Wendy Manson is the kind of member any organization would love to have on board.
Committed, intelligent, articulate and hard-working, the 41-year-old farmer from Conquest, Sask. is a dedicated supporter of the National Farmers Union.
She also represents the dilemma facing the union as it enters its second quarter-century. It is hard to find people with the time and commitment to keep the NFU going.
She and her husband farm 2,500 acres, have 35 head of cattle, run a plumbing business with one employee and have three kids under the age of 10.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
“Anybody who thinks we have any time to spare is crazy,” said Manson.
After several years on the women’s advisory board and serving on the national executive in 1994, Manson is now “just a member”, although a member who makes time to sit on the NFU’s transportation committee.
“It isn’t that we don’t want to be involved. It’s because we have too much on our plate,” she said. “And if you look
at all the people our age, that’s just the way it is.”
This is part of the challenge for the NFU as it struggles for survival and relevance in its second quarter century.
It has spent much of the past year trying to figure out what it must do to continue in the face of government indifference and no active support from a vast majority of farmers.
In this special report, Saskatoon-based national correspondent Adrian Ewins examines the survival struggle of the 25-year-old NFU in the face of falling membership and continuing (if declining) deficits.
The union has a new strategy that calls for more aggressive membership recruitment and service. The crucial question remains: Does the farmcommunity care?
