You Drive Our Success

From The President

You Drive Our Success

By Brent Kemp, AgGateway President and CEO

One of the hallmarks of AgGateway is that you, the members, not only identify the priorities of the organization – you also help create the roadmap to address them by selecting the volunteer leadership. As another organization I’m a part of states in their onboarding ceremony:

“The satisfaction you derive from your (organization) membership will be in proportion to your level of participation in the organization’s activities. The success of (this organization) will depend upon the extent of your participation and upon the quality of the leaders that you, the member, select.”

It doesn’t matter what “organization” name you fill in – it’s true for any association that is driven by members.

By the time this newsletter reaches you, member company contacts will have received notices that nominations for seats on the Board of Directors and regional Steering Committees are now open. I have been fortunate to serve with many, many extraordinarily talented volunteer leaders, both as a volunteer myself and as an officer of AgGateway.

As you consider who you would like to serve as a leader for AgGateway – or consider serving in this capacity yourself – do so knowing that you are making decisions that affect the future of AgGateway. Your engagement, participation, ideas, and commitment to implementation have addressed business needs for your companies in the past and will continue to do so in the future. It might be saving time and human resources by implementing electronic order-to-cash processes. Or reducing keystrokes and conserving space on flash cards by using ADAPT to transform machine data. Or gaining better visibility into processes and data needed to support climate, global field operations, or other emerging business needs. In myriad ways, your leaders past and present contributed to your success.

Of course, it is not only the elected leadership of AgGateway that moves the mission forward. Volunteers across the organization advocate for increased connectivity and work within their companies and across trading partnerships to make it a reality, and we make celebrating their contributions a priority. If you’ve not contacted your steering committee about nominating a candidate for a regional AgGateway in Action Award, or contacted the staff about nominating a Ron Storms Leadership Award candidate, now is the time to do so. These awards allow us to say thank you to the member companies and individuals who are making a real difference for AgGateway and the industry through their offering of time, talent, and energy.

Awards, election results, and more will be shared at the upcoming Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN, US, November 13 – 15. Registration is open and there are some new discounts available for those who register three or more paid attendees. As important as these presentations are, though, I need to go back to that new member onboarding statement shared earlier in this article. Your satisfaction and the value your company receives from AgGateway will be in direct proportion to the level of engagement and participation by you and your company. The meeting is a great opportunity to network, brainstorm solutions to common problems, learn about emerging issues, and then bring all that back to your company.

So, thank you for your leadership, your engagement, and your implementation. Let us know how we can help socialize your successes. And keep staff in mind if you need support in communicating within your organization.