Like many of our farm members experience, winter is simultaneous with meeting season – taking advantage of some down time on the farm to connect with others, learn, and gain inspiration for the next cycle of feeding and fueling America.
During this time, the GreenStone Board of Directors are not only attending their commodity and industry specific meetings, but they are also representing GreenStone’s 28,000 members at the annual Farm Credit meetings. Two of those are the Farm Credit Annual Meeting with all 60+ Farm Credit associations from across the nation, and the AgriBank Annual Meeting with the 12 associations that are members of AgriBank’s district within the Farm Credit System. Three of your GreenStone Directors’ share their perspective on these two gatherings, and provide insight into the purpose and the value the gatherings provide to GreenStone.
Terri Hawbaker, Clinton County, MI
Farm Credit System meetings are key in cultivating collaboration among the entire cooperative system and encourages exploration of issues facing our industry. The Farm Credit Annual Meeting allows the pooling of resources to provide educational opportunities and updates on the farm economy, legislative issues, and future challenges through experts that each individual association may not be able to secure on their own. It also creates a space to share ideas and thoughts from across the nation in one room, enlightening and challenging every participant’s viewpoint.
The AgriBank Annual Meeting is where the voice of each association who uses AgriBank as their funding bank can be heard through the election of the AgriBank board members, and where director-to-director discussions are prominent. The AgriBank meeting allows for issues to be discussed that are region specific, whereas the national meetings allow us to join together and create one voice to present to leadership in Washington D.C. on policy that benefits all members, including the Farm Credit System itself.
Dale Wagner, Manitowoc County, WI
Each year board members have the opportunity to attend several meetings besides our regular board meetings. This year, several of us attended the Farm Credit Annual Meeting. This meeting includes directors and management from the associations across the country and the four District Banks. Presenters shared insight from topics such as geopolitical issues, international demographics, the Federal debt, regulation, commodity prices, and rising interest rates. Why does this matter? Because these all can have some impact on each and every one of our farms, and the businesses we depend on for supplies, feed, fuel, fertilizer, parts and the cost and availability of the capital. Although we have limited control on many of these, I feel it is important to try to minimize the negative threats and maximize any potential opportunities.
Most of our GreenStone Board of Directors were also able to attend the AgriBank Annual Meeting. Again, there were several excellent speakers with the highlight being keynote speaker, former President George W. Bush. He shared with us some of his thoughts on his time in the Oval Office as well as the current political environment. He even gave us a little advice for life in general!
We had the chance to network with others. There were many conversations about our own operations but a lot of time was spent sharing thoughts about potential risks, discussing the need for collaboration between associations and the funding banks, and the concern over the current interest rate increases. One common denominator that I feel came through is that whether talking to a staff member, a CEO, an association director, or a bank director we are all driven by a common goal: To do what will create the best outcome for our farm and rural consumer members.
The most important part of the AgriBank meeting however was to elect the directors to represent GreenStone and the other associations on the AgriBank Board. This is similar to the elections coming up for the GreenStone board. I believe one of the greatest assets of Farm Credit is our self-governance.
Jed Welder, Montcalm County, MI
The recent AgriBank Annual Meeting was an incredible time to network with directors from other Farm Credit institutions across the county. We were able to see firsthand how GreenStone performed in comparison to co-ops that are both much bigger and smaller than ours. It was great to see it confirmed that GreenStone consistently ranks in the very top of farm lending by every measure.
One take away from this meeting was the time spent with our keynote speaker, former President George W. Bush. He shared with us that you never know what you can do until you try. At age 70 he took up painting and took his creativity in an entirely new direction. His story is inspiration for all of us at any age!
To view the article in the online 2023 Spring Partners Magazine, click here.
