They’re the common cold and the aching joints of your world: How does the county Farm Bureau deepen its roster of involved members and maintain the appeal of its events and activities? They’re also exactly the kind of everyday puzzles conferences like MFB’s Council of Presidents can help you solve.
One especially practical session at this year’s presidents’ conference, Jan. 15-16 in Midland, saw a pair of active county presidents sharing tips that’ve worked in their county Farm Bureaus — one with an ample membership base, the other tough to see with the naked eye.
Kalamazoo County President Chad Geoit and Iosco leader Nathan Payne had straightforward answers for every question tossed their way about changing up involvement opportunities and finding volunteers to staff them.
“You can leverage your own personal networks and engage with youth organizations like 4-H and FFA” to find fresh new human resources for staffing Farm Bureau events, Payne said, encouraging his peers to stretch beyond their usual circles and visit with organizations that may only link to agriculture here and there.
Taking an audience question about securing more member involvement, Payne was blunt.
“Pounce!” he said, explaining that even small expressions of interest are open doors — invitations to step in and capitalize on a member’s willingness to help with a given task.
Payne was equally blunt in his assessment of Iosco’s annual meeting as he first found it. The event went from drab to fab when they moved it to a family-friendly pumpkin patch and encouraged attendees to bring their children.
Attendance tripled.
“People stayed longer because they were having fun! Payne remembered.
Prompted by moderators from MFB’s field staff of regional managers, Geoit picked up a relatively new banner on the involvement battlefield and charged it forward. Pitching volunteer opportunities will find more ‘yes’ responses when the scope is limited, the boundaries are clear and the time commitment is manageable.
The buzzword version is “micro-volunteering.”
“We need someone to take tickets on this day from this hour to this hour,” he demonstrated. “And pick just one event,” he added — not a drawn-out campaign with no end in sight.
The pair agreed that activity calendars themselves benefit from streamlining — more frequent but smaller in scale, for instance, can be a winning combination that alleviates daunting intimidation that can scare off would-be helpers.
Another tip from the duo included looking for supporters from outside the immediate farming community, which can pay off in a couple ways: helping hands from outside the usual pool of volunteers and a marketing boost from event chatter extending outside that same ol’ audience.
Finally, regardless of the county Farm Bureau’s dimensions, enlisting support from local Farm Bureau Insurance agents routinely pays dividends. Often times these underutilized teammates —already in the people business — prove a handy way to expand the county Farm Bureau’s reach, regarding both volunteers and attendees.
