Awards
Excellence Award
The Excellence Award is given to the county with the most outstanding project for each program area. One Gold, Silver, and Bronze Excellence Award will be given per membership group in each program area. Achieving membership quota is not a requirement for an Excellence Award. All activities reported shall have taken place in the last year. The judges will be a mix of current county Farm Bureau managers and IAA staff. Every effort will be made to balance representation from each membership group. Judges will rank the projects from best to worst, with 1 being the best. Ranks will be totaled and the county with the lowest combined score will be the winner in each program area. All Excellence Award winners will be announced at IFB’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Excellence Awards will be given in 8 program areas:

1. Ag Literacy
2. Farm Income & Development
3. Health & Safety
4. Advocacy
5. Local Affairs
6. Engagement & Outreach
7. Membership Value
8. CFB Foundation & Fundraising

Three additional awards will be given to recognize outstanding efforts by CFBs:

New Horizon Award - to encourage new and innovative programs. The IFB New Horizon Award recognizes new (conducted in the last 2 program years) and innovative programs that follow the priorities set by the Illinois Farm Bureau Board of Directors. A county Farm Bureau may submit an individual county entry, and also be part of a multi-county entry. One IFB New Horizon Award may be awarded per membership group to individual county Farm Bureau entries that meet the qualifications. Each winning entry will receive $500. Judges also have the opportunity to award up to two multi-county awards. Each winning multi-county project will receive $1,000 to be split between the counties involved in the project. Achieving membership quota is not required to apply for this award. The New Horizon Award will not be utilized in determining any other award winners. Counties may apply for the New Horizon Award even if not completing CAE Reports. All winners will be announced at IFB’s Annual Meeting.
 

Liberty Bell Award - This award is presented to one CFB in each membership group to recognize outstanding efforts on issues of legislative efforts by county Farm Bureaus. These reports should highlight 1-5 legislative efforts impacting state and local Farm Bureau organizational priorities. The award will be based on a separate application to be submitted by the CFB, contacts on all organizational action requests in the program year, and by reaching the appropriate membership group benchmark for the number of action request responses. Three additional bonus points will be awarded to each county that reaches or exceeds their benchmark. Achieving membership quota is not a requirement for this award. Applications will be judged by IAA staff. All winners will be announced at IFB’s Annual Meeting.

• Group 1: Avg. of 8 members participating on each Action Request (AR)
• Group 2: Avg. of 10 members participating on each AR
• Group 3: Avg. of 12 members participating on each AR
• Group 4: Avg. of 14 members participating on each AR
• Group 5: Avg. of 16 members participating on each AR

Pinnacle Award - The Pinnacle Award is the highest-level award given to the most outstanding county in each membership group. This award recognizes overall program excellence, planning, and implementation as they relate to the County Farm Bureau’s goals and priorities. Winners will be determined based on the scores of an independent Pinnacle Award application judged by IAA staff. Achieving membership quota is not a requirement for a Pinnacle Award. However, bonus points will be awarded to counties achieving the M Member quota. All Pinnacle Award winners will be announced at IFB’s Annual Meeting.

What a Great Idea Program Showcase

Each Gold, Silver, & Bronze County Awards of Excellence program in each Membership Group, along with the New Horizon winning programs, will be included in the What a Great Idea booklet. The booklet will be made available to county Farm Bureaus following IFB’s Annual Meeting via the Leaders’ Portal, allowing counties to learn more about programs across the state. If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact IFB (Illinois Farm Bureau) Training at awards@ilfb.org or 309-557-2038.