Tim Hume,
NCGA President
2001 – 2002
NCGA Leadership Academy
Leadership begins at the ground level. It starts with your county
association, going up to the state level and then to the national
level. During this two-part training you will learn tools to help
you become an effective grower leader…it’s up to you
to use those tools to promote your organization effectively.
If you look at the recent victories in agriculture…the
passage of the 2002 Farm Bill, the passage of trade promotion
authority, and the Senate and House passage of a national energy
bill which includes a renewable fuels standard that is now in
conference…growers such as yourselves pushed for those bills
and got them passed.
Growers such as yourselves took control of the
situation and contacted their elected officials, telling them,
“We need this Farm Bill” and “We need TPA.”
Growers such as yourselves contacted fellow farmers across the
state and across the country, convincing them of the importance
of these issues.
A big part of leadership may not necessarily be
what you do or how you do it, but what you look like when you’re
doing it and how you sound when you’re saying it. Last October,
when I became president of NCGA, I became the official face and
voice of not just the 32,300 members of our organization, but
of the 300,000 corn growers across the United States. I’ve
been interviewed on TV and on radio; I’ve been interviewed
for newspapers all over the world, and they’re not always
as friendly about their questions as our NCGA communications staff
is when they are working on stories.
I have gained a lot of experience with the media,
but the one thing that helped me more than any other was the training
I received at the NCGA Leadership Academy sponsored by NCGA and
Syngenta Crop Protection.
The two-part course provided me in-depth training
on how to face the media, where to go for the answers to the questions
they’re going to ask, and how to remain calm and professional.
It is imperative that we, as farmers, not only know what we are
talking about when we address the media, but also present ourselves
in a professional manner when we’re talking.
All of you have the potential to be great leaders
within NCGA and your state organization. The first step is being
active in NCGA or your organization. By taking that step, you
will have shown you have the desire to be a leader, the desire
to represent your fellow growers, and most importantly, the desire
to venture into the unknown.
The second step is taking the lessons you will
learn at the NCGA Leadership Academy and implementing them when
you go home. It’s not always easy and it’s not always
glamorous, but as the backbone of a great organization like NCGA,
it will always be interesting.