Ag Leadership Survey
Dear Producer,
A team from UMaine Extension is considering revising and presenting the Ag Leadership Training that was conducted throughout the 1990’s for farmers and for others involved in the agricultural industry. The team includes Donna Coffin, Leslie Forstadt, Gary Anderson, Tori Jackson, Dave Marcinkowski, Colt Knight, Lily Calderwood, Dick Brzozowski and Kathy Hopkins.
In a recent survey conducted at the Maine Ag Trades Show, only 58% of respondents felt that the leaders of their respective local and statewide associations had adequate leadership skills.
We would like to identify the leadership needs your local or statewide association need to help make them more effective. This will help us create future training opportunities to increase the effectiveness and leadership capacity of ag associations and its members.
As an example of ag leadership, consider this example: There is a bill in the legislature affecting your commodity. Producers would like to get factual information to legislators about this industry and the impact this bill will have. How do you organize commodity producers to put together an informational packet that provides that factual information, how do you work with individual legislators to answer their questions about the impact of the bill and how do you organize your producer group to provide written and verbal testimony on the bill when it comes up for a public hearing? This is just one broad example of how leadership training can be helpful in getting a message across to policy makers.
Please take a few moments to share your thoughts and respond to the survey.
Tori
Tori Lee Jackson, Extension Educator
Associate Professor of Agriculture and Natural Resources
University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Androscoggin and Sagadahoc Counties Office