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Ohio Farm Bureau’s Leadership Conference Aug. 22 and 23 provided more than 500 chairmen with time to learn their duties for the year, gather ideas and enjoy fellowship. Comments from the evaluations said the training provided "good discussion opportunities." Another said, "Programming was on target to help chair develop programs for year." An information coordinator said, "Hearing concerns from other counties was interesting."

Training sessions were held for county presidents and chairmen of advisory council/young farmers, agricultural ecology, government affairs, information, Nationwide sponsorship, promotion and education and safety and youth programs.

In their remarks to the volunteer leaders, both OFBF President Bob Peterson and Executive Vice President Jack Fisher talked about the future of Farm Bureau. Fisher reviewed the program goals promised to members with the passage of the dues increase and how they were fulfilled, such as the hiring of a full-time director of national affairs, addition of the new Key Farmer Trip to Washington, D.C., increased election involvement, farm labor programs, improved fiscal responsibility in record keeping and bookkeeping, a new more efficient membership database system and growth of farmer and consumer communications all done with fewer staff members than in 2003. With all the organization’s successes, Fisher’s desire is to make Farm Bureau better for more people.

Peterson asked if the organization is as efficient and effective as it can be. "Have we maxed our potential? I don’t believe we have." He said Farm Bureau will be looking at its programs, structure, governance, fiscal efficiency and advances in technology. "We’re not satisfied with just being the best. We want to be better," he said.

Connie Dieken led the returning chairmen training seminar. The founder of onPoint communication introduced a three-pronged approach, called onPoint Method, for effective communication -- connect, convey and convince. She said the person receiving the communication controls the information. "If communication doesn’t get someone to act, then what’s it all about? It’s critical to meet their needs and priorities," she said.

The three-pronged approach recommended:

• Connecting with people to ensure you "make (communication) theirs." This is done by presenting the information with the most important part first and staying in the moment to make adjustments based on what you’re seeing and feeling from the person you’re talking to.
• Conveying to be clearly understood. If a message is conveyed properly, it breaks complex ideas into manageable pieces. Techniques she suggested included walking people through new things and showing pictures, charts and graphs. Talk in triplets -- people can absorb, process and recall three things at a time.
• Convincing to make things happen. It leads to commitment and encourages full buy-in to become involved. To make this happen, adjust the energy in your voice, smile when you talk to change the tone in your voice, reveal your reasoning and transfer ownership – once people thinks it’s their idea, they’ll do it. People commit to things they say or write down.

Chad Hymas, president of Chad Hymas Communications and a world-class wheelchair athlete, concluded the conference with an inspirational message challenging the volunteer leaders to change their vision. He said vision and those who do it is what separates good people from great people and businesses that are successful from those that fail. The No. 1 enemy of vision is pride, he said. He challenged the leaders to change a habit, tradition or belief. "Have a different perspective and you’ll accomplish your vision," he said.

Caption: To illustrate his point about changing our vision, Chad Hymas brought Pioneer Region Supervisor Melissa Bell on stage to play the role of Melanie, Hymas’ former high school classmate. Hymas and his friends mocked Melanie, who was disabled, before their vision changed and Melanie became their friend and school hero. Photo by Lynn Snyder