By Danielle Penney-Stroop
Happy Fall & Happy Harvest Everyone!
On September 12th, we welcomed our new board members Dr Eric Reid, of Co-operative Feed Dealers, Dr. Sarah LaCount, of Mercer Milling, and Matt Sheffer of Cargill Animal Nutrition. On September 13th, the board met and conducted our board meeting at the Miner Institute. Thank you to Dr Rick Grant, Wanda Emerich, and all the staff at Miner for welcoming us and being such amazing hosts. We conducted business from 9am until 2:30 pm, and during our delicious lunch provided by the Miner Staff, we were presented the opportunity to hear student presentations on their current areas of research and future impacts on the dairy industry. Following our meeting, Grant & Emerich were gracious enough to give us a tour of the Minter Institute and dairy facilities. It was a fabulous day and great experience for all of us.
Our board agenda focused on the following -
NEAFA Budget for next year – Like many other organizations and businesses, we have increased event costs and increased costs for professional and administrative services. We are working diligently to be fiscally responsible and provide all our members exceptional value propositions for advocating on your behalf. We continue to collaborate with other organizations in order to make a greater impact and have a larger voice within our industry, and to offer educational events for our members to challenge themselves, network, and take advantage of opportunities for industry good works.
NEAFA Membership – Membership greatly impacts our budget, and is equally as important as the fiscal portion… we need increased numbers for our voice and input on legislative issues and matters. Strength in numbers continues to be part of our initiative and focus for the upcoming year! We want to hear from you on what we can do to increase our numbers?
Executive Director Position – Thank you to John Mitchell, who has been serving as our interim Executive Director and for Rick Zimmerman’s continued input and support as we go through these transitions. We also want to give a huge shout out to our backbone, Sue VanAmburgh. She keeps all of us in line, and that is not an easy feat. We discussed the goals and objectives of our next Executive Director, and the areas of focus and opportunities as it ties back to our Strategic Plan from last summer. Mitchell and the executive team shared that the key areas of focus need to be increasing membership, evaluating the needs of our members, being the liaison with the legislative group, and promoting the numerous accomplishments and value proposition of being a part of NEAFA.
NEAFA Education Forums – We are seeking a co-chair with Dr. Kristan Reed for the education committee. While the committee will continue to bring us quality programs, such as Herd Health and Nutrition Conference, what other programs can we bring to New York and New England that will benefit our members? How can we improve the New England portion of our educational platforms and increase attendance and value? If you have ideas, please send them in to Sue VanAmburgh, John Mitchell, myself, or any board member. We welcome the additional thoughts and want to hear your needs!
NEAFA Transportation Committee & Supply Chain Issues – This is an area we have identified of significant importance that our members and legislation need to come together to have conversations and share ideas. We have developed a Transportation Summit Task Force to identify our industry bottlenecks and create areas of opportunity. We need to present the issues but also offer solutions! Given the current political climate and legislative races for mid-term elections, we will be holding off on our Transportation Summit until after the first of the year, when we have a clear picture of who the legislators are and what their overall positions are in the seats they hold.
Additionally, I have had discussions with VT Feed Dealers President Matt Saville, on legislative issues and how our organizations can collaborate further and increase our voice for the issues we are all facing.
We continue to be a vital partner in the GROW NY Farms coalition. As most of you know, Commissioner Reardon issued her acceptance of the wage board report and its recommendation to lower the overtime threshold. Grow NY Farms and their partner organizations quickly responded in condemnation for the action. We remain steadfast in our opposition. Despite it being a Friday, there was widespread press pick up of the announcement. This action sets the rulemaking of the new regulation in motion that will include a 60-day public comment period.
And in closing, I would like to thank Cornell University for giving NEAFA the opportunity to engage with its audience and to tout our accomplishments, as well as to openly recruit for new members! NEAFA's Vice-President, Jenny Mills, and Rick Zimmerman did an outstanding job highlighting our goals and priorities. Thank you to Charlie Elrod for hitting the breakfast audience and highlighting many of the same initiatives!