Incentive program | President urges directors to become more active within their rural municipalities
Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan president Norm Hall challenged directors last week to build a stronger organization based on the success of the last year.
“You need to take ownership of it,” he told delegates at the start of their annual general meeting in Regina.
He said they need to be more active within their member rural municipalities and take responsibility for making sure the APAS board is speaking on their behalf.
Hall, a Wynyard farmer who became president a year ago, was re-elected to another term later in the meeting.
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APAS continues to rebuild after infighting nearly destroyed the organization several years ago.
It has struggled to retain members after reaching a peak of 135 RM members in 2006.
The organization began 2012 with 61 out of a possible 295 RMs.
An introductory membership campaign attracted 30 more RMs, and general manager Nial Kuyek said the challenge now is to keep them.
These members are considered transitional until they begin to pay regular membership fees, which are either six cents an acre or a half-mill based on the 2000 assessment, whichever is less. Kuyek said most members pay the fee based on acres.
APAS hired field representative Bruce Dodds a year ago to recruit and retain members. He said he had met with 160 non-members by the end of November.
“If we can speak to a council, 20 percent of the time they become a member,” he said.
APAS districts are based on the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities division map. Dodds said there were only three members in District 3 at the start of the year but seven have been added.
He said his goal for next year is for more than half of the province’s RMs to belong to the organization. Another membership incentive will be used.
Meanwhile, Todd Lewis from Gray and Arlynn Kurtz from Stockholm will return as vice-presidents for another year.
Kuyek served notice that he will retire at the end of June. He identified three challenges for APAS: member recruitment and retention, expansion of the associate membership base to more commodity organizations and more work in policy development and advancement.
APAS will run a projected deficit of $67,000 this year. Kuyek said that would be covered by an operating surplus from previous years.
The organization recently moved its Regina office, which Kuyek said will save $50,000 per year.
