Membership Advocacy is the Foundation of a Strong Organization

National Corn Growers Association has been around for – decades but when it comes to membership this farmer-led, and driven, organization is reinventing itself every day. With so many issues and outside forces effecting corn growers a strong collective voice is more important today than ever.

That’s why NCGA will be hosting a new, interactive program that will focus on member advocacy on July 25-27, 2018 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  While some of the foundational recruiting methods haven’t changed, our target grower population has changed dramatically, according to Mike Shelby, NCGA association and membership services manager.

“As a grassroots advocacy group, numbers still count and when you are a shrinking part of the population, we need every farmer to join and weigh in on the issues including the next generation. So, we must ask ourselves what motivates a millennial grower to belong to a trade association today?  How do we market to a younger, and more diverse grower population?” Shelby said. 

That discussion will be paired with a communications training with a focus on social media and grassroots training.  Getting to a busy target audience like farmers requires the right motivation and articulating the value proposition of membership, Shelby noted.

“This much we know, if we want to reach the next generation of grower-members, we need to build the next generation of ambassadors to reach them,” Shelby said. “And that’s a fundamental challenge we will tackle because it is critical to a successful future for every corn farmer and their family.”

 To find out more about this opportunity, please contact the membership manager at your state corn association. Or, membership questions can be directed to Mike Shelby at shelby@ncga.com.