Weed notes: Thoughts on Bob Gwyer

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Published on Thursday, March 13, 2014

By: Sid Lewis

myWestman.ca

The first ag rep on the weed board when I was hired was Bob Gwyer, whom  I imagine most will remember. His expertise helped me out of a number of jams that, even back in 1979, I seemed to find myself in at times. Now he is a farm management specialist based out of Minnedosa.

That first month I basically never left the building during office hours because I was trying to learn all aspects of being a weed control supervisor. The start of the next month, Bob came over and said, “Come to Bertha’s for coffee,” and we hashed over many areas, me asking a multitude of questions — most probably dumb he thought — which he was very gracious in answering.

One of his suggestions was to make sure I mingled with a wide variety of people, and in most towns the coffee shops is the main place for “public relations.” As in any dealings with the public in small towns, he said I had to be aware of some seeing this as a “slacking off,” and be mindful of the time spent at a coffee shop to not let it be too long. At present, I never take all the vacation time I am allowed in the summer, so I use this for extra time in the coffee shop in the winter months.

As well, any overtime accumulated in the busy summer months is used up in the winter with a few minutes a day during coffee. (Hopefully this answers the latest concerns I am hearing.)

I found out an interesting point of these visits in that some who asked me questions on various topics most times never darkened the office door, so if I hadn’t gone to the coffee shop, I probably would have never had been able to reach them and answer their questions.

I also made home visits; this has been a valuable tool for giving producers an understanding of this career. If I didn’t find people at home and with no method of leaving a message (i.e. business card), they weren’t aware I had been there. A fine example was, after a couple of unsuccessful visits to one producer, he mentioned this to Bob when he was in Bob’s office. The producer was aggravated: “he paid tax dollars and should be visited!” So, a trip to the store and a purchase of cards address ed this concern.

During a shopping trip to Brandon awhile ago, I was sitting on one of the benches close to a clothing store Terry was browsing. After a few minutes I became bored so went to a booth in the middle of the mall that sold cell phones. I asked the very young clerk what was the newest offer they had to update what I had. He went through the process and one point he mentioned was that instead of punching (incorrect term I know) in the message, I could talk into the phone and it would relay a text to the other person. I asked if I was talking into the phone why not just use the usual method of talking to each other?

At least he had the politeness not to say what he was thinking in his facial expression! My next question asked was if all I wanted was just a phone without all the other gadgets, could I buy one? Answer: he didn’t know about the phone feature because he had never used it!

If you have any questions or concerns for Midwest Weed District please phone 204-764-2128.