Montana -- A Director Perspective!

Dr. Jeff Bader, Director MSU Extension

Gallatin Barn by Jeff Bader

I recently had a chance to visit with the MSU Director ofExtension, Dr. Jeff Bader.  His calm, humble demeanor was evident on the phone, despite the busy day he was having.  Dr. Bader came to Montana State University from New Mexico, where he had been a county agent for 22 years in three counties with different roles in each county.  He started his Extension career in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a 4-H Agent which he did for four years. He then moved to Quay County, NM, which is a very rural agriculturally based county.  He served there as an agriculture agent and county director for a dozen years.  During that time, he went back to school for his doctorate, then became the county director in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque is the county seat.  Dr. Bader said, “This was a larger office, certainly, than Quay County in terms of personnel.  Depending on grant funding, we had up to 23 employees during the time I was there.  My duties were nearly 100% administration at that time.”  

Later, Dr. Bader became the Northern District Department Head.  “The northern district covered an area that included about two-thirds of the state’s population.”  Dr.  Bader continued, “Outside of a short stint teaching community college out of state, I was pretty much with New Mexico State University since I was 18 – either as a student or employee.”

“So it was about two years ago that you made the move to Montana?” I inquired.  “I just had my two-year anniversary during 4-H Update in Billings.  I started at MSU on February 3, 2014,” he answered.  I remembered a little bit about his arrival, which also happened to be during 4-H Update, which was held in Lewistown that year.  “Tell me a little bit about that first week,” I requested. 

Photo by Jeff Bader

“Well, I needed to travel to Lewistown the second day on the job to make an appearance and start meeting the Extension faculty.  It was about –26 degrees in Bozeman as we prepared to leave.  I’m pretty sure the wind chill hit -46 degrees Farenheit by the time we got to Lewistown.  Mary Fran, Human Resources Coordinator, and Jill Martz, then assistant director were along.  Mary Fran was driving, and she and Jill were visiting away while I was looking out the window.  I had never seen the environment look like that.  It was white.  ALL white.  The sky was white, the road was white.  It seemed like you couldn’t tell the difference.  And, thinking about it, I bet my face had gone white, too.  It was cold and dry and windy and the snow seemed like smoke blowing across the road.  It was a very eerie feeling.  There were not many other people on the road that day.  I’d been in blizzards before, but just nothing like this, with the cold.”

As a Montana girl myself, I had not thought about how it must feel to experience those frigid temperatures for the first time, but I know what Dr. Bader means about an eerie feeling.  The world gets so still and quiet and crisp (like it might snap) at those temperatures.  I cannot imagine how it must have felt for a New Mexico native in Montana that week.  Dr. Bader was quick to add, “February and March of 2014 were much colder than the winters of 2015 and 2016.  There is some change between New Mexico and Montana in terms of climate, but not as much as you might think.  Also, in terms of Extension systems, the two are fairly similar in size, organizational values and philosophy.  I am very happy with the move.  There are new challenges, people and places, but a lot of the issues and process of how to address those are the same.”

Canola by Jeff Bader

Since Dr. Bader has a newer perspective on the state, I inquired what he has enjoyed in Montana.  “It may sound hokey, but it is true – the people.  I have never been anywhere that people have been so genuinely friendly.  It doesn’t matter where you go, people are asking how things are going, how you are doing.  From service people at businesses to colleagues across campus, Montana just has this friendly atmosphere.  Maybe it is because people know that they may have to rely on each other. It is like there is still the Western independence with a dose of community reliance.  It is definitely the friendliest place I have ever been.”  I remarked that I was visiting our neighbors to the north this summer and spent some time in Alberta, Canada.  I felt the same was true there.  Perhaps it is our expanse of landscape compared to our population.  It would seem everyone who wanted to get out and away from people would have a pretty easy opportunity to do so.  The United States Census reports not quite seven people per square mile in Montana, which puts us as the 48^th most sparsely populated state.

