVerSity - KingSVilleAt Texas A&M University-Kingsville, our NAMA chapter started off the school year with many new faces and several fresh ideas. We selected our officers for this year, who are Alinna Umphres-Lopez as President, Leanne Wiley, and Payton Neessen as Vice President. We held one of our meetings at a local restaurant to discuss our possible marketing projects and to get acquainted with the new members in our chapter. We are very excited about this year’s competition and are anxiously waiting to see everyone and their products. Good Luck to all NAMA Chapters.

NAMA members gave a presentation at the Department of Agricultural Economics Fall Kick-Off Dinner and invited new and current students to join NAMA. They also co-hosted a campus seminar given by nationally-known trade expert Doug Bereuter, who spoke to the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) students on Chinese-American trade relations.

uniVerSity of wiSConSin - MADiSonThe NAMA members at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have started the semester off with a bang. New brochures were developed for recruit-ment at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Fall Picnic and attendance at the September meeting was outstanding. Fundraising efforts are already underway as members are picking grapes at Botham Vineyards as a way to raise funds for the chapter. Study tours at area agribusinesses are being scheduled for mid-October and a NAMA picnic is scheduled to directly follow the CALS Career Fair on October 8th. Recruiters will be encouraged to attend the picnic and socialize with NAMA students. The chapter is also gearing up for World Dairy Expo at the end of September. Members will help industry professionals staff their booths at the Expo. This is a great opportunity for chapter fundraising, but also a chance for members to network with professionals. Students will also attend a workshop on social media at World Dairy Expo and attend a Badger Pro-NAMA event. For questions about the University of Wisconsin-Madison NAMA, contact President Alyssa Sandore, sandore@wisc.edu.

internShipS/JoB opportunitieS

Are you looking for internships or a job opportunity? Check out the NAMA website for up-to-date information. Go to www.namablog.org/?page_id=82

VirginiA teCh nAMAThe Virginia Tech Ag. Econ/NAMA Club has gotten into full swing this semester! We have hosted many events including the Back to the Books Picnic in which students, faculty, and staff from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics came together and enjoyed good food, fellowship, and good talks about hot topics in agriculture. We are also getting geared up to go to the Virginia State Fair, September 24th - October 4th, where we will be teaching children about the top five grains in Virginia while making grain jars (similar to sand art). We also have many projects in the works to develop our marketing skills in preparation for the NAMA Competition. Currently, a group of students are setting the foundation for a student-run business that will work with agribusinesses throughout Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region to formulate business and marketing plans. We also have many guest speakers scheduled throughout the semester. Fall 2009 is shaping up to be a great semester for Virginia Tech’s Ag.Econ/NAMA Club!

The Careers Committee has developed some observations from past review and evaluation of student submissions. A few of these observations are included here. The most important thing to remember is that professionalism and accuracy are required in the business world, and each document submitted should be treated like a professional presentation.

Annual reports:The critique sheet should serve as a table of contents and the book should be assembled accordingly. By doing this, you will ensure that your book will have the opportunity to be given all credit possible and that no information is overlooked or missed during the review process. The chapter yearbook evaluation is not a creative or scrapbook contest. This should be considered a professional presentation that you would present to the Dean of your college or to a potential financial sponsor to showcase the value and accomplishments of your organization.

Chapter Award entry forms:Answer the question being asked. Many of the entries received are free form and do not address questions or provide the information being requested. If the information is not there, it can’t be considered eligible for the award.

hintS for AwArDS & CoMpetition

StuDent CAlenDArDeCeMBer 20091 First accreditation deadline. Submit: • Dues ($225) • Letter from professional chapter • Letter from college dean • Chapter goals • Roster of members and advisor

31 Deadline for student news tobe used in the Winter NAMAon Campus

JAnuAry 201029 Deadline for TEAM NAMA

feBruAry 201028 Deadline for student news tobe used in the Spring NAMAon Campus

MArCh 20101 Second accreditation deadline. Submit: • Dues ($225) • Annual report

10 Ten copies of your Executive Summary due to the National Office

April 201021-23 Agri-Marketing Conference, Kansas City, Missouri

Chapter improvement Awards:Many of the entries did not have measurable results. It is difficult to warrant giving an award if there is no quantifiable proof that an improvement was actually made. Each area of improvement should, ideally, tie back to one of your chapter goals and objectives. Goals should be specific, realistic, time-sensitive and measurable. Objectives should define how you’re going to utilize your resources to achieve your goals.