b'really mean and how do we achieve it? Striving for full consensus can result in kicking the can down the road. Id be surprised and disap-pointed if next summer any of the organizations said they need more time to vote because theyre not done consulting. I hope everyone participates in the new organization and helps direct its policies, but we cant possibly sit down and talk to everyone in the seed industrytheres 60,000 people employed in our sector. We need a representative sample of our collective members and then we need to make the big game-changer decisions. Thats what boards and leaders are for.Germination: Yeah, I guess you eventuallyThe CSTAs activities on Parliament Hill are an opportunity for association members and staff have to bite the bullet and just merge.to meet with MPs. From left: Dave Carey, CSTA executive director; Harold Albrecht, Member of DC: I think we will be successfulParliament; Lauren Martin, CSTA government & industry relations lead; Phil Bailey, SeCan eastern in doing that. Its up to membersbusiness manager.and stakeholders to vote in favour of it, of course, but it would be athat would be very short-sighted onGermination: It seems like you want to go detriment to the whole initiative ifour part. Compromise is key, so longthe extra mile to involve the commodity one organization decides not to beas we arent compromising the well- groups who put that proposal forward. a part of the merger. I think thatbeing of the seed industry. TheresDC: For commodity groups, this organization would have a harda point where you need to knowwhole value creation file is moving time explaining to its members, afterwhen to say, Enough is enough, wetoo fast. For us its moving too slow. investing all this time and moneyhave what we need to move forward.Talking about it helps everyone feel consulting, why they would decideThats called leadership. Were doinglike theyre involved in the same to pull out at the last minute. I thinkthis to better serve our collectiveconversation. Challenging each other it would also hurt that organiza- membersperiod.is how you build respect and foster tions standing with members, ourstrong working relationships. Thats value chain partners as well asGermination: You made what some wouldwhat leaders do is make judgement government. Its been a significantsay was a bold leadership move at thecalls. Its about brand and reputation effort in terms of people power and2019 CSGA/CSTA joint annual meeting inmanagement. We heard support for resources, so to get cold feet and notWhistler, B.C., when you moved to add athe trailing contract model at that move forward would be tough toproposed third model for value creationmeeting from the likes of Gunter justify. It could happen, but I thinkto the agenda for discussion. You tookJochum and Laurie Wakefield, which its pretty unlikely. some heat for that. Why did you do it? was huge. For a farmer and a seed DC: Yeah, I got some phone calls fromgrower to get onboard and publicly Germination: Would you say that wouldmembers as to why we were giving avoice support for the trailing royalty/represent a failure in that organizationspodium to this and why our meet- SVUA model was a heck of a step leadership? ing was serving as a launching padtoward moving forward.DC: If, for example, at the 11th hourfor a model we dont endorse. We CSTA decided to pull out of this andhave a preferred model and I standGermination: I suppose thats how you not move forward with the mergerby the trailing royalty/SVUA as themake change, by building relationships because members didnt receive thebest model, but if we dont involveand getting everyone around the table.right kind and amount of informa- commodity groups it wont be seenDC: My hope is that stakeholders tion or that the notion of changeas good public policy when and ifwill now want to spend time on hadnt been properly socialized,it is implemented. I dont think thepolicy and regulatory pain points so then I wouldnt blame my board forproposed third model was palatablemy staff and I can get to work on looking to replace me as executiveto most people in that room, but itaddressing those irritantsand so director. After spending years talkingmakes for good public policy to talkour members can spend more of their about this and then at the last minuteabout it to at least recognize why ittime focusing and growing their core saying we wont proceed becausedoesnt work.businesses, wherever they fall in the were not getting everything we want,seed sector spectrum. 14GERMINATION.CA NOVEMBER 2019'