Enger elected ISPFMRA president

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers’ new leadership team was seated at its annual meeting Feb. 5.

Laura Enger of Farmer City, certified general real estate appraiser at Farm Credit Illinois, Mahomet, was elected ISPFMRA president.

Other officers are Nick Westgerdes, president-elect, Farmers National Company, Rochelle; Nick Seuss, vice president, Field Level Agriculture, Greenville; Michael Lauher, immediate past-president, First Mid Ag Services, Mattoon; Gary Schnitkey, secretary-treasurer, University of Illinois; and Maria Boerngen, academic vice president, Illinois State University.

Enger is a 16-year member of the organization. She’s a graduate of Blue Ridge High School and the U of I with a degree in agribusiness markets and management. During her time at the U of I, she resided and held several officer posts at the 4-H House Sorority.

“I had a great time there and made a lot of connections and still have relationships to this day with people from college that are in my profession,” she said.

Enger credits her career to a mentor while at the U of I.

“While I was at school, a teacher in farm management, Paul Stoddard, became my mentor. They had a semester-long class in appraisal and I just fell in love with it,” she said.

“From there, it was fate that a Farm Credit appraiser retired that fall after I graduated, and then Paul Stoddard (then-Farm Credit chief appraiser and U of I visiting teaching associate) hired me for that job. I’ve started at Farm Credit when I was 22 and I’ve had a great time there ever since.”

Enger previously served as vice president and president-elect prior to being elected president.

“One of the roles as a board chair is event planning. Obviously, you have to preside over the meetings, attend the monthly board call and help plan a summer tour. In the last couple years, we’ve had partnership tours with Iowa and then this summer we’re going to do a summer tour with Indiana. We’re looking forward to that, and that’s early September,” she said.

“Every single person affiliated with this is a volunteer. This is outside of their normal career, but it obviously helps elevate them and gives them more face time with the public when you’re involved. So, really, involvement is key. You get out of it, what you put into it.”

Membership Benefits

Enger has seen the personal and professional value of being an ISPFMRA member, sharing expertise and experiences at times with competing professionals in the field.

“We are a kind of friendly competitors, if you think about it. Obviously, it’s location specific to your role, whether you’re in farm management or appraisal. But I consider this a like-minded peer group,” she said.

“I almost consider my competitors as people who are outside of this organization and not so much as the people who are members. I call upon my appraisal peers all the time for interesting property valuations like cell towers, a wind turbine or something like that. ‘What sells have you seen? What’s your idea on this? How do you handle this?’

“It only makes us better if we have a peer group to bounce ideas off of and get information from. And really all of these career paths — consulting, farm management, appraisal — it’s all relationship-based.”

ISPFMRA is the oldest of the 28 state chapters of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. The Illinois group was founded at the U of I campus in 1928 under the leadership of D. Howard Doane and is preparing for its centennial celebration.

“This organization is almost 100 years old and there’s not a lot of other societies that have been around that long. There are members today that have had 50 years of membership. It’s just incredible, the knowledge that you can get as a new person starting out with someone more senior,” Enger said.