Every year we open a special email for queries to our steward/apprentice program August 1-10 (midnight).  We're exactly halfway through that query week right now and although we're getting many, I thought I'd throw it out on this as well just to extend the reach.

             The query is simply a way to throw your name in the pot; we respond with an application and then we pick about 40 to come for a 2-day checkout.  This year that's the first 10 days of December. 

             The 2021 stewards arrive at the end of April and the program runs from May 1 until September 30.  Midway through the season stewards who wish to stay on for another year may apply to the 12-month management apprenticeship program, which runs Oct. 15-Oct. 15.  Apprentices are the first level managers of the following year's stewards.

            We focused a lot of attention on the program over the winter and instituted many changes, including a mission statement, economic valuation breakdown, bi-weekly evaluation charts (stewards to staff and staff to stewards), and competency checklist.  This planning effort paid off and we've had the smoothest summer in a long time with a team that's dynamite.  Every old geezer like me should have the privilege of working with young people like this.

             You can't Google experience.  Last evening we had a visitor for dinner who is a certified Ziglar leadership instructor.  Whenever celebrities and masters visit, we ask them to impart wisdom to the stewards.  He offered advice on goal setting, leadership, and team building.

             He said one of the most effective ways to move toward your goals is to spend time with people who are successfully doing what you want to do.  The most common mentor is a parent.  But if a person doesn't want to do what Mom or Dad does, finding a mentor is the fastest way forward.

             Normally our stewards are not from farm families and have no farming experience.  Somewhere farming touched them, though, and Polyface is a great place to scratch that itch.  How about you?  http://www.polyfacefarms.com/apprenticeship/

             Who do you consider a mentor in your life?