One of the major activities of the New Mexico State University NAMA chapter during the spring semester is preparing for their 8th Annual Scholarship Golf Tournament. The tournament will be held on March 3 at the NMSU golf course. Their goal is to net at least $10,000 for awarding scholarships to active NMSU/NAMA members, assist with travel expenses to the NAMA marketing competition and other NAMA activities. This event is the club’s largest fundraising activity.

The students work together as a team to obtain sponsorships, solicit teams, develop a publicity program for sponsors and coordinate all of the activities of the day of the tournament including team registrations, cater a breakfast and lunch for over 125 people, and the awards ceremony.

For more information about the NMSU Golf Tournament contact student NAMA President Clarissa Cox at clauren@nmsu.edu or advisor Bill Gorman at wigorman@nmsu.edu.

Colorado State University recently established a student NAMA chapter on its Fort Collins campus. The NAMA chapter was developed under the CSU Agribusiness Association (ABA) and is funded by ABA and the CSU Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. ABA was originally established following NAMA guidelines some years ago, and CSU is excited to reintroduce a NAMA student chapter to the campus.

Members have the opportunity to join the agri-marketing team, participate on committees, go on ag-industry tours, learn from guest speakers, assist in community outreach programs and host an annual Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry! And with the addition of a student NAMA chapter, members have access to new and exciting networking and professional opportunities!

by Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet (Florida President)

The leadership core of the Florida NAMA Chapter, continuing its chapter’s membership drive and rebuilding process, will engage student NAMA members to team up for a mentoring project and NAMA discussion/presentation to the Winter Business Meeting of the Florida Fertilizer and AgriChemical Association in Tampa, FL on Friday, January 19th. The night before, several University of Florida NAMA students will join Florida NAMA leaders for the FFAA opening reception and dinner, providing the students an excellent opportunity to make contacts in the professional agri-marketing community.

Also, Florida NAMA president Gary Cooper and new member Katherine Bush recently spoke to student members of the UF/NAMA and UF Ag Economics Clubs at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Cooper presented information about print, broadcast and website entities operated by Southeast AgNet, and Bush discussed the world’s largest citrus grower seminar and trade show event, Citrus Expo, which she manages as part of Southeast AgNet operations.

Upcoming plans include attendance of Florida NAMA leaders, joined by UF/NAMA leaders, at the Florida Ag Hall of Fame banquet at Florida State Fair in Tampa, February 13th. University of Florida NAMA students will be enrolled for the day in a special professional mentoring program as part of the Ag Hall of Fame project.

All Florida NAMA members are encouraged to mark their calendars to join us in Gainesville, FL for the annual University of Florida NAMA golf tournament and Student NAMA Competition Practice Presentation. The date is March 30, the golf tourney during the day will be followed by the BBQ and University of Florida NAMA presentation. 

As for the membership drive ongoing, all Florida NAMA members are encouraged to bring at least one new member into our ranks within the next twelve weeks. Those of you who have mentioned others who should be involved, please give them a call directly and encourage them to send in their dues check at the earliest convenience. If you’ll contact us we will have a membership invoice sent directly to them via e-mail or postal. Don’t delay, make that contact TODAY!

Any Florida NAMA members who would like further details on any of the above events or activities can call Katherine Bush, Citrus Expo coordinator at Southeast AgNet, at 352-671-1909.

For Erin Jarolimek, being a member of a student NAMA chapter definitely helped her get a job after graduating from North Dakota State University in Fargo, N.D. She graduated in May, 2003.

“I use the skills I learned as a NAMA member every day in my career,” Jarolimek says. “Being a member provided me with good foundation skills and the networking opportunities made me more confident that I could do well in the job market.”

Membership in a NAMA student chapter allows students to network with professionals and develops skills in marketing, communication, leadership and team-building. As the name implies, the organization is focused on marketing.

NAMA has approximately 3,500 student members globally, and includes 38 U.S. and Canadian chapters.

Despite the benefits, offering and participating in NAMA can be challenging and requires considerable resources, says Cheryl Wachenheim, NDSU Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics associate professor. To develop recommendations to help NAMA chapters grow and thrive, Wachenheim surveyed NAMA chapter advisers.

