Farmamerica December

Square (at entrance) until 2021 ($15,000).

Pledges and contributions continue to be

solicited. The Dec. 15 mailing of the Over

the Fence Post has contained solicitation

and membership information as well. We

expect that mailing this will impact both the

fund drive donations and memberships totals

for the year.

We have also benefitted from the electronic

gifting service thru the GiveMN website.

(Can be accessed from the Farmamerica site

under ‘donations’.

To date, over $45,000 have been pledged or

received based on our Campaign Farma-

merica 2011 fund raising work. This is a sig-

nificant contribution from the Waseca commu-

nity toward continued operations and position-

ing for growth. The lead contributors: First

National Bank of Waseca– for naming rights

to continue to 2021 ($10,000) and Roundbank

of Waseca—for naming rights of the Flag

F A R M A M E R I C A . O R G A N D F A C E B O O K . C O M / F A R M A M E R I C A

December 19, 2011

Volume I Issue 9

Executive Director Report

Coming Events

January 16, 2012—Board Meeting

March 5, 2012—Board Planning Retreat

Inside this issue:

Campaign 2011 1

Christmas / Farm 1

Operations 2

In the News 2

Prairie Progress 3

Letterman 3

Gifts /Bet Lines 4

Campaign Farmamerica 2011-Update

Thanks, Shanna!

Santa Dog, Card Making, Music, story telling, food and drink, goodies, things to buy and give as gifts!

A Beam Boring

Tool recent gift.

All Hallows Eve

Christmas on the Farm When does the Christmas season really be-

gin? At Farmamerica we kicked off the sea-

son on a new date: Sunday, Dec. 4. Led by

Volunteer Shanna Poeble, this afternoon of

Christmas-oriented events and activities was

terrific!

Home made orna-

ments….Burt Coy….The

Story of Christmas

on the Farm

Buildings and Grounds Committee has its work cut out. Here are some projects, recently completed, on-going or planned:

1. Underground service to the Lukken farm bins (2 @ 20,000 bu.) to assure un-interrupted service replacing broken lines. We earn a penny per bushel per month plus electricity reimbursement from the rentals. In 2011 we received more than $5,2000 from our bin rental and felt the investment in new electrical service an investment that had to be made.

2. Roof re-pair on the Visitor Cen-ter is under-way. The ridge vents are being replaced or fastened more se-curely. We are also installing heat tape in the valleys on the south side of the building. And with this, we are scheduling a replace-ment of the fabric membrane lining the valleys above the restrooms where we have water damage to ceilings and tile. The roof wind damage and ice damage was an insured peril for which we have received reimbursement.

3. Insurance costs (property and liabil-ity) are approximately 10% of our total annual budget. We are studying our

Farmamerica Operations

Page 2

Executive Director Report

The Prairie and

Wetlands Restoration Project

Ed Freder i c k , Cha i r Senior Fellow Former Chancellor University of \Minnesota ( 5 07 ) 835-3422 [email protected]

Roy Johnson, Vice Chair (12 ) Technology Manager, Cargill, Inc. 13800 78th Place North Maple Grove, MN 55311 ( 7 63 ) 274-3040 roy _a _ [email protected]

Linda Brekke, Secretary (13 ) Farm Broadcaster Linder Farm Network 764 South Street Owatonna, MN 55060 W- ( 507 ) 444-9224 [email protected]

Vic Richardson, Treasurer ( 13 ) Retired Educator and Tax Preparer 351 13th Street SW Owatonna, MN 55060 ( 5 07 ) 451-3441 [email protected]

Greg Bartz ( 11 ) DVM/Farmer 25455 State Highway 4 Sleepy Eye, MN 56085 H- ( 507 ) 794-7960 [email protected]

Mike Budach ( 11 ) Loan Officer, Farmers State Bank 1452 W. Main Albert Lea, MN 56007 ( 5 07 ) 373-1945 [email protected]

Kathy Gessner ( 11 ) Master Gardener/ 3948 360th Avenue Janesville, MN 56048 ( 5 07 ) 234-6774

Greg Gosen (13 ) Beef Producer 68831 150th Street Albert Lea, MN 56007 ( 5 07 ) 852-2920 [email protected]

Tom Hagerty ( 11 ) Retired Minnesota State Veterinarian Box 207, 405 Lincoln Drive St. Michael, MN 55376 ( 7 63 ) 497-2591 [email protected]

