growers and seed companies — 2,500 of its “members” are actually seed businesses and not individual people. “In many cases those farms have three or more people working on the farm who all have to have a member- ship to be recognized,” Chancey says. As a result, he says CSGA is looking to build a core sustaining membership class to focus more on businesses. “Other organizations, like the Canadian Seed Trade Association, are built on business memberships. What we need to be thinking of are other membership classes to [recognize the diversity of our membership].” Laurie Wakefield, one of the SSGA’s representatives on the CSGA national board, says CSGA has had issues surrounding membership for a while. He says now is the time for CSGA to create the ideal membership structure so that seed growers are best served by their national association. “We’ve had discussion that our membership could be as high as 8,000. We just don’t know. A single farm unit might have six actual people involved in production of seed. It’s time to explore who the cli- ents are we’re providing services for and who we’re doing advocacy for,” Wakefield says. Our provincial associations may be a way for us to retain our grassroots influence in the future. We’re fortunate to have strong regional associations. Going forward, they don’t have to be affected by changes at the national level. Grassroots in my mind doesn’t stop at the seed grower — it has to go through to customers and farmers. The answer might involve multiple classes of membership where you get different services for different fees, different benefits. For example, someone wants to begin probation to become a Select grower. Currently, they have to be a member producing pedigreed seed for three years in order to apply for probation. But if they didn’t personally pay a membership fee for three years, things can get complicated. Laurie Wakefield Seed Grower Director, CSGA Maidstone, Sask. Brennan Wiens Wiens Seed Farm Herschel, Sask. 46 GERMINATION.CA MARCH 2019