March 2008
Cultivating Leaders of Respect and Integrity to Support Families and Farms
By Shannon Douglass and Kurt Hoekstra
Being introduced as the Leadership Farm Bureau Class of 2008 at the CACs was just the beginning of our adventure. We arrived not knowing the other members in our class, but anticipated meeting each other, wondering how we would begin to form into a team of leaders. The LFB Alumni Social proved to be a success, where we got the opportunity to meet our classmates, past LFB alumni and our state Farm Bureau leaders.
It was during our March class when we began to fully understand the privilege of being selected for LFB. The time and resources that are spent educating us is tremendous and we were truly amazed by the many facets of Farm Bureau. The various divisions within Farm Bureau visited us and gave a brief overview of their responsibilities and duties. With their cutting edge knowledge and expertise, knowing that the leaders of the leading farm organization in the state are committed to furthering agriculture is both assuring and comforting.
The session on professional business etiquette was filled with many lessons that will be helpful as we develop into leaders in both the agricultural and public arenas. We learned what is appropriate to wear and when to wear it, which fork belonged with what and how it is not a good idea to order soup or spaghetti at business meetings. Our instructor reminded us that our people skills are often more important than our technical skills and proper business etiquette will help us put our best foot and fork forward throughout our careers.
Lunch was our first opportunity to practice our newly acquired dining skills. This is also when we met our LFB mentors, Brad Goehring, Rachael Johnson, Stanton Lange and Jim Spinetta, who served as mentors and advisors to help guide us through the challenges of the program. We met with them in small groups to discuss our individual goals for the program, and realized quickly how much we looked forward to working with them throughout the year ahead.
The afternoon session was filled with lessons about the Farm Bureau organization at a local, state and national level. We heard from representatives from many Farm Bureau divisions, including governmental affairs, political affairs, national affairs, the natural resources and environmental division, and communication and news. Later that afternoon, we picked up our second wind from a lively visit from Katie Reid and Kelly Cormier from the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. The pair divided us into groups, where we competed in a spirited agricultural products relay. They got our blood pumping and showed us first-hand the exciting work that AITC does to help educate our youth about agriculture.
Our final mission of the day was to define our individual and team values. We began by sorting our personal values into categories of always, often, sometimes and rarely important. After narrowing down our personal values, we each created our own personal mission statement and posted and shared them with each other. After evaluating all of our missions, we began the process of creating our group mission. Two hours and two giant notepads later, we emerged with: LFB…Cultivating leaders of respect and integrity to support families and farms. To celebrate having created our mission statement we headed out to a nice dinner on the river.
Saturday morning we were led by Dennis Stohl, who worked with us to evaluate several important traits of leadership. We discussed the qualities of character, charisma, commitment, responsibility, security and self-discipline. The discussion revolved around how these qualities play a major role in successful leaders. Dennis also reminded us of the time commitment involved with LFB, and stressed the importance of making sure we take time out for our families.
As we look back on our first session of LFB, we can see ourselves coming together as a team. Learning more about each class member strengthened our bond and solidified the development of what we know will be lifelong friendships. From the beginning, we anticipated the remaining classes and activities and how they’d push us past our comfort zones in order for us to realize our full potential and become effective leaders in our communities and within our larger Farm Bureau family.