Marshall Herfindahl ( 13 ) Retirement Specialist 600 7th Avenue SW Waseca, MN 56093 ( 3 20 ) 226-4178 [email protected]

Norla Hesse ( 12 ) Retired Nurse/Master Gardener 2309 East Main Street Mankato, MN 56001 ( 5 07 ) 388-5981, [email protected]

Steve Melcher ( 12 ) Business Owner Melcher ’ s Power Vac, Inc. 37339 73rd Street Janesville, MN 56048 ( 5 07 ) 835-2033 [email protected]

Greg Pittman ( 12 ) Retired Dairy Inspection Supervisor 13390 420th Avenue Waseca, MN 56093 ( 5 07 ) 835-4376 [email protected]

Bob Zelenka ( 12 ) Executive Director MN Grain & Feed Association 3470 Washington Drive, Suite 200 Eagan, MN 55122- ( 6 51 ) 454-8212, [email protected]

Board of Directors

Update: Late season burn completed. First Seeding will be done Friday, Dec. 23. We will be building an information kiosk during the winter. Signage design and installation will be completed in the spring along with additional follow up seeding and weed treatment.

4. Another Visitor Center item has been heating and cooling. While trying to track down the variability in control in our two big rooms (Multi-Purpose and Exhibit Hall) we found an absence of insulation over the kitchen and west storage areas may have been at the core of our problem. So, to move further toward a more energy effi-cient structure, we are insulting the ceiling spaces. If we are right, the payback should be felt in less than a year.

5. We are very pleased to again have access to Sentence to Service person-nel. The crew we had last week assured completion of the steam cleaning of all carpeted areas. We are on the track to have one of the workers help in cleaning the Visitor Center more thoroughly in some key areas. We are also trying out a new scheme for cleaning and sealing the Great Hall floor util-izing some of the talent and

trades expertise of one of our Sentence to Service personnel that has been here.

6. After several days of diagnostic testing and parts replacement, we are thinking that our burglar and fire alarm systems are back on line. Although we had another false reading from the beam smoke detectors in the big rooms last week, we have hopes that we have seen the last of those folks until the next annual service is required. We are pleased that they have made good on the warranty and contractual agreements.

www.farmamerica.org

Page 3

Volume I What will be your legacy ?

David and Sue Wolff have made the won-derful dona-tion of funds to restore the 1936 Oliver given many years ago to Farmamerica. The second part of that donation is the volunteer work it takes to put it back in shape. A half-dozen vol-unteers al-ready at work.

All you need is a good idea and the world will

come. Right? But who could any one have

known Farmamerica would be a YouTube feature

or on Letterman?

Based on our Christmas on the Farm event Sunday, Dec. 4, Farmamerica has been fea-

tured on national TV. The incident sparking the coverage was related to a specific week-

end news show on local TV (KEYC). We were included the video clip being giving a

voice-over by the weekend anchor. The show ran on Thurs., Dec. 8.

To see the video…. go to the link below.

7367 360th Ave.

Waseca, MN 56093

Phone: 507-835-2052

Fax: 507-83.5-2053 E-mail: [email protected]

This report produced on a periodic basis for the Board of Directors. Go to

the website to find the most recent report. Please share.

M I N N E S O T A A G R I C U L T U R A L I N T E R P R E T I V E C E N T E R

Telling The Story of Agriculture

We are on the web at http://

www.farmamerica.org

Staff:

James L. Gibson Executive Director

Crystal Paulson Office Manager

Jeff Huelsnitz Site Manager

Between the Lines All committee chairs are urged to get their committee membership lined up for the new year.

Remember to schedule Monday, March 5 for the MAIC Board Retreat.

Agricultural Literacy…...what does it mean to you? To MAIC?

Marketing will be very important in the coming year. Your ideas?

How will we secure the commitments of folks who would enjoy being a volunteer on a Farmamerica

project….

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More lines….

The BEE Hut has never looked so good. Thanks Vic and Steve!

The go. Thanks Vic and Steve.

On Oct. 25, Cub Scouts from Waseca, Ellendale, Hartland,

Pemberton, New Richland had their second meeting…..and had it at

Farmamerica. We visited the Corn Maze….but studied corn, what it

looks like, what corn products are found in that we would never

have guessed. And one of those products is not candy corn.

Any Day Scouts Are At Farmamerica is a

Good Day!

The original Doyle Family Cradle. Passed down three generations….or maybe four,

this was a mainstay in our Doyle House on the 1930s farmstead. A new acquisi-

tion gifted by descendents of George and his family.