December 16, 2010
My Job at Felco Regional Cooperative
When I was out building the family business one of my stops in Fort Dodge was a regional cooperative called Felco. I wasn’t sure what sort of lettering they might need, but I thought I would check and inquire.
I was directed to visit with a man in their advertising department. His name was Larry Nelson and told me that most of their lettering needs were met by the company where they purchased their uniforms. They also had large quantities of their “Felco” emblems produced. It was interesting because I explained my background and formal training in graphic arts. He then asked me if I was interested in a job. I told him that I was building a family business and I wasn’t interested. I then continued to call on other possible customers.
The reason I told you the story above is because when I decided to go out and find another job after working at the bank for a couple of years and the fact that my “wife to be” was earning more money teaching than I was at the bank.
I remembered the job offer that Larry Nelson at Felco had made. I went to Felco as the first place I decided to try to get a job.
I asked for Larry Nelson in the advertising department but instead I was directed to a man named Bill Turner. Bill was the head of the Communications Division and he sent me directly to the personnel department to be interviewed by a man by the name of Don Renquist ( the Director of Personnel).
After I had my interview with Mr. Renquist I was taken back to Mr. Turner’s office. I was asked a few more questions and then came the question that I know gave me the job. Bill asked me why I wanted to work for Felco.
I told Mr. Turner that I had no previous experience but I had a large desire to work for this company. I am convinced that my honesty and asking for the job allowed me to get hired. I found out later from Bill that it was, indeed those things are what convinced Bill to give me the opportunity to prove myself.
I remember thinking “what in the world would a feed company they need a graphic artist” ….”designing feed bags or something!” Well surprisingly enough my first job was to redesign a new rabbit pellet feed bag.
I worked designing feed bags but also I was involved with helping design brochures and animal feeding guides used by the salesmen in selling the different feed, chemical and petroleum products offered by Felco.
After about two years Larry Nelson was promoted to a position as marketing services manager.
I had been drafting a projected new job that I saw a great need. A liaison person between the product managers and the advertising function.
I presented my written ideas to Larry Nelson and he smiled, and took a paper out of his desk and he had also been drafting a similar position. He asked me if I would like to be the new advertising coordinator. I said yes and I was the new advertising coordinator.
Our Advertising Agency
We worked very closely with a one-man advertising agency in Des Moines, Iowa. The Rex Weitzell Agency was the name of the advertising agency that I coordinated all of the print, radio and television advertising programs for Felco.
About two years into my job as advertising coordinator Felco merged with another Regional cooperative from Nebraska, Statex (Farmers Union State Exchange). We combined the Felco logo and the Statex logo to form a new temporary Felco/Statex logo that was a monster to use. It was long and narrow. It worked great on a petroleum transport truck but was not made for a feed bags.
My experience working with Rex Weitzell was a great experience and I learned a lot about agricultural advertising. Rex was a true expert when it came to communicating with farmers. He forgot more about agricultural advertising than most agency people ever knew about agricultural advertising.
Probably one of the most interesting and educational jobs I worked with was the creating of television commercials for the yearly state girls basketball tournament. I was directly involved with the preparation of over 25 television commercials and worked with the television directors and producers first hand. Northwest Teleproductions was the name of the Minneapolis television production company we worked with to produce the television commercials for Felco.
During the basketball game, Felco also sponsored a hospitality room where the elevator managers and their wives from the small towns where the participating girls basketball teams came from could go and relax and enjoy free snacks and refreshments compliments of Felco.
I spent a lot of time helping out in the hospitality room. I also went between the television cameramen and the directors located in a portable control room in a large semi truck out side the auditorium.
Working with the television production and all of the other areas in the advertising area gave me a great deal of experience. After about 2 more years I began wanting more responsibility but Larry, my supervisor, was blocking me from going any further there at Felco. He was very good at what he did and gave me a good education of how to work with agricultural advertising and looked like he was going to be there for a long time ( he and I were the same age).
Editor’s Note: Larry Nelson ended up getting killed in a tractor accident about two years after I left Felco
In my frustration of wanting to progress I started keeping my eyes open to other job possibilities.
It was during my time of searching for a job that
I discovered an ad in the classified section of a Sunday newspaper for an advertising coordinator for a large banking and equipment company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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