Illinois Farm Bureau delegates have rejected a new term for Illinois Farm Bureau [IFB] President Brian Duncan.
At the IFB annual meeting in Chicago, nearly 57% of the delegates chose Philip Nelson from Seneca, a former IFB president and state agriculture director, as the organization’s 17th president.
Duncan led the Farm Bureau into litigation against the American Farm Bureau Federation [AFBF] over the end of a Farm Bureau membership eligibility requirement for non-farm insurance policy holders in Illinois issued through IFB-owned Country Financial. Both the IFB and Country Financial are based in Bloomington.
The AFBF had threatened expulsion of the IFB over the issue. The IFB pays dues to AFBF based in part on membership rolls. AFBF paused expulsion proceedings while the lawsuit is in progress. A status hearing in the year-old case is set for Friday morning in McLean County Circuit Court.
Nelson is promising to fix the breakdown in communications with the AFBF. FarmWeekNow reported Duncan referenced the lawsuit during remarks to members at the meeting.
"Our litigation with AFBF is ongoing. While the courts do their work, we are doing ours," he said. "We continue to show up in Washington, advance member-driven policy, and work in strong partnership with AFBF.”
Duncan, who defeated Nelson for the presidency in 2023, also promised IFB's focus and loyalty will always lie with Illinois farmers.
A separate policy change that would have made it easier to remove a president and vice president failed by a wide margin. Delegates voted 204-83 against changing organization bylaws to allow delegates to remove those officers via a two-thirds majority vote at an annual, regular, or special meeting. It would have taken effect in January.
A midterm effort to oust Duncan failed at last year’s annual meeting amid parliamentary maneuvering that centered on a requirement to give 20 days’ written notice before a president or board member can be removed. Members voted in secret ballot to retain Duncan.
That set up this year’s contested election for a new two-year term for Duncan and vice president Evan Hultine. Hultine was re-elected.
