The Keynote Presenter

My voice was back to nearly normal when I spoke to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute last week. However, having a scratchy voice played into my role as Bishop Frances Asbury. Since he traveled by horseback through all types of weather, he often got head colds. 

I was dressed as Bishop Asbury and spoke about Camp Meetings. Bishop Asbury, the first Methodist bishop in America, had actually spoken at several of the camp meetings that I talked about (and visited). It was neat having one member of the audience whose father and grandfather were circuit-riding preachers, which is the subject of my next presentation to the Osher group on April 5. 

At first, I thought it was a good idea to do four presentations on four consective days. After all, they were in the same city (San Antonio) and were either in the Convention Center or the adjoining Grand Hyatt. However, by the time the 4th presentation rolled around I had a head cold and my voice was somewhat raspy. So perhaps it was not such a good idea.

The first presentation was titled “Search for the Wizard of Oz”. I was the luncheon speaker for the National Agricultural Education Summit this past Tuesday. The 2nd presentation was “Searching for the Early Leaders in Vocational Education.” This was a research paper presented to the Association for Career and Technical Education Research. Presentation 3 and 4 was “Live Like You Were Dying: Balancing Work and Family. On Thursday this was presented to the National Association of Agricultural Educators and on Friday the audience was the Association for Career and Technical Education. It was good that I had a strong microphone on Friday.

Just when I thought doing four presentations in a row was a bad idea, I received the following message from one of the attendees. So perhaps I will continue doing a bunch of presentations in a row.

Dear Dr. Moore,

My name is xxxxxx. I am in my 7th year teaching, my 9th year of marriage, and just finishing my first year mother. I just want to say thank you for your presentation today. I clearly have not had time to implement all that you presented, but I want you to know you have made and will make a difference in my life and the life of my family. I am going to work on my “homework” on the plane home. I have scheduled a meeting with my husband this weekend to discuss how your workshop will impact our family. I just want to say thank you, I am certain that I will look back at this hour and a half as one of the best investments I’ve made for my professional and personal life.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart and from my family.

This is an exciting time for the Farm Bureau as many of them are kicking off the 100th year celebration of the founding of the American Farm Bureau.  Since I am a big history buff I really enjoy speaking at such historical celebratory events. That is why I was in Montana last week. My keynote presentation on “Searching for the Wizard of Oz” was designed to kick off the year-long celebration. While I planned to challenge the Montana Farm Bureau, I found from my research, that they were doing a lot of good things already. They have their act together.

It was a tad cold in Montana and there were snow flurries while I was there. I was pleased that my flight home was not canceled. On my last two trips, my flights home were canceled because of hurricanes in North Carolina. Yippee – there were no hurricanes this time.

Speaking to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is always a treat. The audience is attentive (I guess paying to hear a lecture helps ensure that) and they ask good questions. What was unique about my recent presentation about the Women’s Land Army was that 90% of the audience were women.  I was somewhat surprised when I asked how many people had heard of the Women’s Land Army and no one raised their hand. A number of the ladies in the audience had attended all-female colleges that supplied the “Farmerettes.” during WWI and WWII. I passed out electronic responders to the audience to use when I asked questions and also passed out about 20 demonstration type signs that had role play information that further engaged the audience in the presentation.  We had a good time.

There is not much better than making a presentation about the Women’s Land Army in a location that is surrounded by thousands of acres of corn fields. That describes the Fountain Park Chautauqua in Remington, Indiana this week. Remington is the home of several seed corn companies and has a rich agricultural heritage. Most people in the audience had never heard of the Women’s Land Army, so it is always a pleasure to present new information to a receptive audience. In case you don’t know the Women’s Land Army was an organization of women who went out and worked on farms during WWI & WWII because the men had gone off to fight in the war. In WWI, about 18,000 women served in the Land Army but there were 1.5 million during WWII. The Farmerettes, as they were called, helped win the war by producing food. While Rosie the Riveter received much acclaim, the Farmerettes were busy working on farms across the country. The photo shows young ladies from Vassar learning to farm.

At the Chautauqua Institution in New York this past week the theme was “The Art of Play”. A variety of speakers looked at the importance of play in our daily lives. My presentation tied into that theme. I spoke about the old-time camp meetings. Not only were they used to strengthen the faith of the believers and to convert the sinner, they were a time of social interaction and play. Folks on the frontier were often isolated, so the camp meeting was a time to renew acquaintances and for the younger folks, it was a time to play (and for courting). The image is an artistic rendition of a camp meeting in the 1830s.  When people were convicted by the Holy Spirit some would sway. If you look on page 3 of the Daily Chautauquan you can learn more about the presentation.

This past Sunday I enjoyed speaking at the Dimock Camp Meeting Ground in Pennsylvania. The title of my presentation was “Give Me That Old Time Religion: The Camp Meeting Story”. It was appropriate that I talked about the development of Camp Meetings at a historic camp meeting ground. Dimock was established in 1877.

To make the presentation I dressed up as Bishop Francis Asbury, the first American Methodist Bishop, who was active in promoting the development of camp meetings in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He traveled the country on horseback. So it was neat to see his silhouette on the Methodist historical marker on the chapel. Here is how the local newspaper reported on the event.

When I speak about the History of the Outhouse, I typically distribute electronic responders to the audience and have them answer questions that I pose during the presentation. Earlier this week 71% of the audience at the Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, NC accurately responded that October 31 was the most dangerous night to be in an outhouse because it might get tipped over. And three audience members confessed that they had actually tipped over an outhouse.  Since the audience was somewhat older, the results were not surprising. I don’t think the younger generation would know much about tipping over outhouses.

It was a beautiful day to go to the North Carolina Coast and engage with the government employees in Carteret County on May 24. My presentation was Searching for the Wizard of Oz in the Workplace and at Home. We concluded that we are not in Kansas anymore and that we need to use our brain, have courage, and show heart in working with family, co-workers, and clients. But the bottom line is there is no Wizard of Oz, so we individually will have to assume the role of the Wizard of Oz at home and at work.

While most of my presentations are of interest to wide audiences, there are times when I return to my academic roots and make a research presentation designed for university professors of agricultural education. That is what I did last week in Charleston, SC.

In 1947, one of the giants of the agricultural education profession – Rufus Stimson died (photo to the right). At the time of his death, he was compiling a book containing biographical sketches and photos of the early leaders in the field. The book was never published. I spent 10 years searching for the missing manuscript. I even went to his retirement home on Cape Cod searching for this manuscript. To make a long story short, I eventually found the manuscript in the attic of the FFA Center in Alexandria, Virginia.

In my presentation, I told the story about the search for the manuscript,  shared some Stimson artifacts that I obtained during my search (such as his typewriter), and revealed for the first time ever, the identity of 180 people who had been identified as the early pioneers of agricultural education.  During the presentation, I passed out pages of the lost manuscript to the audience so they could see what was found. The image to the right is the biographical sketch of Booker T. Washington. There were 180 pages like this in the manuscript.