LIA Briefs

Dear LIA Alumni
 
We are going to hold our weekly LIA Alumni COVID-19 Update Zoom Meeting on Thursday, May 7 at 9:00 AM (MDT). 
 
The schedule of presenters for this week's meeting are as follows:
 
Doug Robison, President NWFC -"Global Perspective on COVID-19"
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Dean, Michael Parrella and Associate Dean, Mark McGuire - "Updates from the U of I College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station"
 
We will take a quick trip around the US and receive updates from LIA Alumni in several different states. I tried to concentrate on Western US because I know that travel for business and pleasure is on many minds. Thanks to the following who have offered to provide us an update:
 
NORTH DAKOTA - Jason Bohrer, Class 23, President and CEO of Lignite Energy Council
WASHINGTON - Matthew Ellsworth, Class 20, CEO and President of the Association of Washington Public Hospital Districts
TENNESSEE - Kendra Dustin, Class 32, Private Consultant, Fund Development Director Leadership Idaho Agriculture
OHIO - John Foltz, Class 12 Chairman, College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Dept of Animal Science - Ohio State University
OREGON - Travis Jones, Class 28, US State and Local Manager, Government  and Public Affairs, Affairs, NIKE Inc.
CALIFORNIA - Brian Lish, Class 20, President and CEO of AGRX
TEXAS - Kim O'Neill, Class 27, Associate Vice President of Advancement, Texas Tech University
MINNESOTA  - Jaime Meyer, Class 30, Direct Support Professional
 
Meeting information was sent to alumni via email.
 
 
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LIA COMMODITY BOX PROJECT:
LIA Trustee Malia Miller shared on last week's call about the Commodity Box Project. 
 
Here is what she shared: 
The LIA Golf Tournament has been cancelled for 2020. Our committee began considering other options after hearing how Valley Country Stores are highlighting milk for 99 cent per gallon. We started brainstorming some ideas to highlight Idaho Ag and commodities. As we are all aware, there is a surplus of Ag products available. We would like to put together a committee of experts to help us determine if an Ag commodity "box" would be feasible and what products could be available. Our initial thoughts is a box would be purchased and a box donated. Our objective is to help our consumers understand the value of Idaho Ag and to bring the consumer direct to Ag producers.
 
Each sector of Idaho Ag would bring their commodities to a common lot, each commodity would be added to the box and individuals would arrive to pick up their box. Orders would need to be done in advance to ensure pickup and a meeting time/Date/place would be sets. Our biggest unknown and fear is commodities that do not store so we would bring them together on one day at one location so no storage would be required.
 
There will be a Zoom Call on Tuesday, May 5 at 1:00 (Mountain Time) to further explore this project. If you have commodities that you would like to learn more about the project then please send me a quick email - rick@amgidaho.com so I can add your name to the email list for those participating.
 
Rick Waitley
Executive Director