Findings of this study determined what Farm Bureau is doing and what it needs to

 do to make local board members more effective in their county Farm Bureau's and also

 in their communities. The findings will be used as the state Farm Bureau organization is

 interested in developing a leadership program for its members, especially those serving

 on the local county boards. Results of this study will provide the state organization with

 the information needed to develop programs tailored to the needs of members.

 Research Context

 This study took place in several locations and covered a five-month period, from

 January 2004 to May 2004. The development of the interview schedule occurred in early

 January and was completed early February 2004. The survey instrument developed from

 these interviews was pilot tested in March, then sent out to all local board members at the

 end of March 2004. The third and final part of this study, the leadership behavior

 instrument was developed and pilot tested in March 2004 and then was mailed to a

 sample of Florida Farm Bureau active members in late March 2004 with the responses

 collected until the middle of May 2004.

 Research Participants

 For this study, one population, the Florida Farm Bureau organization, was used.

 Three subsets of this population were included in this population. The first subset was

 the leadership of the FFBF, which included: the president of the board of directors,

 administrative and legal counsel, director of the agricultural policy division, director of

 public relations, the vice president of the board of directors, the coordinator of national

 affairs, and the executive director of the Dade County Farm Bureau. These individuals

participated in the first part of this study, individual interviews using a long interview