Foundation meets
Foundation Board Meets
The Will County Farm Bureau Foundation Board of Directors meet on Tuesday, March 26th and the meeting was called to order by Lyle Tewes at 8:58 AM with the following members present: Jim Robbins, Debbie Werner, Henry Meader, Kris Mulderink, Lyle Tewes and Mark Schneidewind. Lyle indicated Rita called in sick this morning, but all the scores have been received and tabulated for the 2024 scholarships.
The first item of business was reviewing the financial statements for the month. Income is up based on the contributions being sent into the Foundation from several people, being named in the Gerald Davidson trust and the auction doing well. The financials were approved to place on file.
The board then reviewed the scoring of the applications for scholarship, and they selected 26 high school, 26 college and 2 ag teacher in the application and judging process. They also needed to have an ag career and 2 medical scholarships selected out of these totals as this is directed by the donation requirements from the groups or individuals. After several items of discussion and thought on how the updated scoring process worked a motion was made and seconded to approve 55 scholarships each at $1,500.00 for the 2024 year.
They then discussed and had assignments made for attending the high school awards ceremonies for the year and Tracey had placed several dates for each of the high schools and they were assigned at this meeting so all high schools who have a scholarship winner and have an awards ceremony were assigned a person to attend to provide the scholarship certificate.
Lyle reported that as we continue to move forward with our fund-raising events sometimes it does not hurt to have some ideas to look at as a possible replacement for the future. They reviewed 4 ideas for consideration and will place these as part of their minutes for the future consideration. They did take a group picture and discussed the website. Lyle reported he had filled out the paperwork on the investments and with the auditor for the 2024 year, so all paperwork is in place.
They reviewed and approved a new brochure along with a new item they will do through marketing to help show case their accomplishments since they were started in 1986. With this year’s scholarships which will be paid out later in 2024, it will place them over $1 million in scholarships provided. The first scholarship was provided in 1987 at $500. They currently provide 54 scholarships with this year 55 at $1,500.00 each and have approved for the 2025 year to increase the value to $2,000 each because of the support they have received from the community. They do not want to accumulate money but they want to place it in the hands of the students to help them!
The next meeting will be on a as need basis for the summer months; otherwise they will meet again in the new fiscal year and will be assisting with events such as Family Fun Night, the Will County Fair and the Young Farmers golf outing.