‘AFBF is abandoning us’: Illinois Farm Bureau reacts to being expelled from national organization

CHICAGO — The setting for the President’s Address in the Grand Ballroom of the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago was familiar as Illinois Farm Bureau members and their families gathered there on Dec. 7.

The IFB stage backdrop was in place along with festive Christmas decorations. But one piece of decoration was noticeably absent.

The massive banner that usually hangs from the balcony, that touts the membership numbers of IFB, the state’s largest farm membership organization, with some 400,000 total members, was gone.

What wasn’t absent from Brian Duncan’s President’s Address was the reason for the banner’s absence and all the upheaval surrounding it.

“We are currently facing some opposition,” said Duncan as he tackled the tough topic and one that is currently the subject of litigation and a lawsuit filed by IFB.

On Nov. 7, the American Farm Bureau Federation board voted to expel IFB from AFBF, effective Dec. 20, due to a decision by the Country Financial board of directors. Country Financial is the affiliate insurance company of IFB.

The board voted earlier in the year to no longer require nonfarm insurance policyholders to have membership in IFB.

“To remain competitive and profitable in the evolving and challenging insurance industry, Country Financial must modernize,” Duncan said.

“As insurance coverage expands to online sales, having a membership requirement limited to Illinois became problematic. Illinois was the last state in the Country Financial footprint to require membership for nonfarm policies.

“After thorough research and with support from both the board and management, an underwriting change was made. Country will no longer require a Farm Bureau membership to purchase nonfarm insurance products.”

Those nonfarm memberships still will be available, but not required.

“We still welcome associate members, but their decision to join now is voluntary,” Duncan said.

That decision could reduce both membership numbers, as well as the revenue from those nonfarm, associate memberships. The impacts of that revenue loss would be felt from the county level to the state and national organizations.

Duncan said that the IFB board developed a plan to counter the potential impact of the Country Financial decision.

IFB currently has some 400,000 total members, of which 78,000 are voting members, according to the IFB website.

“In response to Country’s strategic changes, the Illinois Farm Bureau board of directors has implemented a financial mitigation plan to provide long-term baseline funding security for county Farm Bureaus,” Duncan said.

In addition, Duncan said the IFB board has offered AFBF “solutions to mitigate” the concerns that AFBF expressed over the potential loss of significant revenue due to the membership change.

“These offers were rebuffed,” he said.

On Nov. 13, IFB filed a lawsuit in McLean County Circuit Court. IFB is seeking a preliminary injunction to continue membership in AFBF while legal proceedings are underway.

“Our legal case is strong. Our membership in AFBF is protected by a previous hard-fought settlement agreement. It specifically prevents the termination of our membership due to the business activities of an affiliate, like those at issue here,” said Duncan, who noted the speed with which AFBF retaliated after learning of the Country Financial board’s decision.

“We believe AFBF is ignoring this contractual obligation and choosing to abandon our 70,000-plus farmer members and tens of thousands of associate members who have no connection to our insurance affiliate, without even waiting to see the impact of Country’s decision on our membership count,” he said.

Duncan pulled no punches in describing the AFBF actions.

“AFBF is abandoning us because we aren’t willing to blindly follow an outdated paradigm, which values total members and allows for disproportionate representation from a mere handful of states with large insurance companies,” he said.

Duncan further took AFBF to task over that “outdated paradigm,” one that, he said, “values membership numbers, whether they are insurance customers or farmers, and one that doesn’t consider whether the members truly want to be part of our great organization or not.”