AG lessons on your laptop

Farmers and ranchers know better than most that learning isn’t exclusive to classrooms or meeting venues. With that in mind, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s learning and development team created Farm Bureau University, an interactive online experience that allows Farm Bureau members to learn where and when they want.

Farm Bureau University’s latest offering, Farm Bureau Board Essentials, was designed to help county Farm Bureau board members lead strong, effective organizations that meet members’ needs on all levels. The program provides resources and training for county board members in five essential pathways: Being a Board Member; Governance; Planning; Policy Development & Advocacy; and the Membership Cycle.

For example, through Farm Bureau Board Essentials, a new county board member can get the fundamentals—like budget building basics or how to draft an action-oriented agenda—from the online training so when he or she meets with field staff, fellow Farm Bureau members or a retiring board member, they can get right down to the important issues at hand.

“As a package, this is one of the most comprehensive training programs AFBF has ever provided to county Farm Bureaus. It runs the whole gamut, from the history of Farm Bureau to the roles and responsibilities of county Farm Bureau board members to the many important aspects of membership to how to lead productive policy development discussions and implement those policies through advocacy,” said Kyle Perry, AFBF director of learning and development.

Regardless of the topic, in each pathway, the learner will experience:

A two-minute kickoff video

A 10-question pre-assessment

Two or more 10-minute e-learning primers

Two or more 10-minute e-learning skill builders

An application toolkit with downloadable resources

A 10-question post-assessment

Booster activities to refresh learning

Although Board Essentials was created by AFBF, between Board Essentials and Farm Bureau Builder, another FB University program, more than 50 state Farm Bureau staff members have provided valuable feedback to shape the content.

“The information we offer has been time-tested. Much of it ­— like the membership training and board roles and responsibilitie — is pulled from existing training programs. We’re taking what works for county Farm Bureaus and putting it into an easily understood and readily accessible format,” Perry said.

Two of the five pathways — Being a Board Member and Governance — are available now. The remaining three are in the final stages of development.

To start your journey on the five essential pathways of Farm Bureau Board Essentials, go to university.fb.org. New users will need to register for a free account using member code “state fb,” replacing “state” with the two-letter postal abbreviation. For example, a New York Farm Bureau member’s code is: nyfb.