 

Map from CEIC.mt.gov

In addition to the friendliness of Montanans, Dr. Bader added, “The recreation opportunities that abound, and are so accessible in this state, are pretty tremendous. I can go fishing for an hour, without much of a drive.  It isn’t everywhere you get the opportunity.”  I suspect sometimes all Dr. Bader has is one or two free hours at a time.  I know the lack of traffic makes a big difference in getting to the great outdoors on a routine basis.  Dr. Bader mentioned that there are things to enjoy all across the state and each part has its own feel.  This led me to wonder if Dr. Bader had kept track of how many miles he had traveled in the state.  He hasn’t kept track, but did admit that he underestimated the size of the state a little.  Knowing he is the only director who has visited my office in my nearly two decades here, I wondered how he was doing with his goal.  “Well, see, my goal was to get to all the counties in the state in the first year.”  Hmmm.  I believe he did underestimate the size of the state a little.  I tried to let him off the hook.  I’ve lived in Montana the majority of my 47 years and I haven’t gotten to all the counties myself!  Most, but not all.  Montana has 56 counties and seven reservations, with MSU Extension represented in all of those locations.  He estimated having made it to about three-quarters of the counties.  He has hit several county fairs.  He did one trip for meetings where he left Bozeman and traveled to Kalispell and then on to Miles City, so one trip was 1600 miles or so for three meetings in two and a half days.  It is about 10 hours between Kalispell and Miles City.

If you travel between the farthest points in Montana, it would be equivalent to going from Madison, Wisconsin to Washington D.C. or just a little shorter than going from Memphis, Tennessee to Washington D.C. 

Elder by Jeff Bader

“From your travels around the state, are there some ‘must see’ locations on your list?” I prompted, looking for suggestions for our NEAFCS visitors.  “I have so much on my list,” he responded, “Glacier is amazing, Flathead Lake is great, the drive from Kings Hill, the Belt Mountains to White Sulphur to the Bridger Canyon.  The Eastern part of the state is beautiful if there is time to get there.  Yellowstone Park, of course, but not sure how that works.   It is mostly in Wyoming.”  I assured Dr. Bader that Montanans have been indoctrinated to think of it as half ours, since half the entrances are in Montana.  I worked for University of Wyoming Extension and was actually surprised to learn that our Wyoming neighbors think of Yellowstone as mostly in their state!  As not to get baited into the debate, Dr. Bader continued, “The Missouri River is great and would be especially great if you got some time to spend out on the river.”

Crow Chief by Jeff Bader

Dr. Bader encouraged MEAFCS to host the national conference, and I’m sure it wasn’t solely to show off our state, so I wanted to get his perspective.  “When I was at NMSU, we hosted both the NEAFCS and the NACAA conferences.  The states are about the same size in terms of staff and probably small by comparison to other states.  Serving as a host serves the state hosting as much as it serves the national association and profession.  Hosting brings faculty together in a teamwork fashion that is different from our other work.  Hosting builds morale, cohesiveness and demonstrates the great work in each state.”

Some of Dr. Bader’s interests outside of directing MSU Extension include photography.  I thanked Dr. Bader for sharing some of his beautiful photographs with us.  I wondered how he became interested in photography.  “My parents gave me an instamatic camera when I was nine years old and I thought it was so cool.  My dad had some interest in photography.  He had an old camera from the 1920s that I used when I started learning about exposures.  I did take the photography project in 4-H.  Our family had a business of training horses, so at one point they had hired someone to do the photography for advertisements.  She took me under her wing and taught me how to use the dark room, which I really enjoyed.” 

Suspecting that Dr. Bader’s family business in horse training influenced one of his other interests, team roping, I wondered if there was anything he learned from team roping that could apply to Extension work. 

Dr. Jeff Bader is ready to rope you in with some
 Western hospitality at NEAFCS 2016!

“Well, patience,” he said. “You try not to force horses or people.  Provide them the opportunity to do the right thing and reward them.  With people, it seems easier.  Hire the right people, make sure they have what they need, and get out of their way.”

We have a surprise in store for our guests in September and we’ve roped you into helping.  Is there anything you’d like to tell people without giving away the surprise?  “Just that, like in the rest of our Extension work, we’ll be taking the bull by the horns.  And, you might want to wear boots, if you have them.”

At the end of the interview, true to his unassuming and approachable nature, Dr. Bader said to me, “Jane, it would really make me a lot more comfortable if you would start calling me Jeff.”  I told him I’d start working on it!