Rogers began his career at Rotary on October 15, 1969, and during his 40 years of service, was involved in many capacities including purchasing, advertising and international sales. Over the years, he received numerous awards and recognition, including:

• 1988 -  “The President’s E Certificate for Exports,” presented by The Secretary of Commerce
• 1989 -  “The Governor’s International Award,” presented by Joe Frank Harris, Governor of Georgia
• 1993 -  “The President’s E Star Award for Exports,” presented by The Secretary of Commerce

Rogers is survived by his wife Faye, son Brian, daughter Kellie and son-in-law Brett.  Funeral services were held February 22 at First Baptist Church in Glennville, Ga.

The mission began with a special job to clean up a soldier’s property, bringing in dozens of landscaping volunteers and Cub Cadet products that could get a big job done. The Dirty Jobs production crew spent a day filming volunteers from Cub Cadet, landscaping company Brickman Group, and Mike Rowe cleaning up the property.  Scenes from the day will run within Dirty Jobs this Spring, which airs on Tuesday nights, and longer form segments will run online at cubcadet.com/greencare. Fans of Mike Rowe can also get his perspective at mikeroweWORKS.com/greencare, where he writes about the experience and posts his own pictures and video.

Ways to get involved include:

• Adopt one or two families by maintaining their lawns throughout the summer
• Loan your premium quality Cub Cadet equipment to volunteers
• Repair equipment for families that want to care for their own property, but don’t have a working mower

“We developed this page to provide us with an additional avenue to communicate with our dealers and customers and anyone else who may be interested in Kioti Tractors,” states Ron Parrish, Market Development Manager.  “It also allows us to gauge input posted by our dealers and customers to make sure we continue to provide them with exemplary customer service and the high-end products they have come to expect from our company.”

The Facebook Fan Page allows Kioti to post news releases, marketing polls and surveys, product and corporate videos, photos and to generate discussion amongst tractor owners and enthusiasts about their products. Fans can also post comments, photos, videos and any other information they would like to share about their tractor or experience dealing with Kioti.

“We want to know what’s being said about Kioti in the marketplace,” states Tony Brown, National Sales Manager. “If we don’t keep tabs on how we’re doing in terms of product quality, support and parts, we’re not doing our job. We are a market driven company and plan to utilize the social media to be more responsive to our customers and to continue meeting their needs.”

“Each site ultimately belongs to our customers as a way to communicate thoughts, ideas and opinions to Stens,” commented Peter Ariens, Stens President.

Follow Stens on Twitter and visit the company’s Linked In profile.

The school is a two year training program and more than 74 first and second year participants enrolled this year, up from 67 in 2009. The program is funded in part by gold-level sponsor Stihl Inc., which provides travel funds to offset expenses of attending on-site leadership school events and also sponsors the NASPD annual conference.

“Stihl recognizes the need for educational support and the National Association of State Park Directors does a great job of providing this,” said Roger Phelps, promotional communications manager for Stihl Inc. “We have some experience with succession planning in our dealer network so helping ensure the next generation of leadership in America’s state park system receives this training in the face of severe budget cuts seemed the right thing to do.”

This three day event will open with a dealer welcome reception on February 23, followed by two days of extensive sales training, product announcements and the opportunity for dealers to provide Kioti management with feedback from their assigned territory.

The overall theme of this year’s event will be ‘Improving Your Sales & Profits.’  The lead speaker for the event will be Bob Clements, a renowned motivational speaker who will address time management, daily operations, resources, unexpected challenges and personnel issues and how having a better handle on all these things can ultimately help a dealership run more efficiently and profitably.

During the meeting, all dealers in attendance will visit Kioti’s headquarters in Wendell for an afternoon of competitive tractor comparisons, competitive UTV comparisons and the opportunity to ride competitive model machines to get a better handle on how they compare to the equivalent Kioti tractor or UTV.

The sales meeting will conclude with a formal Dealer Awards banquet on the evening of February 25.  Kioti’s President, C.G. Kim, and his staff will present the Rookie Dealer of the Year award and the Most Improved Dealer award. Following those presentations, the coveted 5-Paw Dealer Awards will be issued and Kioti’s Million Dollar Dealers for 2009 will be recognized.

The Duke Award, named in honor of the company’s late founder, Duke Harvey, was presented to Mr. Bush for consistently displaying both competitive and positive business approaches to enhance the growth of Rotary.