Leadership Conference

Leadership Conference. I’m Greg Martin with Washington Ag Today.

Now that we are into March, the April Leadership Conference is just around the corner. Rick Gastelum, Business Manager with Washington Farm Bureau discusses what folks can expect.

GASTELUM: The general theme of it is Agricultural Advocacy Leadership. So what we’re trying to do during the conference is empower our volunteer leaders that are spread out across the state of Washington to be good advocates for agriculture. We provide them training on how to tell the agricultural story, be it through print, be it through different media, through social media so we provide them training there.

Gastelum says the conference really helps prepare those folks for a lot of various aspects when it comes to advocacy for ag.

GASTELUM: Some other stuff that we’re teaching them as well, not only o the advocacy side but also just on running their businesses. We try and share some best practices. For instance, this year we have a lot of - with the big push of farm-to-table and buying local we’re going to have a session on people that do direct marketing to schools, to local food banks, local farmers markets and how people do that around the state.

The conference runs April 15, 16 and 17 in Wenatchee. You can register online at wsfb.com

GASTELUM: Overall it’s a way to basically plant seeds attendees minds about how to be good stewards, not only to be a good vocal voice for agriculture but also stewards of the land and find other opportunities to improve their business operation.

And that’s Washington Ag Today. I’m Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.