Greetings from Darlene - Wisconsin Ag in the Classroom

							                                                    August 2010
                                         Ag in the Classroom Newsletter
                                                for County Leaders

Ag in the Classroom 4-5th Grade Essay Topic Announced!
 “If I lived on a dairy farm, I’d want people to know that…” is the title of the 4-5th grade
essay contest for the 2010-11 school year. After September 1, all contest information and
rules, lesson plans, resources, and sample activities will be available on the Ag in the
Classroom web site at www.wisagclassroom.org or by contacting Darlene Arneson at 608-
828-5719 or darneson.fbcenter@wfbf.com. The essay is promoted in grade schools
throughout the state by county Farm Bureaus. Schools need to submit essays by April 1 to
their county essay contest coordinator. The essays must be between 100 to 300 words in
length and are judged on content, grammar and spelling, and neatness. Nine district winners
and a state winner will be selected and will receive a classroom presentation in the spring of
2011.

Needed: County essay contest coordinators!
A new change for this year is to identify one person from each county that will serve as the
essay contest coordinator. This will allow us to have direct communication with one person
about essay judging, distributing information, offering teachers and parents one place to send
essays, give WFBF Women’s Committee members a county contact to receive winning
essays from and other valuable advantages. In order to complete the essay materials so they
are ready to be distributed by September 1, please send the name, address, phone and
email address of the county essay contest coordinator to Darlene Arneson by August
15.

What does the county essay coordinator do?
   Serves as the primary contact for Darlene, WFBF Women’s Committee members,
      teachers and parents
   Offers one address for essays to be sent to
   Helps coordinate the county judging
   Provides follow-up to the schools and individuals that participate in the contest
   Sends the county winning essay to their WFBF Women’s Committee member
   Helps promote the contest to schools, teachers, home school families and others

By August 15, send the name, address, phone and email address of your county essay
contest coordinator to Darlene (darneson.fbcenter@wfbf.com). Please coordinate with the
other leaders in your county (this mailing is going to county Presidents, secretaries, women’s
chairmen and AITC coordinators) so everyone knows who your essay person is! For counties
that we don’t have Farm Bureau programs in, please let me know if you county will work with
the essay contest so that teachers know where to send essays to:
    Pepin                                               Menominee
    Vilas                                               Florence
    Oneida                                              Burnett
    Forest                                              Washburn
  Ag in the Classroom Calendar
  August 4            Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-Manitowoc area tour
  August 5-15         Wisconsin State Fair- West Allis
  August 6            Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-Wisconsin State Fair, West Allis
  August 10           Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-Wisconsin State Fair, West Allis
  August 11           Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-Madison classroom day
  August 13           Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-Wisconsin State Fair, West Allis
  August 15           Determine who the county essay contest coordinator will be
  August 18           Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-Marshfield classroom day
  August 19           Summer Teacher and Volunteer Training-River Falls classroom day

  September 1         Essay contest information will be completed and posted
  September 13        Wisconsin Ag Open- Wisconsin Dells

  October 14-15       NWEA Teacher’s Convention – Eau Claire
  October 15          AFBF White Reinhardt Educator Scholarships due to WFBF
  October 15          AFBF White Reinhardt Mini-Grant Applications due to WFBF
  October 28-29       WEAC Teacher’s Convention- Madison

  December 3-6        WFBF Annual Meeting- Wisconsin Dells


Thanks for your input AITC County Coordinators
Thank you to those that completed the surveys sent out to county AITC coordinators. The
following received an AITC shirt- Kay Olson- Martz, Adams County; Alice Petermann,
Manitowoc County; Jane Maciejewski, Wood County. Even if you didn’t complete the survey,
I always value your input, suggestions and feedback.

Yet Another New Ag Mag- Apples!!
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture and they have revised another Ag
Mag- the Apple one. It looks great! I will be ordering some to have on inventory here or you
can go to www.agfoundation.org , click on “Resource Materials” and then “Order Form” and
order yours directly from them. Remember, they also just introduced two others, Soybean
and Corn too. Until we update order forms, just write in the new name on the Ag Mags line if
you’d like to order that topic.

Remember, you can now order directly from the American Farm Bureau Foundation
(www.agfoundation.org) and use a credit card! This is a great way to stock up on Farm Fact
pencils and pocket guides, Ag Mags, I Met a Farmer Today stickers, and all the other new
resources they have to offer.

