Shropshire Star

Team building and training in a Welsh weekend

September 1 marked the start of a new membership year for Shropshire Young Farmers.

Published
Rebecca Green is SFYFC County Chairman

Clubs have been busy having their annual meetings and in the last month hosting New Members Evening in order to attract new recruits. Fear not if you missed your local club's New Members Evening - you can sign up as a member of Shropshire YFC at any point throughout the year.

At the beginning of October over 60 members of Shropshire Young Farmers headed to Arete Outdoor Activity Centre in Caernarfon for a weekend of training to help prepare them for their year ahead in their top table roles as club chairmen, secretaries or treasurers. The weekend, which was sponsored by Dale Brothers, entails team-building activities, training for club roles, and socialising with other members across the county.

Members arrived on the Friday night for an evening of games and training began Saturday morning with sessions on ‘chairman training’, ‘PR and social media’, and ‘recruitment and retention’. This year, for the first time, a motivational speaker inspired members on ‘How to hold an Effective Meeting’. On Saturday evening, members headed into Bangor. Sunday was a team-building day doing team canoeing run by the centre staff.

Our County AGM is being held on November 11 at Shrewsbury football ground. The night will see the election of our new officers, with Clarrie Hocknell (Whitchurch YFC) taking over as the county chairman. We have two very deserving candidates being proposed as Clarrie's vice-chairman - Dan Roberts (Nesscliffe YFC) and Fred “Hove” Allen (Cleobury Mortimer YFC). Best of luck to both of them in the vote on the night.

Our annual meeting will be followed by an awards presentation to celebrate the success of the members and clubs throughout the year. We will also be presenting the money we have raised at charity events to our chosen charities - Oak Farm (Ditton Priors), Midlands Air Ambulance and Breast Cancer Care.

As I will be handing over to Clarrie at our AGM, this will be the last written piece in Farming Talk from me. I would like to thank all of SFYFC members, clubs, sponsors and supporters for all of their contributions throughout the year and best of luck to the new top tables going forward.

You can see pictures from the officers training weekend and keep up to date with all of the clubs and county news via our Shropshire YFC Facebook page

Rebecca Green is SFYFC County Chairman