Assistant Director of Government and Community Affairs Position Open
SUMMARY: Responsible for advocating, representing and communicating the Florida Farm Bureau Federation policy before state and federal agencies, and local governments in central and south Florida. Facilitate other natural resource, environmental and land use issues as assigned. Provide written and oral reports on meetings and activities to Farm Bureau’s state board, its members and other staff as appropriate. Strong written and verbal communication is essential and frequent travel is required.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES: Include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
- Serve as liaison between water management district and the Farm Bureau membership.
- Follow issues relating to water management and regulation that impacts the agricultural community (preparing monthly newsletter updates, newspaper articles and special memos, etc.) This requires learning the issues, talking with producers and agricultural representatives to determine how the industry would be impacted, and relaying this information to the membership. Establish a network of information resources within the farming community, local county governments and municipalities, as well as government agencies (DEP, FDACS, FFWCC, USFW, DOI, EPA, and Corps of Engineers) to assist in keeping abreast of issues.
- Requires public speaking at meetings on Farm Bureau policies. Establishing relationships with governing board members and staff in order to facilitate solutions and/or compromises on agency rules and policies.
- Prepare presentations for Florida Farm Bureau, county Farm Bureau boards and associated groups for educational purposes, i.e. regulatory updates, issue updates, etc.
- Grassroots involvement; establishing a farm network that can be called upon to participate in committees, in public workshops and board meetings, host farm tours, make phone calls, write letters or any necessary input.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE: Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in agriculture, environmental sciences, political science, communications or related field and a minimum of two years experience in the public or private sector; or equivalent combination of education, training and experience. Knowledge of agricultural production and practices in south and central Florida is desirable.
LANGUAGE SKILLS: Ability to read and interpret technical documents such as water supply planning, basin management action plans, and county government ordinances. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers, employees of the organization, and stakeholders outside of the agricultural community.
MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: Ability to apply moderately complex mathematical concepts. Ability to work with mathematical operations related to daily tasks.
REASONING ABILITY: Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.
CERTIFICATES, LICENSES and REGISTRATIONS: N/A
OTHER SKILLS and ABILITIES: Requires self-starter and highly motivated individual.
Employee must have a basic knowledge of computers including Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams and Internet usage including Zoom.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee in order to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Requires day and occasional night travel. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit. The employee frequently is required to talk or hear.
WORK ENVIRONMENT: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee occasionally works in outside weather conditions while participating in farm or other environmental tours.
The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.
