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personality differences and the ability to use e-mail and the internet, two competencies

that were considered important by state officials. Proficiency scores were also low in

communication skills (working with the media, writing letters, working with groups)

which also indicates that additional training would be beneficial in these areas as county

Farm Bureau members are suppose to be the spokespeople for Farm Bureau on the

county level.

 The proficiency scores for the political process section were the lowest for the

 four theme areas (M=4.7). None of the competencies was higher then 5.1 and one ranked

 3.9, a score that would reflect a very low proficiency level. This area is crucial for Farm

 Bureau as it is a policy development organization and its members need to be

 comfortable and knowledgeable about the policy development process. Farm Bureau

 needs to do more work in this area and educate county Farm Bureau board members in

 policy development and the political process. Farm Bureau also needs to do more to

 encourage county board member involvement in the legislative activities. Several state

 officials described the most important duty of a board member was to be politically

 active, Farm Bureau needs to provide the tools and skills necessary to accomplish this

 task.

 The mean scores for the effective boards section were extremely close

(Mimportance=6.1, Mproficiency=6.0) and relatively high, an indication that county board

members felt the competencies were important and that they were proficient in each.

Results of this section are questionable as several state officials noted that members of

county boards were not working together effectively, which cause the board to not be as

successful as it could be. Even one county board member stated that meetings "were