Stay Informed

It’s been nearly two years in the making, but Indiana Farm Bureau finally will have its very own special recognition license plate to kick off its next century.

The process to obtain a license plate started in early 2018 when Chelsea Poe, INFB’s membership development manager, came up with the idea.

“I’m an observant person and every day when I would drive to work, I’d see all these special plates,” said Poe. “I knew I wanted a plate to support agriculture, but I didn’t want to choose between 4-H and FFA.  That’s when I thought, why can’t I have a Farm Bureau plate?”

Poe did some research only to find that the lengthy application the BMV required, including 500 supporting signatures, was due by April 1, 2018.  “Obviously, we couldn’t get the paperwork done in time to make that deadline.”

So the INFB marketing team set out to round up the signatures and complete the application with the goal of getting approval as part of the organization’s 100^th anniversary celebration.

“Putting the application together was a bit of a challenge because of the detailed information the BMV wanted, but it was obtaining the needed signatures that took the most work,” said Debra DeCourcy, APR, INFB’s chief marketing director.

“The signatures are an important part of the process because it shows the BMV that there is significant support for the Farm Bureau plate in Indiana,” she explained.  “We collected our first signatures at the 2018 delegate session and continued throughout the year, getting signatures at conferences, district and county meetings, the Indiana Statehouse and the 2018 state convention.”

The INFB special recognition plate will debut into a crowded field with more than 130 special recognition plates currently being offered by the state of Indiana.