Chamber sets ag workshops

RBC I A day of free educational workshops will be held April 20 in Meeker in conjunction with the After Birth Ball.
“We will have a large number of people from outside of Meeker in town for the After Birth Ball on April 20, so we figured it would be a great time to offer free workshops for the 2013 Ag and Business Summit,” said Katelin Cook, executive director of the Meeker Chamber of Commerce. “This event allows everyone to take advantage of a day-long event centered on helping our business members and local agriculture producers.”
The event is sponsored by the chamber, Friends of the FFA Alumnai, the White River and Douglas Creek conservation districts and the Rio Blanco County Tri-State GT.
The summit will be held at the Main Street Building, 455 Main St., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with registration from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m., followed by the Rio Blanco County State of the County Address from 8 to 9:30 a.m., given by officials from Rio Blanco County, the town of Meeker, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the U.S. Forest Service, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, state Rep. Bob Rankin, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Bureau of Land Management.
The first workshop, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., will address estate and retirement planning, range and pasture management during drought, the effects of wild horse and burro programs on rangeland health and how to read and utilize EPDs.
The second workshop will run from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. with discussion topics to include A gritourism 101, operating a new tractor or operating within the margins, range monitoring and utilizing DNA technology in purebred and commercial cattle operations.
The third workshop will run 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. addressing supercharging your Facebook marketing, livestock nutrition, landowning Colorado-style (resource inventory and planning), noxious weed management and farm safety.
A free lunch provided by the Rio Blanco County Stockgrowers and Rio Blanco Cattlewomen associations will run from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.
Keynote speaker Jim Whitt will speak from 1:30 to 2:30 on “Purpose Unlimited.” That will be followed from 2:30 to 5 p.m. with “Pioneering the Future of Rio Blanco County,” also featuring Whitt.
Whitt’s biography states that he is an unapologetic people provoker. For more than 20 years he has provoked people and organizations to reach their full potential as a speaker, consultant and author.
As a speaker, Whitt provokes people to thought and laughter. As a consultant, he provokes leaders to create cultures where people are self-motivated. As an author, he provokes readers with proven processes to help them improve their lives and their organizations.
Whitt’s people-provoking career started in 1988. Prior to then, he spent more than a decade in sales and marketing with two Fortune 500 companies. He also grew up working in the cattle business and has a degree in animal science.
All of this provides him with a unique perspective into human behavior, which he has applied to develop his unconventional approach to transforming lives, leaders and organizations as a founding partner of Purpose Unlimited.
Those events will all lead up to the After Birth Ball social hour, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Freeman E. Fairfild Center with a social hour and auction preview; 6:30 p.m. for dinner and 9 p.m. for the free After Birth Ball.
The After Birth Ball will feature Coy Keithley and the band Straight Shot.
Proceeds from the live and silent auctions and the FFA Hired Hand Auction go to support the Meeker FFA and Agricultural Education.
For more information, to register for the workshops or to purchase dinner tickets, interested persons are asked to call the Meeker Chamber of Commerce at 970-878-5510 or to email Katelin Cook at [email protected].