 Darlene Arneson, Ag in the Classroom Coordinator
 PO Box 5550, Madison, WI 53705
 Phone: 608-828-5719           Fax: 608-828-5718
 Email: darneson.fbcenter@wfbf.com
 Website: www.wisagclassroom.org
White Reinhardt Mini Grant Funding for County Farm Bureau Programs
The Mini-Grant Program funds projects that will increase agricultural literacy. County and
state Farm Bureaus may apply for grants of up to $500 for classroom education programs for
grades K-12 to initiate new programs or expand existing programs to additional grade levels
or new subject areas. Grants are available on a competitive basis. To download the
applications or view past recipients, visit
http://www.agfoundation.org/index.php?fuseaction=whatwesupport.minigrants
The applications are due to the state Farm Bureau office by October 15, 2010.

Grants, Applications, Funding Sources… Is it worth my time?
Applying for various sources of funding takes time, research, and a lot of effort. With many
revenue sources decreasing the funds they can allocate, sometimes we wonder if it is worth
the time and effort to go through the process. Perhaps you have applied for several things
and been rejected each time.

Don’t be discouraged! It is worth the time and effort to keep trying. AITC funds, state and
national, are limited so we are not able to fund all proposals that are submitted. Every effort is
made to have the evaluations done on a fair basis; there isn’t enough funds to always reach
all applicants. A funded project one year might not make the final selection another year
based on the quality of the other applicants. So it’s hard to predict whether its “worth your
time” or not. So the best approach is to apply as you can’t get funds if we don’t apply!

Why do I address this?
          Each year we have very few applicants for the White Reinhardt Mini-Grants.
            These grants are from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture
            and don’t require any matching funds (different than Wisconsin’s matching grant
            program). It’s basically an application. I encourage all county programs to
            apply!! The due date is October 15.
          Each year we have county AITC programs that don’t utilize the amount of
            money budgeted to them. On your county reports, I ask what is budgeted and
            what did you spend. Here are the results from the past four years. Note: The
            2009 reports reflect that 61 counties reported but I didn’t get budget information
            from all of them.

              County Ag in the Classroom/Farm Bureau Budgets
                In 2006: 33 out of 61 county AITC reported
                    Budgeted      $100,396          Used: $96,601

                 In 2007: 37 out of 61 county AITC reported
                     Budgeted     $109,175           Used : $98,983

                 In 2008: 33 out of 61 county AITC reported
                     Budgeted     $132,713           Used: $123,688

                 In 2009: 61 counties reported (with field staff assistance)
                     Budgeted    $134,555               Used: $127,438
                     (The amount unused was more than what was given out in matching grants!)
Encourage your teachers to apply for the 2011 Educator Scholarship- A
project of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture
The White-Reinhardt Fund for Education is a special project of the American Farm Bureau
Foundation for Agriculture® (AFBFA) in cooperation with the American Farm Bureau® Women’s
Leadership Committee. It was established to honor two former chairs of that committee, Berta White
and Linda Reinhardt, who were leaders in the national effort to improve agricultural literacy. The
educator scholarship is one of two components of the fund.

Purpose: The purpose of the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference Educator Scholarship
Program is to provide travel expense funds to educators employed by a school system to attend the
national conference for the purpose of using the information gained from the conference to expand
their outreach to students regarding food, fuel and fiber. Information on next year’s conference can be
found at http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/aitc/

Eligibility: Educators employed by a school system and working in grades K-12 who have
demonstrated involvement in agricultural literacy programs are eligible to apply for the scholarship.

Application Guidelines:
    Scholarship applications must be completed and submitted to the state Farm Bureau
       president, administrator or Agriculture in the Classroom program coordinator for signature and
       a statement of support.
    Applications must be submitted to the state Farm Bureau office by October 15, 2010.
    Applications, including state Farm Bureau statement of support and signature, must be
       submitted to
    ABFA postmarked by November 1, 2010.

Notifications to recipients of the scholarships will be sent by in early March. All applicants will
receive notification of the results in early March.

Recipients will receive reimbursement of expenses for the conference not covered by any other
funding source and not to exceed $1,500. Expense items include hotel, meals not included in the
conference package, transportation expenses (mileage or air fare, whichever is less), parking, and
registration fees.

In order to be reimbursed, the recipient must submit an expense form with receipts, a one- to two
page report to include what the teacher learned, how he/she plans to use the information in the
classroom, how he/she intends to share the information with other teachers, and a projection of how
many students would be reached with the information in the next school year.

Selection Criteria:
A committee composed of Farm Bureau leaders and other individuals with a working knowledge of
agriculture and/or education programs will evaluate the applications.

Applicants submit application to the state Farm Bureau office postmarked by October 15, 2010.
Winners will be notified in early March.

Download the application or learn about this year’s recipients by visiting www.agfoundation.org and
click on “What we support”.