Farming body’s morale high, despite changes

Press, 24 February 1977, Page 14

Farming body’s morale high, despite changes

By C

OLIVER RIDDELL,

| Wellington reporter The recent resignation of, the general secretary of Fed-’ I erated Farmers (Mr R. B. McLuskie), the second such resignation within two j years, has aroused specula- 1 I tion that all is not welll within the organisation. This speculation has been : further encouraged by the pending change in top ' office-holders. Its president (Mr J. T. Kneebone) is due ■ to step down in July and al-'i (though it had been thought!’ he might seek a fourth term!] of office he intends to retire., > Changes of this nature in- 1 another organisation might’] betoken a loss of morale,,i but not so in Federated, Farmers: in both its paid]] i staff and elected officers I t j there has always been con-’< jsiderable movement. . I Federated Farmers hash always suffered as an it

t employer in not being able Ito offer its salaried staff a career structure. Its staff is -so small, and the skills ’sought so specialised, that it is hard for staff members to envisage staying on aftei spending a few years gaining experience in their fields. All the federation’s 26 provinces are autonomous and employ their own fulltime or part-time secretary. There is practically no movement of staff between these 26 offices or between the national headquarters in Wellington. Thus. staff movement into and out of the organisation is far more frequent than might be expected in a national organisation with regional offices. Further, there is very little staff movement within the federation’s national office. This is because the skills sought in the staff are seldom transferrable within the office.

i Mr McLuskie’s pre-1 ■ decessor, Mr J. G. Pryde.’i linow a research fellow at t I Lincoln College, was a 3 ’trained economist who was|> 3 ’appointed secretary, while. 1 1 Mr McLuskie himself is a ; qualified solicitor. 1 ■ Neither of these men was, trained to be secretary of an i organisation, and naturally'; each emphasised that part of j I his job for which his train-,] Ling suited him. Mr Pryde i (tended to emphasise thejf (economic side of farming af-’< ’ fairs and Mr McLuskie the ( t legal and legislative. ( < There has been an even’r more rapid turnover of other staff, but this is to be ex-’f pected where there is no I a career structure. |g i,, , . .

There also seems to have been a very rapid turnover in elected officers in recent years, but this is more apparent than real. When Mr Kneebone took over in 1974 he was the fourth president the federation had had in two years. Circumstances, more than anything else, accounted for this. In 1972, Mr A. C. Begg resigned on a question of; principle over wool marketing and became the first of many casualties over that issue. He was followed by; Mr B. Dryden who died in office early in 1973, and was followed by Mr W. N. (now; Sir William) Dunlop who,’ however, retired because of; ill health in 1974. i Since then there has been (no change in any of the four ’top elected offices of the ’ federation — president, senior vice-president, junior! ’vice-president and treasurer’ ! — although several chai-; ilenges have been mounted. I I This is not to say that: (everything within the feder'ation is perfect: it faces] ’problems of declining mem-; (bership. declining political’ ! influence, and declining (financial strength. Both re-; cent or pending changes in ’the elected and salaried leadership should not be seen as! malaise. These leadership changes j are simply part of the feder-’ ation’s character as an or-> ganisation.