Financing Future Farmers of America Activities in Vocational Agriculture Departments in South Dakota

This research problem deals with a general study of Future Farmer Chapter financing and more specifically with methods of raising money as well as main purposes for which such money is expended. Topics to be studied and discussed are: amount of dues charged, handling of the FFA account, writing checks, audits, activities of the Earnings and Savings Committee, budgets, amount of income needed to finance chapter activities, obligations that could be assumed by the local school board and items that the local chapters would like to include but cannot because of lack of funds. The items of income will be listed and ranked as to the amount of income as reported by the respondents. A set criteria is included for evaluating the fund raising activities. The expenditures will be tabulated both as to amount and frequency and as to their purpose either as educational, recreational-social, or both. The results reveal the relationship, if any, between chapter size and the amount of money needed for the chapter to carry out its functions. The tabulations also disclose information dealing with the relationship between the age of the chapter and the size of budget needed to be adequate

Biographies

Ecosystem services have become a mainstream concept for the expression of values assigned by people to various functions of ecosystems. Even though the introduction of the concept has initiated a vast amount of research, progress in using this knowledge for sustainable resource use remains insufficient. We see a need to broaden the scope of research to answer three key questions that we believe will improve incorporation of ecosystem service research into decision-making for the sustainable use of natural resources to improve human well-being: (i) how are ecosystem services co-produced by social–ecological systems, (ii) who benefits from the provision of ecosystem services, and (iii) what are the best practices for the governance of ecosystem services? Here, we present these key questions, the rationale behind them, and their related scientific challenges in a globally coordinated research programme aimed towards improving sustainable ecosystem management. These questions will frame the activities of ecoSERVICES, formerly a DIVERSITAS project and now a project of Future Earth, in its role as a platform to foster global coordination of multidisciplinary sustainability science through the lens of ecosystem services