ST. LOUIS, MO. - John
Shearer, vice president of the
Pennsylvania Master Corn
Growers Association, Inc., has
been selected to participate in the
National Corn Growers
Association (NCGA) Leadership
Development Program.
“The program is designed to
transfer and develop the
managerial skills growers already
apply to their farming operations
to guide and expand the influence
of their associations,” says NCGA
president Varel Bailey. “The
Shearer to participate in corn growers program
training will help make the state
and national corn growers’
organizations highly effective
representatives of their mem
bers.”
The Agricultural Division of
Ciba-Geigy Corp. has made a
major commitment to NCGA to
support the program. “Leadership
development is not a one-year
proposition,” says Phil Koch, the
company’s director of com
munications. “To build a strong,
viable organization, representing
the interests of com growers
across the nation, is a long-term
process that must involve more
than the current generation of
leaders. This is why Ciba-Geigy
has made an initial commitment to
sponsor the NCGA Leadership
Development Program for three
years.”
Each year selected leaders from
state com grower groups will
attend two three-day development
and training seminars in Green
sboro, N.C., and Washington, D.C.
During the first seminar in
Greensboro in mid-August 1985,
Lancaster Farming Saturday, July 20,1985-D7
program participants will develop
their motivation, persuasion and
organization skills. They also will
participate in a public-speaking
workshop and receive training in
working with the media.
In January 1986 the same group
will hone their skills in working
with government at a second
seminar in the nation’s capitol.
"“Political power doesn’t mean
working only with your state’s
Congressmen or Senators,” Koch
savs “Often, they’re in your
corner. Farmers have to lobby
everyone on Capitol Hill to achieve
their purposes.”
While in Washington, the NCGA
leaders will learn more about
government structure and ef
fective lobbying on the national
level. They also will be updated on
farm legislation and agribusiness,
visit representatives on Capitol
Hill, and leam how to improve
their political effectiveness at the
grass-roots level.