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3. 2015 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference

Starting and Sustaining a Women´s Marketing Club

Kelvin Leibold and April Hemmes

Summary

In the Fall of 2011 a need for women only education on grain marketing was identified by April Hemmes and Kelvin Leibold. They pulled together a list of a few women and polled them to find out if they were interested and held their kickoff meeting with 10 women. Four years later the program has grown to 26 women from 7 counties today with little recruitment.

Iowa Women Marketing Group is member led and has shown the ability to mentor each other. The group has been awarded a couple of grants but has relied on it’s women to lead and keep challenging themselves to attain added income opportunities on their operations.

The group meets monthly during the winter and has one or two programs in the summer. Speakers on topics of interest such as crop insurance, market outlook and the Farm Program to name a few. They will also highlight some of their experience using technology such as Skype and Facebook.

This session will highlight how the program was started, what topics are covered, experiences with grants, why they still continue to grow in numbers and why the women are still interested in keeping the group intact and meeting. Discussion will also include some of the challenges in keeping a program ongoing and plans they have for the future.

Details

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