April for farm educators: 5 tips to begin a successful season

April is full-tilt work, made trickier due to unpredictable weather. More people are active on the farm, it’s time to prepare and plant spring crops, and the greenhouse is bursting. You are planning for, and leading, interns, volunteers, and program participants. This is your chance to build a leadership team and to test the farm systems you developed earlier in the year....and most of all, set the stage for a bountiful season. Here are 5 tips to support your success:

Train leaders: Whether interns, program participants, or other staff,  make sure you build in several leadership and facilitation trainings so you can share the load leading work in the fields. While your trainees may not have your deeper agricultural knowledge, by taking the time to walk them through specific activities and making sure they have the core skills to lead, you’ll be able to work with more volunteers and offer more learning opportunities for everyone. Make sure you participate while leaving them room to learn their new roles. Leave time for reflection and feedback so trainees can improve their leadership and facilitation skills over time. Your joy is to step back and watch (with some back-up support) as they take over.

Spring interns are great, especially because there is so much work to do and not usually a consistent work force yet. Remember though, they are there to learn. Build a learning contract with them, setting out their goals, the goals for the farm, and your expectations. Set up weekly check-ins as a group to review their experience, problem-solve, and slowly support them taking more responsibility. Take them on field walks, sharing what you see, and eventually leaving them room to improve their own “farmer’s eye” for tasks and prioritization. Offer weekly trainings, and try to connect them with learning opportunities in other parts of your organization. Interns are awesome and will be great spring support if you can develop a good support/communication structure for them.

Volunteers are definitely coming out now. Ideally the volunteer coordinator is playing a major support role in scheduling and communication, but you’ll need to make sure you are clear about your needs and especially the volunteer schedule. Your leadership trainings pay off, as much of the group facilitation is taken on by interns and program participants. Take this time to make connections with volunteers, offer more technical support to the leaders, and keep a step ahead in your project planning. Anticipate the transition times like the end of the school year, when few people will be on the farm. Now is the time to recruit the volunteer team to help you through until the next program group begins. Also, don’t be shy about deflecting volunteer energy to where it is needed. You will run yourself ragged trying to adapt your program to fit every potential volunteer’s needs and schedule.

A little overwhelmed with all of the spring tasks? Volunteers can a make a big job fun!

Marketing is one of those things that is easy to put off, but now is the time! If you haven’t already, you’d better make a big advertising push to fill your CSA, announce your upcoming farm stand hours, and otherwise make sure the public/supporters can take advantage of all the bounty you are producing. Consider other advertising or direct outreach approaches if you are not meeting your goals.

Keep planning ahead: Spring activities can be overwhelming, but the summer is just around the corner! Continue to meet with staff, counselors, teachers, or whoever else bases their program on the farm. Make sure you have a shared summer schedule and everyone is clear on their roles and responsibilities. The Farm Manager role means you facilitate everyone’s relationship with the farm in a way that meets production and program goals. The meetings and special trainings are worth it! You can also use the spring work parties to improve and evaluation the farm systems you want in place for the summer participants.

If you are looking for help developing facilitation or leadership trainings, intern programs, farm planning systems, or other farm-educator support, contact info@rootforward.net.