Save the Date
The next IBF County Rep meeting will be Saturday, February 24, 2018, from 10 a.m. - Noon. The meeting will be held at the Indiana Farm Bureau offices in Bloomington, Monroe County. The office is at 1618 W. Third Street, not far east from I-69/Hwy. 37 off the Third Street exit.
Tim Sheets will be giving a demo of the new barn surveying app. Following the demo he will guide everyone through the process of loading the app onto your Apple device (iPhone or iPad). Not only is it helpful to receive the how-to tutorial and be able to ask questions, there is also a bit more involved to loading the app than just going to the Apple Store and getting it.
If you are interested in surveying barns in your county but don’t have an Apple device, please consider coming anyway. It is a good opportunity to connect with fellow County Reps and be able to discuss the surveying process. And the IBF board wants to look into funding for the purchase of iPads that can be loaned out. So having received the how-to in person will be beneficial even if you won’t be surveying for awhile.
And if the February meeting doesn’t work for you, the next County Rep meeting where we will again focus on the surveying app is tentatively scheduled for April 7th in Carroll County.
About that Surveying
I know we’ve been talking about conducting county-wide barn surveys for a few years now. And I realize that not everyone will fully understand why the surveys are important. I also realize that many of you may feel quite daunted by the process, whether it is the idea of driving around and taking photos of people’s barns, or just the fact that it sounds like a huge project that is one more thing on your busy plate (I’m in the latter camp myself.) So I just want to offer some encouragement on a couple fronts.
If you have questions, concerns, fears, etc. about conducting surveying, please share them so others can offer assistance. But also keep in mind that there are many other important things you can do as an IBF representative for your county that doesn’t involve surveying. Attending County Rep meetings is a great way to share questions, gather ideas and get re-charged toward doing what you can for the barns in your county. And if you can’t attend the meetings, or if you have topics to discuss in between, please go to the Forum on the IBF website and start a conversation. The IBF board doesn’t want the County Rep. program to only focus on surveying, so please don’t feel like you have nothing to offer if surveying isn’t your thing.