As I step into the Executive Director position left by Rick Zimmerman, I want to take some time to lay out my goals to continue the fine work that NEAFA does on a daily basis. As I reflect on the prior year and look forward to what 2022 has to offer the agricultural community, five main goals come to mind for me at NEAFA.
My first goal is to maintain the involvement of the Board of Directors. It’s very apparent to me that we have an active board, and I want to make sure I don’t discourage that. I plan to connect with each director individually, and get their understanding of what’s going on. I want to encourage them to continue doing what they’re doing. I plan on being present at as many board and committee meetings as possible each month.
Secondly, I want to make sure that NEAFA continues to execute the strategic plan. There was a lot of energy put into making those pillars for the organization. Specifically, I want to help NEAFA reach its goals for collaboration with other organizations, while also providing more educational opportunities and having opportunities for more involvement from the membership.
Exiting Executive Director Rick Zimmerman has done a remarkable job. I’m very impressed with how he has run the organization. Working with other organizations in the Northeast such as NEDPA, NEAFA is having a very good discussion on how we can find opportunities to collaborate together to benefit the agricultural community and our members. We’re also working on national opportunities with continued collaboration with AFIA and NGFA.
Educationally speaking, NEAFA is looking forward to Pro Dairy’s herd health and nutrition conference in April, and its Net Zero Conference in early February. Pro Dairy is a high priority for us. It’s important for the dairy industry to have access to good solid information from a nutritional standpoint. Herd health and milk production is the most important thing, and having a grasp on where best to focus our efforts on those fronts is important. Whether that’s cow comfort, feed quality, or nutritional supplements. It’s important for our members to get the best and most current information out there, I would also like to see what interest the membership has in educational opportunities for our feed mills and ingredient suppliers.
My fourth goal is member involvement. I plan to reach out to our current, past, and new members individually and collectively to understand the value that they see in NEAFA. I want to ask each director to contact two members personally as well. The best sales people that we have are our directors because of their passion for what the organization does. They offer so much of their own time to meet the goals of the organization.
The last goal I have as Executive Director is to have fun. I don’t know if we talk enough about enjoying what we’re doing, but I want to bring that to our group., Our Annual Meeting in June at the Turning Stone is just such an opportunity when we can take a breath and enjoy the fact that we have a great industry and a lot of smart people working in it. We have serious business to do, but it’s also important to enjoy the things that we have going on around us. I look forward to working with NEAFA and spreading awareness of what a wonderful group of members that we have and the importance of what they do on a daily basis.