GEAPS Welcomes Lonestar Chapter
GEAPS Welcomes Lonestar Chapter
For the first time in nearly 20 years, GEAPS has a new chapter.
The Lonestar Chapter, based in the Fort Worth, Texas area was approved by GEAPS International Board in January. It will begin meeting in April and you just might see them competing for corn hole glory at GEAPS Exchange later this month.
The chapter will be led by Casey Abel, who has served on GEAPS International Board since last year. Chapter leadership is comprised of both Regular and Associate members. Scottie Buerger will be the chapter’s vice president and Alma Sue Haiduk will be secretary/treasurer. Dean Wedekind, Mike Morgan, Dale Locke and Jeremy Spivey will be chapter directors. Several other GEAPS members signed the petition for chapter formation.
“My hope is this will be one of the biggest chapters. We have a lot of people here and a lot of folks in the industry in the state of Texas,” Abel said. “I’m excited. There’s a lot of excitement around it for sure.”
While Texas wasn’t without a chapter, there just wasn’t anything nearby. For Abel and many others, getting to meetings with an existing chapter just wasn’t feasible.
“When I moved to Texas—if you’re in the Fort Worth area—you’ve never really never been able to be involved in a chapter unless you went to Amarillo or down to Houston,” he said.
GEAPS has seen tremendous membership growth in the last year, and Abel predicts Lonestar will expand on that, in addition to getting existing members more involved. The formation of the chapter has already brought about 10 new folks to GEAPS.
“We have a ton of GEAPS members around here, but we don’t really know each other because we never had a chapter,” he said. “Being a part of the International board, I love to grow GEAPS. It’s been an awesome year for GEAPS; I think this will bring a lot more members in.”
Introducing a new chapter at Exchange is a bit of a full-circle moment for Abel. He once was a college student majoring in education. He took one class in grain and in 2010 that professor took him along to GEAPS Exchange for student day in Wichita, KS.
“It kind of sparked my interest in the grain industry, honestly,” he said.
Abel and other founding members of Lonestar are working to provide that spark for the next generation of grain industry professionals. Among other plans, they hope to offer a scholarship for agriculture students in their area.
If you’re interested in changing your chapter affiliation to the Lonestar Chapter, please contact Deb Most at the GEAPS office.
