Agriculture Today - October 2008

FCFB elects new board members; officers for 2008-09

Riverdale diversified farmer to lead FCFB

Fresno County Farm Bureau elected its new board of directors and officers for the 2008-09 year at its Annual Meeting of the Members on Oct. 2. The new officers and board will be installed on Thursday, Nov. 6.

Elected to serve as the organization’s president is Dan Errotabere, a diversified farmer in the Riverdale and west side areas.  Errotabere succeeds Russel Efird, who has completed a two-year term as president. Also elected to serve as officers are: First Vice President Brian Pacheco, of Kerman; Second Vice President Ken Tatami, of Reedley; and Secretary-Treasurer Mark Sorensen, of Caruthers.

Errotabere is a general partner of the family farming operation in Riverdale and Huron. Errotabere, a third generation farmer, farms with his mother and two brothers, producing Pima cottons, wheat, cantaloupes, market and seed lettuce, cannery tomatoes, processing garlic and onions, pistachio and almonds.

Errotabere has a Bachelors of Science degree in agribusiness from California State University, Fresno, and is a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership, Class XXI, a two-year fellowship program.  He currently serves on the board of directors for Westlands Water District, the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority, Family Farm Alliance, Agricultural Foundation for California State University, Fresno, the Ag One Foundation and California Cotton Growers Association. To learn more about FCFB’s newest president, see the November issue of Agriculture Today.

New to the Board are: Bryan Beekman, Apiary/Nursery Commodity Chair; Jeannine Campos-Grech, Almonds/ Nuts Commodity Chair; Jerry Pantaleo, Grape Commodity Chair; and Tzexa Lee, Specialty Niche Crops Commodity Chair.

In other action, FCFB members approved a recommended change to the organization’s by-laws, finalizing changes in the definition of a voting member and changes in the leadership qualifications to serve on the FCFB Board of Directors. The changes in FCFB’s by-laws were necessary because of the changes in membership definitions voted on last fall at the California Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting. CFBF delegates approved a change in Farm Bureau by-laws to allow Farm Bureau members who are engaged in an agricultural-related career to serve as a director of a county Farm Bureau.      

The new FCFB voting membership definition is: “A member residing or farming in Fresno County who received during the five-year period before the membership year, or reasonably expects to receive income from the farming industry shall be a voting member. The right to vote is limited to this class of members.”

Another approved change addressing leadership qualifications in the FCFB by-laws reads; “The president and every vice president, director, state delegate and alternate delegate shall  be a voting member of this corporation and either: (a) derive a substantial portion of his or her gross income from farming operations, including as an owner, lessor, lessee, manager, officer, or substantial shareholder of a corporate entity, in California in the year when elected or during the five-year period prior to the election or (b) have his or her principal occupation in the farming industry in California in the year when elected. Despite the foregoing, only one state delegate may be a person who is a voting member of this corporation and meets only the qualifications.”

The changes in the by-laws also govern the chairperson position of the Young Farmers and Ranchers Committee, Rural Health Department and Regional Centers.

The Board of Directors also approved the proposed budget at the Oct. 2 meeting.

2008-09 FCFB Board of Directors