The Rural Voice, 1983-06, Page 38FREYJ»»»»>»
MANUFACTURING
Manufacturers of
Belt Feeders Loader Buckets
Belt Conveyors Chain Conveyors
Front End Loaders
R.R. 3, Listowel
Ontario N4W 3G8
519-291-4156
Quality Swine Co-op
Monthly Breeding Stock
Auction Sale
June 2
7:30 p.m.
Excellent selection of QS. Tested
and Approved Purebred and Cross-
bred Boars and Cross -bred Gilts.
For more information on brochures
on the Quality Swine Breeding Pro-
gram and/or Tele Auction for Feed-
ermen, contact the area Supervisor
nearest you:
Norm Wilson
Fordwich
335-3127
or
Chris Hills
Seatorth
527-1913
Quality Swine Co-op
P.O. Box 53,
Shedden, Ontario. NOL 2E0
519-764-2300
PG. 36 THE RURAL VOICE, JUNE 1983
People Development
in Farm Organizations
by Bev Brown
Many farm organizations have excel-
lent people on their executive commit-
tees, but some groups seems unable to
develop into active, vibrant organiza-
tions and the executives remain much
the same each year with little "new
blood" in the organizations.
The "cream" in an organization, un-
like in the old bottle of milk, does not
automatically rise to the top.
Very few farm organizations devote
any time to people development. Often,
when the people at the top want to step
down or are burned out, there is no one
waiting in the wings to take over.
Often, this organization loses its effec-
tiveness, not because it is no longer
needed, but because no one had the
foresight to do some long range plan-
ning and development with the mem-
bers.
Let us assume that an organization
has a viable reason for existing and
their programs have attracted members
who are interested in the aims of the
organization. Now let us look at ways
to encourage individual members to
take on responsibilities in the organiza-
tion. How can you overcome the "I
don't want to get involved" syndrome
possessed by some members and how
do you discover those "lights hidden
under bushel baskets". An organization
needs all types of people: extroverts,
shy people, doers, thinkers, planners
and motivators.
First of all, an organization is going
to be judged by the people who are
running it as well as by the programs it
promotes. You've heard the phrase "a
man is judged by the company he
keeps". So it is important to try to
attract persons who have credibility in
the community within which the organi-
zation functions. Also, most organiza-
tions will benefit if the people in charge
have a diversity of background, age and
sex. Organizations need people who
have far-reaching vision and can see the
final picture, or the bottom line. They
also need people who can logically plan
the steps and fill in the many details
necessary to reach the bottom line.
Secondly, every organization will have
a few people who will come forward on
their own to serve on the executive.
These people usually are self-confident
and possibly have prior experience in
other organizations. They also know
that it is more fun and more interesting
to get involved. It should be remem-
bered that those people do not neces-
sarily have more talents, skills or
abilities than the members who have
not stepped forward. There will be
hesitant, quiet people in an organiza-
tion who have just as much to offer.
Another thing to consider is that the
person who steps forward on his/her
own may have an axe to grind which
may, or may not, fit in with the policies
of the organization.
So at this stage of our mythical
organization, an executive has been
elected and the various programs start
to take shape. At this point, most
organizations make two mistakes. They
neglect to put anyone in charge of
public relations and they do not spend
any time on membership development.
Let us look at membership develop-
ment in this article and leave public
relations for another time.
Membership development should be
the responsibility of all of the executive
and not just one person, assuming that
all of the executive are interested in
their organization growing and surviv-
ing.__
You do not need any formal training
to work at membership development.
What you do need is the understanding
that (1) if you try to do all the work
yourself and do not encourage other
members to take on various jobs, then
you are going to severely limit how
much gets done. You must become
comfortable with delegating jobs. It
helps to remernber that everyone has to
start somewhere and that at some time
or other, everyone makes mistakes. (2)
If members do not gain experience in
the organization, they will not be
inclined to move up into the executive
committee. This means you may be
stuck with the job longer than you
want, which may make you feel wanted
and needed, but actually it reflects a
lack of forethought on your part.
So how do you go about this mem-
bership development?
(1) You make a list of all the various
jobs needed to be done in order to
make your organization effective and
worthwhile. Try to break the large jobs
down into lists of smaller jobs.
(2) Beside each job you mark the
names of persons who might consider