THE HISTORY OF FARMHOUSE FRATERNITY
1985-1994 Farm Crisis Impacts FarmHouse
The farm crisis of the 1980s proved to have far-reaching effects on North American agriculture and FarmHouse.
The early/mid '80s were marked by double-digit interest rates approaching 30 percent, rising machinery costs, price uncertainties for products and eventually decreasing land values, foreclosures, and bankruptcies.
Times were not good for family farms, with stress levels high among farm families. Children growing up on farms witnessed first-hand the roller coaster of the business of farming.
Ag Enrollment Drops
As corporations began to gobble up land and many families sold out or were forced into bankruptcy, FarmHouse began to see an increasing shift in the number of students from family farms and small towns who were electing to major in non-agriculture programs. One study showed that from 1975-1988 there was a 34 percent decrease in the number of students in ag schools.
Throughout this decade, Pearls & Rubies featured numerous stories highlighting the challenges family farms were facing and the increasing number of non-ag majors in FarmHouse. More than ever, FarmHouse was initiating young men from the farm who decided to pursue careers in engineering, law, business, and other non-agriculture curriculums.
Further, delegates at the 1994 Conclave took a historic step by amending the FarmHouse bylaws to enable the Fraternity to charter chapters on universities that don't offer a degree in agriculture (due in large part to an outstanding group of 30-plus student leaders at Troy State University (Alabama) who wanted to share in the FarmHouse experience).
Alcohol and Risk Management
Debates and discussion about the FarmHouse alcohol policy shaped much of the discussion at Conclaves during this period.
The 1986 Conclave voted to alter the alcohol policy to allow chapters to experiment with modifications of the traditional policy of no alcohol in the chapter houses. The pendulum swung back in 1988 as chapter and association delegates overwhelmingly voted to return the policy back to original form.
Risk management became an increasing focus of the Fraternity during this decade. In 1989, FarmHouse joined FIPG, which was a consortium of fraternities and sororities hoping to pool their efforts to establish an insurance purchasing group. The insurance part failed, but what evolved was a standardized risk management policy and association to help fraternities learn how to better manage their risks.
In 1994, FarmHouse joined the liability insurance purchasing group now known as FRMT that provides $6-million worth of liability protection for our chapters, associations, and other fraternity volunteers.
AIDS was another hot topic of the decade, with AIDS awareness and education a programming focus for FarmHouse.
Expansion
FarmHouse chartered six chapters during this decade. Unfortunately, four of the chapters closed within eight years of their founding.
Nebraska-Curtis was chartered in 1985 (inactive); California-Davis, 1987 (inactive); New Mexico State, 1987; Morehead State, 1988 (inactive); Wisconsin-Platteville, 1989; and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, 1993 (inactive).
When they chartered, many of these chapters didn't have the liability insurance coverage that was becoming necessary due to the increasingly litigious environment. These additional insurance costs, coupled with low membership and lack of enough alumni involvement caused these and several other chapters to go inactive in the early 1990s.
Ceres Becomes a Reality
After more than a decade of discussions,
Ceres International Fraternity was officially formed on October 12, 1985. The FarmHouse International Office provided programming and staffing support until 1994, when Ceres had grown to the point that a part-time executive director was hired to provide support for its chapters and members.
Office Moves to Kansas City
After much study, the FarmHouse International Office moved from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Kansas City, Missouri, in June 1993.
Joining executive director Bob Off (CO '64) on staff at different points during this decade
were FarmHouse men: Doug Larsen (IA '81);
Galen Lee (ID '84); Frank Fabijanic (ND '82); Darrin Wentz (ND '86); and Neil Wheeler (PU '85)—all as expansion directors.
Kevin Kirby (OK '83) served as director of chapter services and later as assistant executive director from 1988-95. Kirby was responsible for most of the top-notch leadership development and training programs the Fraternity began during this decade, including the first Presidents' Leadership Conference in 1993, which was fully funded by the FarmHouse Foundation.
Foundation's Growth
The Foundation grew substantially during this decade, with an increase in donors from 654 to 1,554 and increase in donations from $54,511 to $242,395 between 1985-1994. Another major highlight of the decade was a $50,000 bequest in 1986 from Founder D. Howard Doane's estate.
This decade was also marked by several large building projects—with Auburn, Iowa State and Mississippi State building new chapter houses, Missouri adding a $1-million addition to its house and Kansas State adding an impressive educational wing to its house.
