CSGA / SEEDGROWERS.CA / HOW MIGHT A SINGLE ORGANIZATION WORK? THESE4KEYAREASAREKEYTOOURFUTURE Jonathan Nyborg, CSGA President 22 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2019 it go beyond that? At a minimum, it needs to do something the cur- rent organizations can’t do more effectively on their own. What will membership criteria be? Are we looking at only those who belong to the current organizations or do we open the doors of the seed industry up to others who histori- cally haven’t been a part of it? Going forward, our board’s ini- tial objective is to reach a common position on all elements of the Seed Synergy White Paper with our seven provincial seed grower association branches by early April 2019. If we are successful, we will then begin work with them, with our Seed Synergy partners and potentially others in clarifying and confirming objectives and timelines and the details of the system and organizational changes required. To support this effort, face-to-face and electronic engagement with mem- bers has begun and will continue until project completion. The initial phase of engagement is focusing on four key areas and related questions. These questions are deemed to be the most impor- tant in the very short term to allow the national and provincial asso- ciation boards to formulate a clear and constructive starting position for the next round of Seed Synergy talks to begin later in 2019. The questions that we are seeking feedback on first right now are: 1. Governance of a Single Organization: Should the MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS for our organization are well- known. With 3,500 members across the country, we are a large group that represents seed growers from coast- to-coast. Currently there is only one category of CSGA mem- bership (i.e. the individual in whose name the crop certificate is issued). Most of our members own and/ or work for one of approximately 2,500 businesses that produce pedigreed seed in Canada. Most of those busi- nesses are farm-based. At the heart of those businesses are farm family members and key employees. CSGA is currently con- sulting on a new membership model that recognizes the role of the business entity in seed production as well as the contribution of professional seed growers and others. The proposal being considered is whether there should be multiple membership categories, including seed businesses, other related businesses, and individu- als working in various professional categories in those businesses or elsewhere in the seed system. This could be accomplished within CSGA’s current business model or in a future national seed organization in which CSGA members and others would find a home (as pro- posed by the Seed Synergy Collaboration Project). Within the proposal to consider multiple membership categories is a sub-proposal that the business entity be the core sustaining membership category (i.e. the one that pays the bulk of the seed certification fees) rather than the individual. This would potentially increase the incentive for individuals to keep up their memberships even in years they were not producing pedigreed seed and set the stage for the development of voluntary mem- bership options. This in turn would allow potentially many hundreds of professionals (seed growers, seed analysts, seed inspectors, breeders and the like) to participate in and contribute to the single national seeds organization pro- posed under Seed Synergy on a voluntary basis. One key question about the proposed single organization is what its scope will be. Will it just be the sum of what the current organizations do or will