FLORIDA FEDERATION TRAVELS
TO THE STATE CAPITOL!
The Florida Federation of Fairs through the leadership of the Legislative Committee and Committee Chairman Terry Atchley made its fourth trip to Tallahassee to meet with state senators and representatives about the importance of the Fair industry to our state and to our communities.
This is the fourth year that the Florida Federation has taken a delegation to Tallahassee to meet with our elected officials.This trip has proven to be a great help in getting to know our legislators on a personal basis and to tell our story.
On December 9th and 10th, 2019 Florida Federation members representing Fairs from across the state met with many of our elected officials. The group was able to connect with many state offices that day and consider the day a great success.The Federation group included: Terry Atchley, Legislative Committee Chair from the Hardee County Fair; Federation President, Bill Olson from the Greater Jacksonville Fair; Eddie Cora and George Abreu from the Miami Dade Youth Fair; Happy Norris from the Lake County Fair, Tom Umiker from the Hillsborough County Fair; Shawn Krauel from the Central Florida Fair; Paul Davis and Tim Lovett from the Florida Strawberry Festival; and Daniel West, Federation Executive Director.A special thanks also to Jim Spratt with CAS Governmental Services LLC for helping us set up appointments with our elected officials.
Our message was an easy one this year as we greeted each legislator with "we don't have any specific issues this year and we aren't asking for money, we are here to share with you how important Fairs are to our local communities and the state of Florida”.
We left each elected official with a flyer that documented the facts above.
That evening the Federation participated in the Taste of Florida Ag reception and distributed 200 bags of cotton candy and 200 candy apples donated by Belle City Amusements. Needless to say, our booth was extremely popular!
With Florida’s term limits the number of newly elected officials each year is astounding. We know how important it is to educate our elected officials about Fairs and it's even more important now as there are so many new legislators.
Each year our trip to Tallahassee trip has become more productive than the years before and the Federation plans to make this a continual event.