By Julie Tomascik
Editor

Students who serve in leadership positions with the five Collegiate Farm Bureau chapters attended an officer retreat at Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) this month.

“The Collegiate Farm Bureau program is growing, and this retreat is aimed at helping the young leaders in these organizations get the training they need to be successful,” McKenna Bush, TFB Youth Outreach coordinator, said. “They can take the information they learn back to their chapters to enhance their meetings and activities, as well as grow their membership and awareness of their chapter on campus.”

During the three-day event, the collegiate officers visited the state capitol to learn about Farm Bureau’s grassroots policy process and met with state lawmakers.

They learned more about the outreach programs and leadership opportunities offered through TFB. They also participated in a social media advocacy exercise and discussed recruitment efforts.

“We learned about efforts to advocate for agriculture at the state capitol and how to promote our chapter and Collegiate Farm Bureau activities on social media,” said Bethany Martinek, West Texas A&M University Collegiate Farm Bureau chapter president. “We talked about activities we’re planning and how to make sure our members get value out of our meetings.”

In addition to presentations from Farm Bureau staff, the group participated in sessions related to event planning, parliamentary procedure and servant leadership.

“Our chapter is new, so this was a great opportunity to meet with other chapters and their officer teams to learn about what they’re doing,” said Makayla Miles, Matador Collegiate Farm Bureau president. “We’re bringing back some ideas that will be great to implement in our chapter and on campus.”

Student leaders from Sam Houston State University, Texas A&M University, Tarleton State University, Texas Tech University and West Texas A&M University were in attendance.

For more information about Collegiate Farm Bureau, visit texasfarmbureau.org/collegiate or email youthactivities@txfb.org.