The Rural Voice, 1987-05, Page 89HURONCOUNTY Federation of Agriculture NEWSLETTER
Box 429, Clinton, Ontario NOM 1L0 519-482-9642
MINUTES OF THE HCFA MEMBERS MEETING, APRIL 8
Second Vice -President Chris Pal-
mer welcomed everyone to the meet-
ing. The minutes of the last meeting
were passed as printed on a motion by
James Armstrong, seconded by Walter
Elliott. Carried.
Guest speaker Colin Reesor was
introduced by Chris Palmer. Mr.
Reesor is a farm financial advisor with
the OMAF office in Markdale, having
his degree in agricultural economics
from McGill University. His speech
centred on the topic, What Does the
Future of Agriculture Hold for Ontario
Farmers?
Most of his presentation focused
on ways and means to diversity a farm
operation and on the philosophy be-
hind the process, that of not putting
all of one's eggs in one basket. "The
trick to diversification is to look
around and see what makes money," he
said, "but not to invest too much in
the project until you can see what kind
of a return you are likely to get."
"I think there may be some pretty
good opportunities coming up soon in
agriculture, but you have to be an
optimist to take advantage of them,"
he noted.
Mr. Reesor also commented that
he is a great "letter -writer" to govern-
ment people. He says government
departments always count their letters
and always read them and send them to
the top!
He added a very interesting account
of his recent experience attending
"ADAPT 100" in Des Moines, Iowa.
The conference was a gathering of
6,000 farmers with displays and videos
set up to explain 100 ideas of diver-
sification for farmers. Ivan Dow
presented Colin with maple syrup.
Membership
The Huron County membership is
becoming a serious situation — it is
going down: Bob Harrison, HCFA
membership chairman. Our Huron
membership is now at 1,675. We
need to get it back to at least 1,700 to
keep our fifth regional director. If we
lose a regional director it will mean
"Often Imitated"
"Never Duplicated"
OFMA
Dealers in Huron County
Harold Peck
Varna
482-9997
262-5867
Alvin Becker
RR 1 Dashwood
237-3239
OFA 50TH ANNIVERSARY 1987
Celebrations in Huron County ...
OLD TYME JAMBOREE
Sunday, June 28 Seaforth Community Centre
Entertainment 2 p.m. to ?
Pork BBQ 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Tickets: Adults $8
Children (up to 11) $4
Refreshments available
Tickets available from regional directors,
township presidents, and committee persons.
88 THE RURAL VOICE
that the remaining four will have the
responsibility of four townships in-
stead of the three they have now. A
county -wide blitz is being planned for
the week of June 22.
A meeting is being held on Wed-
nesday, April 29 at the Vanastra office
to plan the blitz. At this meeting we
hope to have township presidents,
regional directors, directors at large,
the membership committee, and the
executive. It has been arranged that
outside fieldmen will come in to help
out that week. The committee plans
that April 29 will be a big kick-off
night and will advertise through radio,
TV, and the local papers. Notices will
be sent to people involved in this
meeting, but keep the date in mind! A
motion was made by Bob Harrison,
seconded by Alfred Etzler, to budget
$400 from the county to run this
campaign. Carried.
Weeds in Waterways
Norm Alexander is concerned with
a resolution presented in Minto
Township to their federation regarding
weeds in waterways. It was decided to
refer the resolution to the Properties
Committee for discussion to decide
what to do with it.
The motion for adjournment was
made at 10:50 p.m. by Walter Elliott,
seconded by James Armstrong.
Carried.0
TOWNSHIP LEVY versus
OFA ISM MEMBERSHIP
Township Levy
- supports work of local townships and county federations
- Rural Voice to all farmers
- Farm and Country to all farmers
- mechanism for getting farmers in county together
- manure storage by-laws
- MPP's dinner: opportunity for local
and provincial politicians to share ideas
ISM Membership
- individual member in the provincial organization (OFA)
- supports provincial lobbying on provincial concerns
- provides organizational input to federations
- provides individual services, eg. OFMA, health/life
insurances
- provides for provincial committees to bring farm
community together provincially