Communications
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| Viability technician Carmela Martinez (center) demonstrates germinating planting techniques. |
On February 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the program welcomed their seed industry customers to tour 16 educational stations. The displays showcased how field inspections, laboratory analysis, visual phytosanitary inspections, reports, and tag requests all come together to meet the industry’s needs for seed export and certification.
Sixty-one people attended the event, including WSDA Director Derek Sandison. Attendees included seed industry warehouse employees, seed producers, farmers, and growers.
Response to feedback
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| Viability technician Cassie Givens demonstrates to Director Derek Sandison how to evaluate a bean plant for the first true leaves. |
Paula Moore, acting manager of the Seed Program, said the idea for this customer education event grew out of a survey the program conducted in 2018. They used in-person customer interviews to evaluate their services, and industry needs and expectations.
“It was a recurring theme among customers that many in the industry had not been to our laboratory for many years,” Paula said. “In the program, we have many new staff and made process improvements which has changed the lab tests we can offer.”
The program team decided to open their doors, invite in their customers, and showcase the services they offer.
Program staff started planning in August. Smaller work groups planned each of the 16 demonstration stations. They decided visitors would receive a “passport” to get stamped at each of the stations. They worked with the WSDA Communications Office to create original promotional material – an invitation, new program brochure, staff flyer and the passport.
Goals achieved
“I appreciated the stations and updates as we went along,” said a grass industry representative who came to the event. “The stations were very well designed and just enough time to answer questions but, most of all, not crowded…Thanks again for the time yesterday.”
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| Purity technician Amy Benfiet (in white coat) shows customer event attendees protocol for wheat sodium hydroxide soaks and goes over two additional tests: fluorescence and ammonia. |
Other attendees offered positive comments as well on feedback cards provided at the end of the tour. One noted appreciation for “meeting the people with whom I correspond by email.”
Paula had high praise for the entire Seed Program team for doing the heavy lifting of planning the event during an unusually busy winter season for seed samples.
In addition, she noted help from other Yakima staff, including Manuel Ornelas, Lorena Lopez, Gary Buckner and Ignacio Marquez, who helped with a WSDA building informational table, parking and directing folks to the building.
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| Purity technician Veronica Venegas (right) shows the outcome of blowing a seed sample to separate the true seed from the lighter inert material. |
Overall Paula and her team believe the event achieved their goals by improving connections with their industry customers.
The only down side was the continuing severe winter weather that caused dangerous roads in the region the day of the event.
“If not for the bad weather, we believe attendance would have been higher,” Paula said.
In summary: WSDA’s Seed Program, based in Yakima, hosted an event and invited their industry customers to meet the staff and learn about the services they offer. Read more on the Insider.
