An assuring blast from the past

By Katie Feterl • Communications Director

Throughout our Fall New Member Drive, we’ve been sharing member experiences, in their own words. By now you may have seen posts spotlighting folks like Tom Barthel, Dayna Burtness, and Bianca Goncalves Da Costa, among others who shared their reflections in video interviews.

With members top of mind and a fresh mission statement and strategic plan setting our sights on the future, it felt very timely this week to come across an “SFA Branding Blog” that chronicles an earlier period of reflection, taking stock, and looking ahead. This 2010 post that predates most of our current team was written in the midst of developing a brand identity and new logo for the organization, and it asks the same questions we’ve been approaching members with over the last month:

“Why did you join SFA? Why are you still a member?”

Brief stories from about a dozen members are included in the post. Some joined in the 1980s, some are no longer with us. One is now an integral member of our staff (you can probably figure out who is old seasoned enough for that).

You’ll find that all these years later, our members today still have similar stories to tell. Both SFA and the world around us have grown and changed over 30+ years, and yet, what brings people into the farmer-to-farmer network has remained steady. Here are members’ words from 2010 that stood out to me the most:

“SFA drives change on the ground.”

“You can talk to people, and…people will answer you. People are willing to share.”

“Changes have been brought about through the connections people made in SFA, and the support they receive and the ideas they were exposed to.”

“It’s farmer-to-farmer, we can’t help it.”

I couldn’t say it better myself. Our Fall New Member Drive officially ends this Sunday, November 10. We invite you to join us (or rejoin, if it’s been a minute). Click here to learn more — there’s a special gift in it for the first 50 new members, too.

Thank you to former SFA Executive Director MJ Fobord for sharing some documents from her archive that brought us down this little historical rabbit trail.