GROWMARK and UPI Energy bring in new 2010 crop of 4-H Ontario Ambassadors

This year marks the fifth year for the 4-H Ontario Ambassador Program. Each year the FS System has been proud supporters of the program where five or six senior 4-H members are selected to represent 4-H.  Ambassadors travel throughout the province to spread the word and educate people in various communities about the benefits of getting involved in 4-H.

This year's ambassadors were selected on Jan. 31. Finalists were asked to deliver a short presentation and then answer a series of questions before a panel of judges.

Congratulations to Anikka Bolender of Stouffville, Nicole Charlton of Brantford, Jessie Groniger of Carlsbad Springs, Eleri Morris of Elmvale and Valerie Stone of Paris, on being selected as the new 2010 4-H Ontario Ambassadors.

These leading 4-H members were sworn in by "pledging their heart" at the 2010 4-H Ontario Ambassador Reception and Training event over  Valentine's Day weekend. Representatives from the program's sponsors GROWMARK and UPI Energy attended this event to give ambassadors a brief overview of their organizations.

New to the ambassadors this year, was the initiation of a mentorship program. Marketing and Communication Specialist for North Wellington Co-operative and past Ontario 4-H Ambassador Jeff McCallum has taken the role of mentor for one of the new ambassadors this year and was also in attendance at the orientation weekend in February.

Outgoing 4-H Ontario Ambassadors are Bruce Betzner, Olivia Groniger, Morgan Kluka, Ashley Pulver, Cory Ward and Stephanie Warner.

If you have an upcoming event that you would like an ambassador to attend to say a few words, please contact Janice Johnson at jajohnson@growmark.com or 519-895-4286. 

2010 4-H Ambassador Valerie Stone and 2009 Ambassador Bruce Betzner will be saying a few words at the upcoming FS Director Summit on March 23 in Niagara Falls.

For this, and more information, please visit 4-H Ontario.

Cutting the cake at the 2010 Ontario 4-H Ambassador orientation weekend.

(From L-R) Eleri Morris of North Simcoe County, Nicole Charlton and Valerie Stone of Brant County, Stephanie Dwyer of UPI Energy LP, Barry Hannah of GROWMARK, Inc., Jessie Groniger of Carleton region and Anikka Bolender of York.

AGRIS Co-operative crop specialists receive CCS status recognition

From AGRIS Co-operative based in the southwestern Ontario, two more crop advisors received their CCS (Certified Crop Specialist) designation certificate from GROWMARK, Inc. They are Chris Snip of Cottam and Mark McKerrall of Tupperville.

This prestigious achievement is the next level up in their extensive agricultural training. Mckerral and Snip already hold their CCA (Certified Crop Advisor) designation in Ontario. To earn accreditation as a certified crop specialist, they successfully completed a series of comprehensive written and verbal exams designed to establish base standards of knowledge for individuals who advise growers on crop management and production inputs. These two gentlemen join their peers Mike Parker of Wanstead Farmers Co-operative in Alvinston, Kent Wolfe of AGRIS Co-operative in Dutton and Nick Zwambag of  AGRIS Co-operative in Thamesville who achieved their certified crop specialist awards in 2008.

Chris Snip of AGRIS Co-operative, Cottam receives his GROWMARK Certified Crop Specialist award from Frank Campbell, GROWMARK Ontario Marketing Director (L) and Dale Cowan, AGRIS Co-operative Senior Agronomist  

Mark McKerrall,  AGRIS Co-operative, Tupperville also recieves CCS certificate. (Far right).

Currently the FS System has 51 full time crop specialists, 46 CCA’s in Ontario.
Please contact Frank Campbell, Bill Brown or Barry Hannah if you want more information on this topic.

Update: Changes to the Co-operative Corportations Act

In December 2009, Bill 218 – formally called the Ontario Tax Plan for More Jobs and Growth Act and informally referred to as the HST Bill – was tabled and passed in the Ontario Legislature. In addition to introducing the HST, the bill made a number of other changes to other pieces of legislation, including the Co-operative Corporations Act. The changes that were made provide more options to co-ops in how they run their meetings, and options in the composition of their boards of directors and the election process.

The changes to the Act include:

1. Co-ops (with the exception of non-profit housing co-ops) now have the option of holding members’ meetings using electronic means – such as teleconferencing, web conferencing or email. Co-ops can also accept votes by mail if they choose.

2. Co-ops (again with the exception of non-profit housing co-ops) can now have up to 1/5 of the board of directors be non-members. Previous to this change, the boards of co-operatives could only be made up of co-op members.

3. Co-ops can now provide for directors to be acclaimed to seats on the board, if there is a situation where there are the same number of candidates (or less) as there are open seats on the board. This keeps the co-op from having to run through a full election process in a case like this.

4. The board president in a co-op can designate a non-member to act as the chair of a members’ meeting. Previous to the change, co-ops could only appoint an alternate chair from within the membership and only if both the President and Vice-President were absent from the meeting.

5. The board of a co-op can now specify a meeting place for members’ meetings to be anywhere in Ontario when they call the meeting, unless the bylaws of the co-op specifically mandate that members’ meetings are to be held in a certain location.

6. The requirement for multi-stakeholder co-ops to have one director present from each stakeholder group at board meetings has been removed.

Two things to note:

• Co-ops don’t have to make use of these new provisions in the Act if they don’t wish to. It is entirely up to the board and membership of the co-op to decide if they wish to use any or all of the new provisions.

• In order to make use of some of the changes (the first three mentioned above), a co-op has to change its bylaws to specifically allow certain actions. This means that a special provision is needed, which is where the board approves changes to the bylaws, and then they go to the membership for approval at a members’ meeting. In order for bylaw changes to become effective, 2/3 of those members present at a meeting must vote to approve the changes.

The Ontario Co-operative Association (On Co-op) is in the process of developing a series of guides that explain the more significant changes in more detail and these will be available for download from the website in the next several weeks. Contact Jen Heneberry, Co-op Development Manager, for more details about these changes or to obtain copies of these guides. (519.763.8271 x23, jheneberry@ontario.coop).