“My goal was to develop recommendations to help student chapters maintain and grow their viability as co-curricular activities,” Wachenheim says.

From the survey, Wachenheim was able to develop plans for advisors and universities to boost student NAMA memberships. She also developed a series of recommendations for professionals in the agri-marketing industry.

* Get to know the students in NAMA and make approaching you easy for them.

* Help faculty recruit students and encourage/entice them to be active in the student and professional NAMA chapters. Let students know you care they are participating and that you and your firm value their efforts and experiences.

* Help the students finance their activities because the activities, such as attending the national conference, can be an insurmountable expense for many students.

* Contact the dean of the supporting college or the chairman of a department. This can do wonders for gaining internal support for the student chapter. Write the president of the college explaining how important a student NAMA chapter is to you, your firm, community, profession, university and the students.

* Make sure your firm knows the benefits of your participation with a NAMA student chapter. Receiving recognition for your interaction with the chapter will help sustain it over the longer term.

“Becoming involved as a professional can take time out of our busy schedules, but seeing the students mature and develop skills is very rewarding,” Jarolimek says. “As professionals in the agri-marketing industry, we want to hire the best and brightest students out of college. Hiring students that were active NAMA members will give us these types of students.”

To learn more about student NAMA chapters and find the one closest to your community, visit www.nama.org/student/student-index.html.

The Agri-Business Educational Foundation (ABEF) hosted a Casino Night on Tuesday, November 14, during the Agribusiness Forum Welcome Reception. Proceeds from the Casino Night benefit the ABEF in support of the NAMA Student Careers Program.

Attendees enjoyed a little gambling with play money and, at the end of the evening, cashed in their chips in hopes of taking home a first, second, or third place prize. The first place prize went to Russ Parker, J.L. Farmakis. Second place was won by John Vasichek, Red River Farm Network. The third place prize went to Christy Borrowman, Blasdel Cleaver Schwalbe Communications. 

In addition, for every $1,000 in chips that the attendees turned in, their name was entered into a drawing for 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference & Trade Show registration. It was Christy Borrowman’s lucky day as she also won the conference registration.

Special thanks to all who participated in the ABEF Casino Night and to the sponsors of the event:

FMC Corporation
National Pork Board
Rhea & Kaiser
John Deere
Colle+McVoy
CMA Consulting
Blasdel Cleaver Schwalbe Communications
KFRM Radio – The Voice of the Plains
J.L. Farmakis
Pioneer Hi-Bred Intl., Inc.
High Plains Journal
LEE Agri-MEDIA
Ayres Kahler

NAMA is a great way for college students to begin their careers in agribusiness. Student NAMA members have unlimited resources at their fingertips to help market themselves in the industry.

Since 1969, when the first NAMA student chapter formed at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, NAMA has grown to 38 chapters and over 1,200 student members. The most accredited chapters NAMA has ever had! We attribute this tremendous popularity to the variety of programs initiated to benefit the students.

We welcome the new chapters as well as the returning chapters to Student NAMA!

American Institute of Business
Arizona State University
Auburn University
Cal Poly-SLO
Colorado State University
Delaware Valley College
Fort Hays State University
Illinois State University
Iowa State University
Kansas State University
Michigan State University
Mississippi State University
New Mexico State University
North Carolina A&T State University
North Carolina State University
North Dakota State University
Northwest Missouri State University
The Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University
Purdue University
Sam Houston State University
Texas A&M University
University of Alberta
University of California – Davis
University of Delaware
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Guelph
University of Hawaii
University of Minnesota
University of Nebraska
University of Saskatchewan
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
University of Tennessee-Martin
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wisconsin-Platteville
University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Virginia Polytechnic & State University

The Arizona State University student NAMA chapter is working hard on their student marketing competition project. Mark Manfredo, associate professor and student NAMA advisor, reports that courtesy of a grant they received from the USDA, three students will be going to Greece to work on their marketing competition project.

The students will be examining the potential to market Arizona Desert Durum Wheat Pasta to markets in the Balkans (Greece, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, etc.) The ASU students have their product and will be doing research on how to market a food product to a foreign country.