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Texas Agriculture Archive

January 3, 2003

TFB membership jumps
to 348,673 member families

 
Texas Farm Bureau finished fiscal year 2002 (Oct. 31) with a record-setting 348,673 members! Moreover, every county reported a gain.

The staggering membership gain over the past year is even more remarkable when considering all 207 organized county Farm Bureaus in the state of Texas achieved an increase in membership.

TFB Executive Director Vernie Glasson said, "A large majority of the counties had an easy time of making the gain, but for a number of others it turned out to be a real chore. Those counties deserve extra commendation for working hard to help Texas achieve a goal that has not been accomplished in a quarter of a century!"

County Farm Bureaus with outstanding membership successes were recognized at the recent Texas Farm Bureau annual meeting in Corpus Christi.

Brazoria County had the greatest county membership increase with the addition of over 1,200 members, while Fort Bend and Hidalgo counties each added over 1,000 members. Other counties with considerable increases included: Harris, 933; Collin, 879; Nueces, 760; Jefferson, 688; and Bell, 518. Denton, Grayson and Kaufman counties were not far behind.

Other counties rounding out the top 20 were: Henderson, Bexar, Parker, Jim Wells, Brazos, Dallas, Ellis, Hopkins-Rains, San Patricio, and Angelina.

Counties recognized at the state convention for the longest continuous gain were DeWitt, 53 years; Franklin, 22 years; Cooke, 21 years; Erath, 16 years; Live Oak, 16 years; Henderson, 13 years; Atascosa, 11 years; Blanco, 11 years; Bell, 11 years; and Comal, 11 years.

Many smaller counties did not have the enormous increase in membership numbers, but had a much higher percentage increase. Counties with an increase of over 92 percent included Uvalde, Robertson, Sherman, Gillespie, and Wilson counties. Val Verde, Castro, and Floyd counties each had increases of more than 94 percent. The counties with the biggest percentage increase were Lipscomb and Thockmorton counties with over 95 percent increases.

TFB Field Services Director Jim Nance said, "The membership gain can be attributed to the hard work of field staff, county leaders, county secretaries, and current members."

Area 2 Field Representative Coleburn Davis agreed that the collective teamwork was the key to achieving the unprecedented numbers statewide.

"We all had to pull together to get every single county over," said Davis.