Students representing universities from across the nation gathered alongside professional communicators July 25-27 in St. Paul, Minn. for the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow convention in conjunction with the 12^th annual Agricultural Media Summit.

The National ACT Organization recognized the best in writing, publications, electronic media, photography, design & layout and public relations submitted among 319 entries to its annual communications contest.

The three-day program included a wide range of professional development sessions where students were able to meet with industry leaders and gain professional communications skills including leadership, writing, social media, marketing and photography.

Congratulations to all winners!

The NACT would like to thank the the Critique Contest Sponsors for their contributions.

Click here for the Complete List of Winners and a Power Point Presentation of category placings including Sponsor recognition.

After an amazing Agriculture Media Summit in St. Paul, Minn., five students representing colleges across the nation have been elected to serve on the 2010-2011 National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow officer team. Candidates were chosen based on their service, leadership, involvement and passion for agriculture.

Jessica England from the University of Missouri was elected president, Lauren Greaves from Texas A&M University was elected first vice president, Kelsey Fletcher from Texas Tech University was elected second vice president, Krista Anderson from Oklahoma State University was elected secretary/treasurer, and Keiko Osumi from Cal Poly was elected editor.

“It is an honor to serve the NACT Organization and give back to the agriculture industry which I have such a passion for,” Osumi said. “This officer team truly has the capacity to educate the public and invigorate future industry leaders, and I look forward to the year ahead.”

University of Arkansas Associate Professor Jeff Miller serves as adviser for the organization.

 ”I am amazed each year by the quality of students on this national officer team,” Miller said. “This year is no exception. We have five outstanding future ag communications professionals.”

Throughout the next year, the officer team will be responsible for handling various organization activities and communication concluding with next year’s national convention next July in New Orleans, La.

Congratulations!

L to R: Keiko Osumi, Kelsey Fletcher, Jessica England, Krista Anderson, Lauren Greaves, and Dr. Jeff Miller

To view the latest ACTion Newsletter, please click above on the ACTion link or here.

There is information on the Professional Development Conference and Industry Updates!

The Tarleton State University Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow members are pleased to present the 2010 National ACT Professional Development Conference, “ACT…Follow Our Lead!”

http://www.tarleton.edu/ACT/act2010conf.html

Please note that the registration cost remains the same as 2009 ($50), but includes meals for Thursday evening (heavy appetizers), three meals Friday and Saturday (hotel hosted breakfast both mornings), and Sunday morning continental breakfast for Vespers. The host hotels (La Quinta and Holiday Inn Express and Suites) each have all of the double-double rooms blocked for our event and they are $79 per night (about $85 with city tax; please bring your own tax exempt forms).

The Animal Ag Alliance is launching a program called “College Aggies Online” and is a contest for college students involved in ag clubs across the country. Students create personal accounts on our Web site and upload ag-related photos, blogs, videos, etc to share their story of agriculture. We are very excited about the opportunity to help young people speak out about ag online and think this would be a great experience for future ag communicators such as yourself and your members!  There are sponsorship opportunities, too, if you think that would be something you would be interested in!

Here’s a link to program materials: http://animalagalliance.org/current/home.cfm?Category=College_Aggies&Section=Main

A past newsletter about the program: http://eepurl.com/dNiT

This is the log-in to the CAO network, where students create their account: http://aggiesonline.ning.com