Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Geri Kamenz, 47, Spencerville, will not run for a third term as leader of the province’s largest farm advocacy group.
“I would be doing the organization a service by standing aside and letting it find its way in its new organizational status,” the pork, beef and cash crop farmer told Better Farming.
Immediately after the November convention, the OFA assumes a new governance structure. The current board of approximately 100 directors will be replaced by an elected board of 18 that will meet monthly.
Candidates for the positions of president, two vice presidents and a fourth executive member, must have already been elected as members of this 18 member board, says OFA general manager Neil Currie. Fifteen of those directors were chosen by elections in their respective zones. Three members at large will be elected on the first day of the convention. The executive will be elected from those 18 members.
Bette Jean Crews, Northumberland County, wants to replace Kamenz in the top position. “I was just waiting for him to get out of the way,” Crews says jokingly. She comes from a diverse operation producing grain, oilseeds, fruit and vegetables and marketing direct to consumers.
The OFA’s other vice-president, cash cropper Don McCabe, Lambton County, says Crews “is very qualified to be president” but did not close the door to his candidacy, depending upon who else runs for the position.
A new president will be busy working with the governance system and representing the province’s farmers. Crews thinks the federation should follow its current direction but warns “the economy will make lobbying government very difficult.”
Kamenz was circumspect about his future. He hopes that he will have an opportunity to represent agriculture in a positive light other than through the federation. “It’s not likely Geri will be around the farm seven days a week.”
”Agriculture is what I know and what I live.”
He’s been a director since 1999 and before that worked for the OFA as a member service representative in eastern Ontario.