The Rural Voice, 1978-11, Page 39The
Young Farmer
1
Perth Junior Farmer President Bill Denham
Perth president
takes responsibility
By Debbie Ranney
Bill Denham of R.R.2, St. Marys
believes that if you're going to join a group
like Junior Farmers, you should take some
of the responsibility of providing some of
the Ieadershi p to keep the group function-
ing.
That's why today Bill is the president of
the Perth County Junior Farmers. He was
willing to make his way up through the
ranks in order to keep the Junior Farmer
program going.
As president, he is the leader of the
group but as he points out, "I don't expect
to have to do all the work."
His job entails getting together with the
executive and giving everybody certain
jobs all through the county. He chairs the
meetings and keeps people at their jobs
which are spread out over the whole
county. Everybody pulls their share, he
said.
But just what king of activities are the
Junior Farmers involved in? In the next
little while they are going to have a raffle
coming up to raise money for a senior
citizens activity centre going up in
Stratford, a broomball tournament is
corning up and every year the Junior
Farmers put on a Christmas concert at one
of the schools in the county. The four clubs
in the Perth County Junior Farmers are,
Listowel, Mitchell, Stratford, and North
Easthope.
Bill is a member of the Stratford Club
but he tries throughout the year to get to
one of the meetings of each of the clubs.
And if they have a special meeting he'll
show up. That way, he says he gets to know
members all through the county.
Every club has a meeting once a month
and the county has a meeting once a
month. Each local club has their own
projects however. They have local fund
raising activities and each club usually puts
on a dance. They decide who's going
when a trip is coming up and they have
their own sports teams. But the county also
tries to get members out of each club and
bring them together in some activities.
A Link
There is also a link between the
provincial and the country Junior Farmers
organizations. Bill said that at the county
meetings they have an agricultural repre-
sentative from Stratford who tells of
anything that has come through the
agricultural office that's coming up and a
provincial director who provides inform-
ation on the Provincial Junior Farmers
meetings. If the provincial Junior Farmers
are having a hospitality tent at the Royal
Winter Fair for example, and the director
wants some of the people from the clubs in
Perth County to work there, she lets them
know.
As president Bill also has to call the
County meetings and make up an agenda
of what's going on. In his agenda he tries
to keep a couple of months ahead of the club's
agendas.
In order to follow the route through to
becoming president one usually starts off
as an active junior farmer member and
works up so "you get to know the format".
Once you get into the club executive, you
can move on to a county executive position.
A leadership camp is held for anyone
seeking an executive position. People can
either attend in the fall or between
Christmas and New Years if that is more
convenient.
"It (the camp) really, helps to see
leadership qualities and what to look for
when you're leading your club," Bill said.
The leadership route Bill himself fol-
lowed was as a member of the Stratford
club, than President of the Straford club,
followed by being provincial director for he
county, than on to County president.
Bill who is 26, has been in junior farmers
for five years now. He only joined the group
after returning home from College because
there weren't many clubs in his area before
he left. The maximum is 29 years of age to
hold an executive position.
3-4 Nights
Bill says he would probably average
three or four nights a month working on
junior farmer business and he tries to work
into his schedule any other activities if
possible.
If a local club runs into problems, the
county will try to help them get thing
running smoothly but most of the time they
try to let the clubs run as much on their
own as possible.
"T•h'ey should build up their own ideas
and own formats and got the members
involved," Bill says. The purpose of the
junior farmers is to give rural young people
with the same interests a chance to get
together and have competitions and
outings and (earn leadership skills:
Bill was elected as the president in
January. Most presidents usually have
only one year terms because the vice-
president usually moves up.
In College
Bill became interested in joining the
Junior Farmers group when he was in
college and met a lot of Junior Farmer
members there. When he got out of college
he decided to join the group to keep in
touch with other Young people his age.
Currently Bill owns a farm at R.R.2, St.
Marys. He and his wife Agnes have a son
named Steven. His dad owns the farm
beside him and they work them both
to-gether.
What kind of leadership qualities does
Bill think someone needs in order to be
county president?
"Anybody that's been a member of
junior farmers for quite a few years and
enjoys quite a few of the activities that go
on and would like to see it continue and
prosper would make a great president
because all it takes is a little bit of drive to
keep things rolling," Bill said.
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THE RURAL VOICE/NOVEMBER 1978 PG. 39