Gateway Chapter Well Represented At Leadership Workshop

Our chapter was represented at the Region II Leadership Workshop by President Becky Rasmussen and board member Chuck Zimmerman.

If you'd like to know more about the workshop program you can listen to an interview Chuck did with our regional director, Don Schultz, Clear Channel Agnetworks.

You can listen to the interview here: NAMA Interview (21 min./10MB) The interview is an MP3 file which should automatically download when you click on the link as long as you're online.

Region II Leadership Workshop

This evening the Region II Leadership Workshop was held in Kansas City. Gateway NAMA President Becky Rasmussen and board member Chuck Zimmerman attended.

Lots of ideas were discussed with leaders from several chapters.

Although many of our programs are already planned a few new ideas came up such as some possible webinars hosted by the national office that members can participate in and that we might even set up a venue to meet and view.

The national executive committee and board are considering implementing a NAMA Advocate program to encourage current members to help solicit new members.

We'll have more from the workshop in a future post (tomorrow). It's way too late at this point to be online!

They're Not Written In Stone....

But here is a first look at the programs planned for the 2005-2006 year. The two groups hope to get the speakers and topics confirmed by August so that we can send out a complete calendar to all of our members.

All regular meetings are lunchtime programs, with a networking reception from 11:30-12, followed by lunch and the featured program from 12-1:30.

September 13: Kick-off Meeting - possibly with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns

October 11: St. Louis at the Heart of the BioBelt

November 8: Renewable Fuels Panel Discussion

December (date & time TBA): Anheuser-Busch After Hours (happy hour/program at AB)

January 10: A Wired Rural America -- w/ Kip Pendleton of AgriStar Global Networks
Special Workshop Opportunity: Blogging 101 w/ Chuck Zimmerman of ZimmComm

February 14: Global Agribusiness

March 20 special date in honor of Ag Day): Agribusiness' Impact on St. Louis w/ Mayor Francis Slay

April 11: (Note: Gateway NAMA typically does not offer a program in April due to the National Convention, but all are welcome to attend this program.)
New Business Partnerships: The Relationship Between Industry and Universities

May 9: Another Look at the Rural Lifestyle Market

This schedule may change depending on the availability of speakers or other hot topics that may arise. If you have information or material you would like to share on any of these topics, or speakers you would recommend, please drop me a note.

Gearing Up for Great Programs

Some members of our Gateway NAMA board met yesterday with the board of the St. Louis Ag Business Club to begin planning events for the coming year. I think we have a great set of programs lined up -- we hopefully will be sending a calendar for the year out in August to all our members.

Until then, a couple of notes from the meeting:

1. All meetings will move from Mondays to the 2nd Tuesday of the month -- we thought this might be a better day for our members.


2. Meetings are set to be held at the Westport Sheraton (as with our May meeting).


3. We're hoping to organize a few events/meetings outside the lunchtime program schedule to accommodate those with busy schedules or to focus on topics specifically of interest to our group. First up, a beginning of the year happy hour/networking event.

If you'd like to participate in the planning of this or any events, let a board member know.

Some Job Opportunities In the Gateway Area

For an extensive list of job openings and descriptions, I encourage all NAMA members to visit the National NAMA job network site.

But we will try to make a point of highlighting openings and opportunities in the Gateway area. Currently:

• Doane Agricultural Services is seeking a copy/production editor for Agri Marketing.
• Osborn & Barr Communications is seeking a PR account executive and an assistant account executive.
• Brighton USA is seeking two account supervisors -- one in PR and one in account services.

For more information, visit NAMA's site or contact the companies directly.

If you know of any openings in the area, let us know so that we can help promote them among our members.

Reminder: Board Meeting

Don't forget -- the Gateway NAMA Board Planning Meeting, held in conjunction with the St. Louis Agri Business Club, will be held Tuesday, June 7 from 9:30-2:00 at the St. Louis Dairy District Council offices.

We hope to hammer out the schedule and programs for the coming year - so I look forward to seeing you there!