By Danielle Penney-Stroop NEAFA President
Greetings and Happy New Year Everyone! January is typically a time for reflection and setting goals. It’s energizing, a period of new beginnings filled with a sense of purpose and hope. How do you reflect? Is it focusing on segments of professional or personal aspects, or is it looking at all the facets of your life? Reflection requires focus and being honest with yourself, while recognizing the achievements and failures of the prior year. What did we learn and how do we set new achievable and measurable goals for future success? Herein lies some of my reflections…
The timing to reflect is perfect, as this will be my last President’s Pen article since my tenure heading up this wonderful group is coming to a close. On February 8th, at our annual meeting, current Vice President Jenny Mills will transition to the presidency of NEAFA. I am most excited to see Jenny take the reins and continue to work on transitioning our organization to a sustainable, viable voice for our members, as well as making a brighter future for agriculture in the northeast as a whole.
Two years ago I transitioned to President under the guidance of John Clark and Rick Zimmerman, and a couple words encapsulate that time period; uncertainty and angst.
We were still in the midst of the Covid pandemic, and there was a charged political climate with legislative issues coming hard and fast. Immigration policies, labor and wage board negotiations, neonic ban, truck weights, even Happy the Elephant. On top of that, we were working on how and when would we conduct our Annual Meeting and Golf for Good Works Tournament, and how/when would we review our strategic plan. And that was just the first few months of my tenure as president. Initially, I likened it to drinking from a fire hose.
The first major order of business was having Dr. Larry Van De Valk, of Cornell University, facilitate our strategic meeting with the newly appointed board of directors. In July of 2021, the board spent a day and half engaging and deep diving into our organization and the value we provide for our members. It was necessary to reflect on our previous strategic plan from 6 years earlier. Our analysis revealed that we needed to revise our strategies due to industry consolidations, the political climate, and change in our leadership within NEAFA, while continuing to meet the needs of our membership. The decisions from this retreat would become NEAFA’s leading principle, determining our goals and direction for the remainder of my presidency.
At the end of August 2021, we conducted our delayed annual meeting, in combination with the Golf for Good Works Tournament. Even with Covid mitigation protocols in place, this turned out to be a celebratory and successful meeting and golfing event. In that year, we recognized the valuable modern tools available for communicating with one another from afar, but nothing beat seeing one another in person, and having face to face meetings and collaboration efforts.
Much to my chagrin, it was announced shortly after that Rick Zimmerman would be retiring at the end of 2021 as our Executive Director, and would focus solely on lobbying for 2022. The Executive Team was charged with determining how we would fill the void of Executive Director, while moving the needle forward with our strategic plan. Graciously in December 2021, former NEAFA President John Mitchell stepped out of retirement and accepted the role of Interim Executive Director.
This past year, John focused on the growth of our membership, and analyzed areas of opportunity. He assisted with our ten very active committees, helped with the planning of our annual meeting and upcoming transport summit, and provided feedback to the board on strategic alliance plans. We thank John for all that he accomplished this past year.
Legislatively, there was never a shortage of policies, priorities, and actionable items for NEAFA to address all year long. We were key participants in the Happy the Elephant case, addressing truck weights and a myriad of transportation issues throughout New York and New England, and recognizing the loss of farms (conventional and organic) throughout New York and New England. NEAFA also participated on the ruling of origin of livestock, the judicious use of pesticides and antibiotics in constructive manners regarding the viability of our soil and livestock, and climate change initiatives. We also had another successful lobby day session with Rick Zimmerman leading the charge, with ten of our board members present and involved with thirteen legislators.
Rick Zimmerman kept the board abreast of numerous issues facing our industry, and was key in the involvement of the GROW NY Coalition and Campaign, focused on the overtime threshold. While the OT threshold seems to have passed and is largely out of our hands now, the coalition has committed to remain intact and continue our work regarding labor unions and minimum wage fight.
At our annual meeting two years ago, I stated that “Our role of lobbying and involvement in political policies has never been more immediate and critical, especially as the rural vs urban population gap increases. We have an incredibly large freshman legislative class that needs information, guidance, and relationships with us, not just their non-agricultural constituents. We need a seat and voice at the table every time.” This grows more true and vital with every passing year, and our recognition of the value and importance of effective lobbying and advocacy led us to the hiring of Hinman Straub.
We are confident that Hinman Straub Associates will help NEAFA build off the advocacy platform that Rick Zimmerman developed and grew for us over the past 15 years. The board and our members will continue to reach out to educate our downstate and new elected officials. We’re excited for the resources that Hinman Straub Associates has for effective lobbying on our behalf.
Collaboration with our industry partners remains critical in all of our efforts to effectively communicate legislative issues, identify processing and transportation bottlenecks throughout our region, and preserving our industry as we consolidate. I am excited that the time invested with industry partners for the past two years will continue to grow and benefit our membership long term. We will continue our involvement and investment in the Grow NY Coalition, as well as partnerships with Northeast Dairy Producers Association, VT Dairy Producers Association, Dairy Food Association, and VT Feed Dealers.
I thank you all for your constant support as well as patience as we transitioned through our leadership and management as an organization these past couple years. I greatly appreciate the staff of resources I had through this process; Sue VanAmburgh, Rick Zimmerman, John Clark, John Mitchell, Jenny Mills, Barry Baetz, Lon Stephens, and Corwin Holtz, as well as my incredible board of directors, both past and present.
To our incoming President, Jenny, the advice I offer is to find and maintain your balance personally and professionally. Utilize your team’s gifts and strengths… lean on them the next 2 years. Don’t be afraid to delegate or ask for help… It takes a village applies here as well. And finally, I believe you are the ideal next leader, as we continue this next phase of our leadership transition and growth for NEAFA.