By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent

TRAFALGAR, Ind. — The fate of the Indiana FFA Leadership Center will be decided June 6 when the Indiana FFA Foundation meets to discuss its options.

The 40-year-old facility has been a financial drain from the beginning, earning a profit only five or six of those years, said Foundation Executive Director Brian Buchanan.

The decision is necessary after a period of slowing business resulting from a combination of poor management and lack of quality facilities.

After pulling itself up by its bootstraps time and again and trying different management – like Greenwood restaurateur Jonathan Byrd for the past two years – it’s time to make a tough decision.

“The biggest thing we want people to understand is that we’re looking at the future of the FFA Center,” Buchanan said.

“Does it still meet the needs of the students? Is it still vital for programming? Is it something that is in the future for Indiana FFA?”

The Foundation is looking at several possibilities, including selling the facility and investing the proceeds into programming, selling a portion of the facility and investing proceeds into renovation, raising money for renovations and changing management.

“Selling it is the last option and last resort for board members,” Buchanan said. “There are a lot of emotional ties to the FFA Center. We’re trying to determine what solution would best meet the needs of the members, meet the needs of future clients – non-FFA customers of the leadership center – and also be economically feasible for us.”

Though the FFA Center is not in the business to make money but to train leaders, Buchanan stressed that at least breaking even was essential.

“We’re looking at all options,” Buchanan said, “exploring management possibilities which include running it ourselves, possibly outsourcing, maybe a combination of both – basically all options on the table when it comes to management.”

The center encompasses 170 wooded acres with a recreational lake and includes the main facility with dorm rooms, a smaller meeting and banquet facility, a lodge for small group functions and camp cabins.

One reason for lack of business is because Byrd started prohibiting alcohol on the premises because of insurance liability. The number of weddings and other parties booked at the center dropped. “They basically shot themselves in the foot,” Buchanan said.

He understands the concerns of parents, FFA chapters and other volunteers who helped construct the Fellowship Lodge, a 5,000-square-foot log structure built in memory of FFA members and friends of FFA. If the center is sold, he said every effort would be made to make sure that landmarks and memorials on the grounds were recognized in another setting.

If the FFA organization decides to keep the center, a new management structure will be put into place and a major fund-raising campaign will begin, Buchanan said. The fund-raising will require extreme effort on members, alumni, business partners and others with an interest in FFA.

“For the people who are fired up about keeping the center and are emotionally charged, we’re going to come back to those people and depend on them and ask for their financial support,” he said.

“If we keep it, we’re going to test people’s commitment. I can assure you of that.”

This farm news was published in the June 2, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.