By Chuck Brandel: ADMC President
Welcome to the 2025 Annual Meeting. I want to extend my gratitude to everyone who was able to travel and join us in Minneapolis, as well as those participating online. I am honored to host the meeting at our Bloomington Office again this year. The past year ADMC experienced transitions, including the retirement of long-time President Kent Rodelius and the departure of Darla Huff from the drainage industry. We appreciate Darla’s efforts in initiating the development of a refreshed strategic vision for ADMC. Her work has kickstarted committee activities, increasing engagement from the board, and we hope to see even greater involvement from additional members in the coming year. I am honored to serve as ADMC President during this exciting time of renewed vision.
ADMC’s committees now include Marketing/Membership, Education, Policy, and an Adoption Task Force. Special thanks go to Chad, Trey, Levi, and Tom for chairing these committees. We anticipate even more impactful actions and contributions from these committees in 2026. All of these were part of our strategic planning efforts and will continue to push ADMC to a higher status in the industry. This is an important time for Drainage and Conservations as our industry is leading while also under attack. Our positive messages about the benefits of our work should Allow ADMC to continue to grow as the go to for experienced and research based implementation.
The year 2025 was another strong period for ADMC’s educational initiatives. ADMC and its members maintained a robust presence at key events such as NACADE, CDN, ASABE and the Soil and Water Conservation Society Meeting. ADMC played an integral role in both planning and ensuring the success of the CDN Annual Meeting, as well as organizing educational activities at NACADE. It was encouraging to see ADMC members at these events presenting on the merits of conservation drainage.
This year, ADMC expanded its reach by presenting to farm management groups such as People’s Company and Murray Wise and Associates and further engaged those in the agronomy sector. Recently, Keegan participated in a day-long training session for the Ag’s Clean Water Alliance board’s conservation agronomist and will soon be presenting about water management at the Indiana CCA winter meeting in December. Additionally, Keegan delivered a presentation to the California NRCS on the fundamentals of conservation drainage.
ADMC continues to be grateful for its tremendous membership support. We are excited to have welcomed many new members in 2025. Notably, Bron has joined at the platinum level, and David Princz now serves on the board. Port Industries, also representing the equipment side, is now in its second year with ADMC. We also appreciate the support from the Iowa Soybean Association and Weber Grade Solutions, who have joined at the Silver level. The year has seen solid growth from consulting and engineering groups, including Mauer-Stutz, Hay Water Consulting, Ron Olson, and AgriVia Engineering.
We are thrilled to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with NRCS. Charlie, Keegan, and I traveled to Washington, DC to meet with NRCS Chief Bettencourt just before the government shutdown. Chief Bettencourt’s focus on practices that prioritize farmers and seek greater efficiencies aligns well with ADMC’s vision. This partnership presents a valuable opportunity to advance the TSP program and leverage ADMC’s expertise to further these goals. At that meeting we also met with Alan Gillispie who wants to use ADMC for information on updating practice standards and dollars associated with practices. Let’s continue to use those connections to grow ADMC.