President's Report ~ Sheldon Barker
2015-2016
There is a tag line in a credit card advertisement “membership has its privileges” and that is certainly true of being a member of the Tennessee Association of Agriculture Agents and Specialist. Yet as I think about my four years on the board I realize that it is an “active membership that has its privileges”. The opportunity for professional development at regional, state and national meetings is certainly one of the privileges. However, there is so much more, the opportunity to meet people across the country to see what other states and universities are doing, and to travel across the state and country to see and learn. To benefit from these opportunities you have to take an active part.
It has been a great pleasure to serve as president of your TAAA&S Association this past year. As I began this role, I really did not know what was in front of me. But after working with this state board and the members across the state, I have found this year to be very rewarding for me and hope that we have been able to advance the cause of TAAA&S. This is a great organization in which to be a member. Not only a member, but an active member; one that gets involved in order to get the most that one can from this association.
We just recently learned that our Tennessee Association had the largest increase in members nationwide, up 18 members from 2014, to 168 members. We are the fourth largest association behind Texas, North Carolina and Georgia; just eight members away from third place. This is something the state board has been working on for several years; how to increase the membership. Thanks to all of you that have seen the need to join TAAA&S and have caused us to make this giant step in building our membership. Let us all strive to keep up this good work!
I hope you are enjoying this state conference. The Central Region folks have done a great deal of work preparing for this event and I trust we are gaining ideas and information from one another that will help us be even more valuable as agents in our counties. Later this summer, many of our membership will be attending the AM-PIC in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 12 – 16. Next year, even more of the Tennessee Association will invade Little Rock, July 24 – 28, for the national meeting and then on to Salt Lake City, July 9 – 13, 2017. If you have not been able to attend a national meeting, let me encourage you to do so. Travel dollars are available and program fees generated in your county can be used to help defray costs to these meetings. You will be able to associate with other agents from across the United States and again have chances to learn things that can be brought back to Tennessee and help you in your county.
In 2018, July 29 – August 2, in Chattanooga, we will be hosting the AM-PIC. You will learn more about this event during this state meeting. Each member has a great opportunity in front of them. We need your help. Committees are formed and others are still in the process of forming. If you are not serving on a committee for the meeting and want to do so, please contact a member of the state board, or visit with Jeff Via and David Yates. These two gentlemen have agreed and are serving as co-chairs of our national meeting. They are off and running with a terrific start. But again we will need “all hands on deck.” This is a great opportunity for Tennessee to showcase our association, the state of Tennessee and our UT and TSU Extension Programs. I am excited that we have chosen to host the meeting and want to “THANK” our administration from both universities for allowing our association to be the host state in 2018.
Finally, I just want to thank the state board and all the members of TAAA&S for allowing me to serve as President of our association. It has been a great year and I look forward to what lies ahead for each of us. May we all enjoy the journey!
There is a tag line in a credit card advertisement “membership has its privileges” and that is certainly true of being a member of the Tennessee Association of Agriculture Agents and Specialist. Yet as I think about my four years on the board I realize that it is an “active membership that has its privileges”. The opportunity for professional development at regional, state and national meetings is certainly one of the privileges. However, there is so much more, the opportunity to meet people across the country to see what other states and universities are doing, and to travel across the state and country to see and learn. To benefit from these opportunities you have to take an active part.
It has been a great pleasure to serve as president of your TAAA&S Association this past year. As I began this role, I really did not know what was in front of me. But after working with this state board and the members across the state, I have found this year to be very rewarding for me and hope that we have been able to advance the cause of TAAA&S. This is a great organization in which to be a member. Not only a member, but an active member; one that gets involved in order to get the most that one can from this association.
We just recently learned that our Tennessee Association had the largest increase in members nationwide, up 18 members from 2014, to 168 members. We are the fourth largest association behind Texas, North Carolina and Georgia; just eight members away from third place. This is something the state board has been working on for several years; how to increase the membership. Thanks to all of you that have seen the need to join TAAA&S and have caused us to make this giant step in building our membership. Let us all strive to keep up this good work!
I hope you are enjoying this state conference. The Central Region folks have done a great deal of work preparing for this event and I trust we are gaining ideas and information from one another that will help us be even more valuable as agents in our counties. Later this summer, many of our membership will be attending the AM-PIC in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 12 – 16. Next year, even more of the Tennessee Association will invade Little Rock, July 24 – 28, for the national meeting and then on to Salt Lake City, July 9 – 13, 2017. If you have not been able to attend a national meeting, let me encourage you to do so. Travel dollars are available and program fees generated in your county can be used to help defray costs to these meetings. You will be able to associate with other agents from across the United States and again have chances to learn things that can be brought back to Tennessee and help you in your county.
In 2018, July 29 – August 2, in Chattanooga, we will be hosting the AM-PIC. You will learn more about this event during this state meeting. Each member has a great opportunity in front of them. We need your help. Committees are formed and others are still in the process of forming. If you are not serving on a committee for the meeting and want to do so, please contact a member of the state board, or visit with Jeff Via and David Yates. These two gentlemen have agreed and are serving as co-chairs of our national meeting. They are off and running with a terrific start. But again we will need “all hands on deck.” This is a great opportunity for Tennessee to showcase our association, the state of Tennessee and our UT and TSU Extension Programs. I am excited that we have chosen to host the meeting and want to “THANK” our administration from both universities for allowing our association to be the host state in 2018.
Finally, I just want to thank the state board and all the members of TAAA&S for allowing me to serve as President of our association. It has been a great year and I look forward to what lies ahead for each of us. May we all enjoy the journey!
