Cyndi's Two Cents

The future of farm broadcasting

Each year at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting (NAFB) Foundation Auction, my “tribe” of women in the ag communications business bid on a get-away summer week-end at the Lake of the Ozarks. Although we do not always walk away with the winning bid, our hosts (one of them just happens to be a member of the “tribe”) generously offer up a second week-end if we agree to match the winning bid.

If my memory serves me right, 2018 will be the 8^th year in a row for our “Lake Girls” week-end.  As long as Al and Sarah keep offering it, we’ll keep bidding!

The goal of the auction is to raise money for the nonprofit charitable and educational arm of NAFB. For the past few years, our foes in the bidding war were a group of men that had come up in the profession a few years before me. The feigned disdain for “the boys”, the whispering amongst ourselves and the dramatic bidding gestures entertained others in attendance and kept them engaged to see what was next on the auction block.

As part of the production at the annual auction, the person selected to do the bidding for the group of men would vary from year to year. We were often several bids in before everyone knew who it was doing the bidding for the men.  That was not the case during the most recent auction.  I knew exactly which one of the men I was bidding against.  What I didn’t know was who that other bidder was back in the corner surrounded by several young men and women.

As it turned out, neither the group of men nor my tribe of women had the winning bid at our most recent auction. That other bidder turned out to be someone none of us expected.  The bidder was a young farm broadcaster with less than 5 years invested in his career.  He represented a co-ed group of 20-something-years-old farm broadcasters who dubbed themselves “The Young Guns” when asked who they are.

I could not be more pleased! These young ag communicators, many of whom were once recipients of the NAFB Foundation student scholarships, represent the future of the national professional association I’ve been a part of for 30 years. Many of them weren’t even born when I joined NAFB in 1987.

Members of “The Young Guns” include 3 of my former interns and my current Digital Products Coordinator. All were recipients of an NAFB Scholarship during their college years.

I’m not quite ready to turn over the keys to the kingdom yet, but I know that when it is time for me to exit the business of agricultural communications, I can leave my place in this business in good hands. Those hands probably won’t do things exactly the same way I did or do or even will before I leave. I know I did things differently than those who came before me!