Officers in attendance: Jill Burkhardt, Angie Reid, Kim Haile, Seth Kennedy, and approximately 30 members.

Business Meeting

This year's meeting was held in a non-luncheon format in order to save our members money and encourage higher attendance. The meeting started with officer introductions by Seth Kennedy, the incoming president. E.T. Bartlett gave a brief presentation about the endowment fund and briefed members on the importance of it and the need for our participation in growing the fund. If you are interested in helping out please contact him at (575)521-3166.

Russell Nemetz was our speaker for the event and he covered a wide range of topics including the current economic and employment market. He encouraged members to take every opportunity to share our work and our story with non-agriculturally related people. We need to be ready to represent our industry because if we don't someone else will and it may not be in a positive light. We must become better ambassadors; our jobs are more than our jobs, they are our lives and we must show our dedication to people who do not get to experience the outdoors in the same ways we do. Mr. Nemetz asked us to remind the general public everyday that they need this industry and they need us to be stewards of the land. If you aren't an activist then you are part of the problem. Finally, he urged us to get involved, write letters to editors, hold field tours for children, run for office or help someone else run, testify at your legislature. We can't afford not to be proactive.

After Mr. Nemetz's inspiring speech we continued with the annual business. Member introductions were followed by the summary of 2011 officer meeting minutes and committee sign-ups by Angie Reid. Kim Haile and Jenny Pluhar briefed the members on the outcome of the possible LDC-YPC merger. If YPC members are interested in having workshops similar to what LDC did we have the possibility of joining with the Career Development Workshop that already occurs. Kim spoke about the possibility of sending a YPC member to Washington DC in upcoming years.

Elections were held and the results for the 2011 officer team are as follows:
President - Seth Kennedy
President Elect - Angie Reid
Recorder - Molly Ryan
Treasurer - Cole Lambert
Advisory Council Co-Chair - Liza McDonald
Advisory Council Co-Chair - Jamin Johnason

After elections were held, Jill Burkhardt was presented with a personalized padfolio to thank her for her years of service as she will be leaving the officer team this year to pursue involvement in other areas of the YPC.

The meeting ended with an open comments and concerns session. Members liked the changed to a non-luncheon format and approved continuing it next year. Members agree that a strategic plan for the YPC could improve our function. The leadership was charged with having a draft done for the 2012 SRM meeting and doing this instead of a speaker for next year's meeting. Members will break up into groups to discuss and makes changes to the strategic plan during the meeting and it will be voted on at the end of the meeting. Also, members agree that committees should have set goals and assigned deadlines. Lastly, there was a call for section level involvement. We need you, the members out in different sections, to help us out with this. As you all know, officer positions are not paid and our bosses provide varying levels of support for our involvement in YPC. We are not capable of attending every section meeting and helping to get a YPC started or to help already established YPCs get involved. Please assist us by getting together with the other young professionals in your section and we will provide as much support as possible.