Alberta’s ag societies got back to business — and back on their feet — last year.
“Generally what we’ve heard is that 2022 went very, very well,” said Tim Carson, CEO of the Alberta Association of Agricultural Societies.
“There was some excellent programming provided by agricultural societies in their local communities that were very well attended. (People) were willing to get out there and get started again.”
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However, the pandemic resulted in a loss of volunteers. Many got used to staying home or found other things to do, said Carson.
“They often have a core group that organizes the events, but the number of volunteers who are available to assist in actually executing the event is definitely a challenge,” he said.
Still, many ag societies are thriving, he said, and that’s the case for the Rimbey Agricultural Society.
Attendance, volunteer numbers and sponsorship were all strong last year, said office manager Jill Moore.
A key for her ag society has been ensuring there are strong bonds to the community and avoiding the temptation to become overly reliant on the same few people, said Moore, who is also a former president of the society.
“We’ve made sure to expand our volunteer base outside of our board. It’s really easy to just lean on your board all the time and then you’re so burned out and everybody sees you like that so then they don’t want to help.”
A big part of building that volunteer base is expressing gratitude for everything people do, be it a little or a lot.
“If people come once every two months and help out, then we’re super thankful. There’s no pressure. That’s a key part to it,” said Moore.
Keeping things fun is also a must.
“When things have gotten stressful or high pressure, we just have to remember to keep having fun because that’s what brings the volunteers on.”
Over the years, there have been plenty of bumps in the road.
One was in 2014, when a recession hit just as the society built the 60,000-square-foot Co-operators Agrim Centre, its multipurpose event hub.
“It was a bit of a struggle for a couple of years to be able to make ends meet,” said Moore.
COVID delivered another blow.
After two years of limited activity, it wasn’t clear whether the society could count on the same level of community support as before the pandemic. Nevertheless, it opted to bid on hosting the Alberta Junior High School Rodeo Finals and it was a little nerve-wracking when its bid was successful.
“It was a huge learning curve for us to take on an event of that size,” said Moore. “It was a $100,000 budget, a lot of moving parts with a banquet and prizes, and our first kick at the cat obtaining a substantial amount of sponsorship money for an event.”
But the gamble paid off in spades.
“We pretty much nailed it. We kind of wowed people. We knew that if we didn’t work really, really hard it would be a disorganized event and it would reflect on us.”
It didn’t end there. After two years of being largely housebound, people of the central Alberta town of 2,600 and surrounding area were hungry for the kind of entertainment an ag society offers.
“We had one rodeo in a storm in February and there was a long line out the door. We could hardly keep up,” said Moore. “It was really profitable but it was almost comically exhausting. It was very, very exciting to actually see revenue come in after such a time of stagnant operations where we couldn’t hold events.
“And just the morale increase — the community felt like a community again. It was amazing.”
These days, the doors of the Agrim Centre rarely stay closed for long.
There’s almost always something going on, be it monthly rodeos, weekly roughstock and team roping practice, barrel racing competitions or steer and bull riding schools.
And those are just the events the society itself puts on. The centre is frequently rented by private groups holding their own activities.
“We have an event called Snow Days each winter in January where we have a cutter rally where people ride behind horses on little sleighs,” said Moore. “It has demonstrations and vendor booths and a chili cookoff — kind of an old school kind of event.”
The society will again host Alberta Junior High School Rodeo Finals along with the Alberta Dairy Congress and, in the spirit of challenging themselves, it’s also hosting a two-week motocross event in early February.
“It’s a huge learning curve for us but we actually enjoy that kind of challenge.”
There are nearly 300 ag societies in the province and there were fears early in the pandemic that it would cripple many of them.
But ag societies have the ability to bring communities together, and that’s powerful, said Moore.
“The experiences I’ve had with this organization and the people I’ve met — it’s been quite life-changing. Even though we have quite a lot of staff, the volunteerism is still alive and well in larger capacities than it was before.”
That’s remarkable when a lot of volunteer-driven organizations are struggling, she said.
“It’s being lost because the world is getting so commercialized. People want to go pay for something and leave,” she said.
“To teach your kids and your family about stepping in and helping rather than just expecting services is just something that ties people together. I know that sounds clichéd but it’s really true.”
