Farm Bureau headquarters in Gainesville, Florida and two took place by telephone, and

 all were recorded for later transcription. This transcription occurred soon after the

 interviews and themes were examined in the responses. Four themes emerged from these

 interviews and served as a basis for the instrument that was developed for county board

 members.

 The second instrument was developed by the researcher from the responses of the

 long interviews. Respondents of this survey questionnaire (Appendix D) were local Farm

 Bureau county board members. This instrument was pilot tested with a group of county

 board members who were not included in the final sample. From the content analysis of

 the long interviews with state Farm Bureau officials, a list of 100 competencies were

 identified in four areas: leadership, political process, knowledge of Farm Bureau, and

 effective boards. Participants were asked to rate the importance of each competency to

 the success of a county board using a Likert scale ranging from 1 (low importance) to 7

 (high importance). In addition, how proficient they felt they were, was also rated on a

 Likert scale ranging from 1 (low importance) to 7 (high importance). After pilot testing

 this instrument and analyzing the data, the list of competencies was reduced to 66 across

 the four construct areas. A conceptual model for this part of the study depicting the

 relationship between the competencies found in the first part of the study and what makes

 a successful board member is presented in Figure 3-1. This model represents that being a

successful board member is a function of competencies in the four theme areas.

 Competencies In:
 SBM f (L, + Pc + Ec + K)
 Successful Leadership Political Effective Knowledge
 Board Member Process Boards of Farm Bureau
Figure 3-1. Competencies Necessary for Successful Board Members.