Annie’s is a risk management education program for Farm and Ranch Women, dedicated to strengthening women’s roles in the modern farm/ranch enterprise. The program has typically been an Extension-sponsored one with the current National Leadership Team located at Iowa State University. This year (beginning November 1 through October 31, 2014) with the help of Farm Credit Services and RMA we are able to offer two different Annie’s Programs to Nebraska producers. The first is the basic Annie’s Program that has been offered and implemented in Nebraska previously – Annie’s Project I. This course involves six educational sessions all of which focus on the traditional areas of risk management: human resources, financial planning, price or marketing, legal, and production. Topics such as communication, leases, property ownership, financial documentation, transition and estate planning, marketing and crop insurance, understanding government programs and policy and interpreting financial records are discussed during the six week program. Typically a class is held three hours a week for six weeks.
The newest component to the Annie’s library is Managing for Today and Tomorrow (MTT). This has been in the development stage for several years and is finally ready for distribution nationally. This program focuses on just one aspect of risk management….transition and estate planning. Like the previous Annie’s Project this program is also a six session class but is designed to assist producers begin the transition of their farm or ranch. Teams of educators from around the country developed this curriculum (the link is below) focusing on women’s roles in succession planning, business planning, estate planning, and retirement planning. It evolved through the needs expressed by farm and ranch women participating in the standard Annie’s Project. Participant objectives by the end of the course include;
1. Understanding the concepts of a transition plan
2. Use online information and planning tools and develop local networks to help with the process
3. Understand the process of setting personal and farm/ranch business goals
4. Develop SMART goals and prioritize to help with decision making
5. Develop a vision for their operation to help guide their transition planning.
The MTT curriculum is very straightforward as to what is needed for a facilitator that is holding a workshop. If you should decide to hold a workshop I will provide you with on-line resources, portfolios and other information to make the preparations easy and I will be available to assist you in any way I can, including teaching a session or two.
For both programs, Farm Credit Services of America is sponsoring this with Extension by providing a maximum of $1,500 per Annie’s 1 class and $2,000 per MTT class. This can go towards food, speakers expenses, room rent, etc. – really most anything associated with putting on the program. I also have a little RMA $$ that can be used as well. FCSA is very excited to co-sponsor this and are publicizing this program heavily within their employee networks and with some of their clients – focusing primarily on MTT. They also have brochures and newsletters developed that facilitators can use.
If you should decide to sponsor one of these workshops your responsibility would be:
1. Secure a location and pay the bills
2. With FCSA assistance begin the publicity process (templates are provided online)
3. Act as the host facilitator, secure speakers for each class and basically act as the go-to person for the class. FCSA has offered their loan officers to speak to the financial topics, but you are not locked into using them. However, we hope you can use as many Extension folks as possible. If you consider yourself the expert on a specific subject that is great!
4. Submit invoices in a timely manner to me for reimbursement
5. This curriculum allows an educator to adapt it to the needs of their area of the state. Ex: those in the Sandhills may want to focus more on grassland, pasture, and livestock issues and topics.
6. Making the on-line pre and post evaluations available to participants.
For more information contact Cheryl Griffith, Women in Agriculture Coordinator, cgriffith2@unl.edu