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Motion to remove IFB president shot down

The Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB) delegation continues to grapple with the association’s expulsion from the American Farm Bureau Federation.  

Monday morning’s delegate session started with a motion from the floor to add the removal of current IFB president Brian Duncan to the meeting’s agenda. Christian County Farm Bureau president Matt Heberling tells Brownfield the move came as Illinois Farm Bureau is engaged in a lawsuit with AFBF.

“I think at the end of the day, that’s maybe why the tensions are a little higher in the room than normal.”  He says, “We know that as Illinois farmers we got to come together and do right by our organization, and by agriculture as a whole.”

During lengthy discussion, attorney Paul Winters told the delegation body, “Under your bylaws to remove the President would be to remove a director, an action the statute unequivocally states requires 20 days advance written notice to the members to preserve the members rights.”

Winters said placing the item on the agenda would likely open the organization to legal action.

“Any member may file a derivative claim to void that action and potentially void any subsequent actions that result from a change in leadership,” he says.

The motion was defeated by the delegate body, and Duncan remains president of the Illinois Farm Bureau.