First Farmers Bank & Trust will hold their annual Ag Client Seminar in just a few short weeks. Please read below to learn more about the speakers at this year's event.
Terry L. Schmidt serves as Assistant General Counsel in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Legal Affairs Real Estate Investments Group. Mr. Schmidt advises the Agricultural Investments group at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with respect to its agricultural investments portfolio.
He has over 25 years of experience advising companies in the agricultural investments industry. The focus of his practice is on structuring agribusiness lending transactions and commercial agribusiness lending transactions with triple net leases. He also advises the Risk Management Group at MetLife with respect to insurance and environmental matters.
Terry offers a detailed perspective on the understanding and implementation of wind farm leases being proposed to various segments of traditional agricultural properties. Significant parcels of land are now subject to the possibility of wind farm development and the infrastructure requirements that accompany many of these projects are key points that need to be understood by a number of parties. Mr. Schmidt’s goal for this presentation is to aid in the general awareness on lease details as well as provide a general overview on wind farm development.
Mr. Schmidt is originally from Minnesota and currently resides in Kansas. He received a B.A. degree from Yankton College (summa cum laude) and a Juris Doctorate Degree from California Western School of Law (cum laude). He is a member of the South Dakota State Bar Association and also admitted to practice in the Federal District Court for the District of South Dakota and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
John Schwarz, II is an Agricultural Attorney and Founder of FarmLegacy.com. John was raised on a family farm near Stroh, Indiana where he was instilled with family values and a strong work ethic. He graduated from Prairie Heights High School and later obtained an engineering degree from Tri-State University. After working in the automotive industry for a few years, he decided to go to law school to earn a law degree. He intended to use his engineering degree and law degree to work as a patent attorney.
While in law school John served as an intern at the Indiana Farm Bureau headquarters in Indianapolis where he assisted in developing favorable policies and laws for Indiana farmers. It was there that John came to two realizations: First, the farming communities in Indiana were in need of individuals who knew the law and knew agriculture. Second, being part of a family farm was something special, and working in a patent law office would cause him to be too far removed from his family farm.
Upon completion of his legal studies from the Indiana School of Law-Bloomington, John returned to his hometown to practice law. John primarily practices in the area of agricultural law. In addition to being a practicing attorney, John is also actively involved in his family's 2500 acre grain farming operation. This makes John one of only a handful of Indiana residents who are both a farmer and attorney.
John has contributed articles to Farm World Magazine, Indiana Prairie Farmer Magazine, the Indianapolis Star, and various local newspapers.
The keynote speaker for this event is Stan Howell. Stan serves as Global Leader of the North America Regional Commercial Unit at Dow Agro Sciences. He assumed this role in September 2002. In 2004, Howell assumed additional responsibilities for the Pest Management business, and in 2005 the Mycogen Seeds commercial organization and Traits and Germplasm Licensing (T&GL) business were added to his purview. Prior to holding this position, he served as Global Leader of the Insect Management and North American Trade Area.
Howell joined The Dow Chemical Company in 1976 as a trainee in Memphis, Tennessee, and has served in a variety of positions since that time. From 1977 to 1980, Howell served as a Sales Representative in the Mid-South region. In 1981, he moved to Midland, Michigan to assume the role of Communications Manager for Specialty Products.
From 1982 to 1986, he held product management positions for Vegetation Management and General Pest/Technical Insecticides. Howell moved to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1986 to serve as Specialty District Sales Manager for the Midwest prior to being appointed Midwest Ag Sales Manager in 1987. In 1990, he was named Midwest Ag Marketing Manager, and held this post until 1993 when he assumed the role of Director of Business Services. He was appointed General Manager of the Midwest Business Unit in 1995 and Global Leader of the Insect Management Global Business Unit and North America Trade Area in 1998.
Howell received a bachelor's degree in marketing from Indiana University.
In November each year, We Care hosts the Trim-a-Tree Festival in the Kokomo Mall. Groups, clubs, and businesses have an opportunity to decorate trees and wreaths that will be on display for viewer's to vote on and later are auctioned off, with proceeds going We Care.
This year, both the Greentown and Kokomo Central branch of First Farmers Bank & Trust decorated a wreath for auction. They are now on display at the Kokomo Mall and the auction will take place on November 14th at 4:45pm. Be sure to stop by the mall and vote for your favorites!
In addition, Greentown decorated another wreath which will be auctioned off for the Greentown Volunteer Fire Department. Proceeds from this auction will go to The Buddy Bag Program at Eastern School Corporation.
Below are the We Care wreaths.
Greentown's Wreath, 'Angels Among Us'
Kokomo Central's Wreath
First Farmers Bank & Trust's Amboy branch puts a lot of effort into the Amboy Fall Festival each year. This year, they chose to go a different route by partnering with the K-ID's BMV Program to offer free ID card to kids. Overall, they had approximately 100 kids sign up for an ID card and were busy for the entire 3 hours that the BMV Program was there.
First Farmers also participated in the parade, the dunk tank, and helped out at the car show. The parade started on Saturday morning and had 36 entries. The Parade Marshal this year was Kori Brown, from the IROK Foundation. This year's car show, the 3rd annual, was a huge success-with more entries than they've had in the past two years. Pam Camden, branch manager of the Amboy branch, watched her granddaughters, Braeleigh, Mariah, and Katy Jo participate in the Little Miss Amboy contest in each age group. Mariah won in the 5-7 year old age group. Melody Ringeisen, FFBT employee from Amboy, participated in the dunk tank.
In addition to these activities, First Farmers and Norris Insurance put on a contest between the two to see who could raise the most money from a quilt raffle. Norris Insurance just edged out FFBT by around $30, but together, they raised almost $1200 for the American Cancer Society. After the fair, the quilt was raffled off and the winner was Sharon Etchison, Owner of Sharon's Beauty Salon. She is pictured below with Cathy Stewart who created the quilt.
Pictured from left: Russ Felderman, John Hacker, Keith Eller, Erv Ebersole, Steve Kimmel, David Eikenberry, Steve Updike, Kathy Jones, Dan Eads, Shari Spahr, Doug Wilcox, Mark Wolf, Joe Blomeke, Jeff Souder, Mark Wickersham
First Farmers Bank & Trust held a public ground breaking ceremony for their newest location in Huntington at 244 Hauenstein Road at 9:00 a.m. today. The Huntington County Chamber of Commerce, Huntington County United Economic Development Council, First Farmers Bank & Trust staff and officers, Felderman Design Build employees, the Huntington Mayor Steve Updike, City Council members, and others were present at the ceremony.
The branch location is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2011 and is being constructed by Felderman Design Build from Ft. Wayne. The building will be approximately 2,600 square feet with two drive-up lanes, an ATM, and will house five to six employees. Similar to the other First Farmers locations, the newly constructed Huntington office will offer full service banking for Huntington area residents.
“We’re excited to be able to offer new FFBT services to our customers and Huntington residents. We hope it shows that we plan to become a bigger part of this community,” states Mark Wolf, Senior Vice President.
More pictures will be added soon. Check back in the next few months to see the progress on the new building in our photo albums.
