believed it was for an ideal county Farm Bureau board member to possess the following

 abilities or competencies with l=low and 7=high. On the right side, respondents were

 asked how proficient they believed they were at each ability or competency with l=low

 and 7=high.

 Leadership

 The first section of survey questionnaire was comprised of the competencies that

 belonged to the leadership theme and are reflected in Table 4-19. The Cronbach's alpha

 for this scale was 0.97 which indicates a high reliability for this list of competencies. The

 overall mean for the scale was 5.4. Two competencies had the highest means of(M=5.9,

 SD=1.5) which indicated that respondents felt they were the most important abilities or

 competencies of an ideal Farm Bureau country board member. These were: "choose

 individuals to serve the organization who are respected their communities" and

 "demonstrate ability to conduct an orderly meeting." The competency that received the

 lowest score was "recognize personality differences (as indicated by personality tests

 such as the Myers Briggs)" (M=4.7, SD=1.7).

 Table 4-19 Leadership Competencies of County Board Members Importance (N= 114)
 Mean SD
 Choose individuals to serve the organization who are respected their 5.9 1.5
 communities
 Demonstrate ability to conduct an orderly meeting 5.9 1.5
 Use effective communication skills in working with groups 5.7 1.5
 Practice progressiveness (not do things the way they have always 5.7 1.4
 been done)
 Use effective communication skills in media interviews 5.6 1.6
 Choose individuals to serve who are recognized as leaders by their 5.6 1.5
 peers
 Demonstrate knowledge of the use of goals and objectives in an 5.5 1.5
 organization
 Use effective communication skills in writing letters 5.5 1.5
 Identify potential leaders 5.4 1.5
Demonstrate success in leadership capacities 5.4 1.4