"The Champions of Excellence Awards recognize county Farm Bureaus for activity and program development, regardless of which committee conducted the work. Leadership development, agricultural advocacy, program innovation and member involvement are all trademarks of a strong and healthy county Farm Bureau that deserve to be recognized."
Carl Bednarski, Michigan Farm Bureau President
Electronic forms must be received at Michigan Farm Bureau via [email protected] no later than July 1, 2019.Announcement of district winners will be made no later than August 16, 2019.Announcement of state winners will be made at the MFB Annual Meeting, Council of President's Conference, TBD.
The Champions of Excellence Awards have received a facelift, and will feature two award applications, Advocacy and Innovation. The previous Involvement application will now be selected by numbers pulled directly from county statistics. Click here for involvement award criteria. Leadership Development has been integrated into the Advocacy and Innovation applications.
The Advocacy award category focuses on county programs that enable members to advocate on behalf of Farm Bureau policy, or educate and promote the food & agriculture industry.
Tip for success:
Tell us how your county Farm Bureau identified a critical agricultural issue, or a promotion or education opportunity, and describe how that program, event or activity addressed the issue.
The Innovation award category focuses on new programs, events and activities that county Farm Bureaus have implemented in the past 12 months. Any type of activity is eligible as long as it was your county's first time conducting the program, event or activity.
Tell us how your county's program was innovative and provide ideas to share with other county Farm Bureaus that may want to use your idea in the future.
1. County Farm Bureau applications must be received at the state Farm Bureau office no later than July 1, 2019. Applications can be downloaded from the MFB website and emailed to [email protected] Electronic applications are required - handwritten applications will not be accepted.
1. Award applications received by July 1, 2019 will be forwarded to each district for judging.
2. The State Young Farmer and State Promotion and Education chair will submit one representative to be placed in a pool of judges.
3. District level (33): Three judges for each district, comprised of a representative from the pool, MFB regional representative and MFB staff, will review each entry in all award categories of another district as assigned by MFB. Judges shall remain impartial, and not judge a district in which they hold a membership.
4. State level (12): There shall be at least three judges reviewing each entry in each of the award areas. Judges, comprised of one representative from the pool, one MFB staff member and a representative from an outside agricultural entity will judge applications by each award category as assigned.
5. Judges will receive electronic copies of entries for their review. If necessary, judges will confer via electronic means or via telephone to agree on designation of awards.