Annie's Project is Expanding across Ohio in 2008

The mission of Annie’s Project is to empower farm women to be better business partners through networks and by managing and organizing critical information. Annie’s Project was developed by Ruth Hambleton, an Extension educator in Illinois . She based the program on her mother, Annie Fleck’s life as a farm wife. She was a small-town girl who grew up to be a teacher, marry a farmer and lived with her in-laws. Annie was responsible for keeping the farm records, which were used to make tough management decisions in times of financial hardship. She was responsible for holding together the family as well as the business.

The program is an agriculture business course in risk management. It was held for the first time in 2003 and has been very successful throughout the Midwest . Since that time, over 2,000 farm women in nine states have completed the six week course in risk management.

Annie’s Project brings women together to learn the financial skills and critical information needed to manage the complicated business of running a farm. Specific topics include financial record keeping, understanding basic financial statements, financial management tools, goal setting and mission statement writing, commodity marketing basics, crop insurance, family communication, retirement planning, and learning about individual personality types and characteristics through the Real Colors program.

Annie’s Project was held in Wood and Delaware counties during the winter of 2007. The classes were filled to capacity with 47 women completing the course. Everyone had positive comments to share on the final evaluations. One participant from Delaware County commented, “This class has opened my eyes to a new side of farming and encouraged me to take a bigger role.” Another Delaware participant, continued, “ This class will enable me to help the farm be more profitable now that I understand how to take care of the paperwork.” A Wood county participant said, “I believe these classes made us realize the importance of taking care of insurance, liability and working on marketing besides just concentrating on planting & harvesting.”

Women play an important role in the family farm business and Annie’s Project will help them improve their management and communication skills. It will also provide the opportunity for women to network with other women in similar situations and learn from one another.

The class meets one evening a week for six consecutive weeks. Annie’s Project will be offered in six Ohio counties in the winter of 2008 as a result of funding by a North Central Risk Management Education Center Grant. The host counties for 2008 include: Ashland , Ashtabula , Auglaize, Defiance , Erie , and Wood.

The registration fee is $60 and class space is limited. For registration information contact the host county or project coordinators: Doris Herringshaw at 419-354-9050 and Julia Woodruff at 419-281-8242. You can also follow this link to download a brochure with specific county dates and registration information.

The registration flyer can be downloaded here:

http://ohioagmanager.osu.edu/resources/annieregflier.pdf

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *