By Kelly Schwalbe, PIF Chairman
We talk a lot about PIF – our Professional Improvement Foundation – in AAEA circles, but where did it come from? And what does it do exactly?
Let’s start with a bit of history. The AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation (PIF) was the brainchild of Larry Harper, former editor of Missouri Ruralist and 1990 AAEA president, according to past PIF Chair Gregg Hillyer. Larry’s vision was to have a separate fund with a $1 million endowment, where the annual revenues could be earmarked for professional improvement and development for members and to promote the agricultural journalism profession.
True to Larry’s vision, the initial “professional improvement fund” was created in the early 1990s. Past PIF Chair Paul Queck recalls that the fund grew significantly after the joint 1992 annual AAEA meeting and IFAJ Congress in Indianapolis, which generated nearly $40,000 that AAEA put into the account. Several years later, the fund was transformed into the Professional Improvement Foundation and received 501(c)3 status.
As it was chartered, any member of AAEA is automatically a member of the foundation, which is managed by a separate 12-person board of trustees, elected on staggered three-year terms, and three officers. Since its creation, Paul Queck, Gregg Hillyer, Gil Gullickson and I have chaired the foundation. For more specific details about the foundation and its structure, members can review the AAEA PIF articles and bylaws at https://y7j.6d7.myftpupload.com/pif-articles-and-bylaws/.
HOW PIF WORKS
Because PIF is a non-profit entity, it does have to follow certain guidelines to maintain its 501(c)3 status and to achieve the overall principles under which it was originally chartered. Summarized, the four overarching objectives of PIF are:
We talk a lot about PIF – our Professional Improvement Foundation – in AAEA circles, but where did it come from? And what does it do exactly?
Let’s start with a bit of history. The AAEA Professional Improvement Foundation (PIF) was the brainchild of Larry Harper, former editor of Missouri Ruralist and 1990 AAEA president, according to past PIF Chair Gregg Hillyer. Larry’s vision was to have a separate fund with a $1 million endowment, where the annual revenues could be earmarked for professional improvement and development for members and to promote the agricultural journalism profession.
True to Larry’s vision, the initial “professional improvement fund” was created in the early 1990s. Past PIF Chair Paul Queck recalls that the fund grew significantly after the joint 1992 annual AAEA meeting and IFAJ Congress in Indianapolis, which generated nearly $40,000 that AAEA put into the account. Several years later, the fund was transformed into the Professional Improvement Foundation and received 501(c)3 status.
As it was chartered, any member of AAEA is automatically a member of the foundation, which is managed by a separate 12-person board of trustees, elected on staggered three-year terms, and three officers. Since its creation, Paul Queck, Gregg Hillyer, Gil Gullickson and I have chaired the foundation. For more specific details about the foundation and its structure, members can review the AAEA PIF articles and bylaws at https://y7j.6d7.myftpupload.com/pif-articles-and-bylaws/.
HOW PIF WORKS
Because PIF is a non-profit entity, it does have to follow certain guidelines to maintain its 501(c)3 status and to achieve the overall principles under which it was originally chartered. Summarized, the four overarching objectives of PIF are:
- To fund professional improvement programs to persons in ag communications including, but not limited to, all active and affiliate AAEA members;
- To support and promote the ag communications community;
- To finance awards for outstanding writing, graphic arts and other work in the field of ag communications;
- To make scholarships and support internships and training programs in ag communications.