President’s Message - Spring 2022

Good spring to all of you,

Winter is never quite what I expect it to be.  Early in my career it felt like a reward to take some time off from all the hours we worked during the rest of the year but as the years go on the seasons really run together.  It has become a more year-round industry.  With seasonal ups and downs in labor requirements we have to find things in the “off” season to keep our employees gainfully employed so we can retain them for the coming spring.  More than ever employees want a quality of life ratio of work and home.  With raising costs and wages maybe that is good for keeping overtime down in the spring but that puts more pressure on those off peak season hours to be productive for the company.

Recently I was given the opportunity to present two awards at the Future Farmers of America State Conference in Lincoln at Pinnacle Bank Arena.  A former farm kid myself, of course I was aware of FFA, but had never been around it.  Somewhere around five thousand students and parents were in town for the conference.  NNLA supports FFA and we have a booth at their show to support our membership and talk about opportunities in horticulture.  Our board members typically fill the role of attending but I found myself wondering if this wouldn’t be a better opportunity for some of our members to be there instead.  It is more like a job fair anyway.  A chance to engage with potential future horticulture students.  These are the people we could be interviewing in a few years.  Who gets the seasonality of the industry better than the students with an agricultural background or interest?

When the day at the booth was over I was able to eat supper with a few of the participants and their parents.  Very engaging and thoughtful people, who asked questions with respect and interest.  After that was the awards ceremony.  Formal and exuberant at the same time, it was a little daunting with that large attendance but it was well scripted and organized.  Even better I didn’t have to speak, just hand out the two awards in the horticultural competitions.  What I learned from my experience was how many students participate in FFA and even how many chapters were in Omaha and Lincoln.  Some of this won’t be news to you but for those of you that weren’t aware I wanted to make sure. 

The other winter event we represented NNLA membership at was the University of Nebraska-Lincoln career day on East Campus.  The most common question we got was about career and internship opportunities.  We referred them to our website and encouraged them to check with their local nurseries and garden centers for better information but once again I was thinking about job creation and potential employee contacts and wondered how NNLA members could be more involved.  So please make sure if you have opportunities in your business use the website and contact us with questions.  Possibly volunteer to attend these or other events.  The board and committees are focusing on improving the NNLA website and your input is always appreciated.  Maybe some of these resources will help find that next employee to help in your business.

Have a wonderful and productive spring, and if you can do something about all this wind I would really appreciate it.

Thank you,

Jason