The Illinois Farm Bureau began development in 2021 and rolled out the program across the state in March 2022. With messaging that focused on the importance of county directors furthering their knowledge and professional skills to build the strongest agricultural organization in their county, as well as demonstrating the importance of professionalism to members and future board members, the organization heavily promoted the program via email, postcards, social media, and the organization’s weekly newspaper, FarmWeek.
“Probably the best thing that happened to us after our annual meeting was word of mouth. We had a tremendous uptick in people completing their certification and people registering because they wanted to make sure their county was represented. It was one of the biggest contributors to program growth,” Obermark said.
In a similar vein, Illinois Farm Bureau also relied on certified directors’ testimonies, which detailed what individual members personally gained through the program and were published in FarmWeek.
In addition to continuing to grow participation in the program, the Illinois Farm Bureau will be adding topics covering human resources and other important information needed to be a better board member.
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