Episode 10 | CVA Board Members Building Leaders and Guiding the Co-ops Future

Transcript of Podcast Video

Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability. 

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Nic McCarthy: Good morning and welcome to another episode of At the Table with CVA. I'm your host, Nic McCarthy, CEO and president of Central Valley Ag Cooperative. Today, we're talking about an important opportunity for our member-owners, which is serving on the board of directors at Central Valley Ag. The board plays a vital role in guiding our cooperative's future, representing members' interests in ensuring the long-term success of the cooperative. Joining me today are two current board members who will share their experiences and what they've learned through board service and why they would consider others to run. Welcome this morning, Heath Reimers and Tom Vodicka. Before we dive in, guys, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your operations?

Heath Reimers: Do I get to go first?

Nic McCarthy: Go ahead.

Heath Reimers: All right. I'm Heath, by the way.

Nic McCarthy: Good morning, Heath.

Heath Reimers: My farming operation, I guess, I farm a family farm with my father-in-law. We're diversified soybean corn and livestock out of Merrick County and Nance County, I guess. We farm across the county lines. And been farming, I don't know. I grew up raising cattle and then married my wife and went into row crops. that's probably about it.

Nic McCarthy: And coaching the new generation of your family into raising some show, right? Or some livestock?

Heath Reimers: The kids, they're pretty busy showing livestock. I grew up in the show circuit, so showing 4-H, FFA all over the place.

Nic McCarthy: Busy time of year for that so we appreciate you coming in and helping with this. How about you, Tom?

Tom Vodicka: Oh, I'm Tom and I'm from around Surprise, Nebraska area. I farm with my son, corn and soybeans, no livestock, got a cat. That's about it. Been married to my wife for 39 years tomorrow. 

Nic McCarthy: Happy anniversary. 

Tom Vodicka: Thank you.

Nic McCarthy: Big plans?

Tom Vodicka: No, not really.

Nic McCarthy: Not really.

Tom Vodicka: No. After 39 years, it gets routine.

Nic McCarthy: Hopefully you're not irrigating hopefully we catch rains later so you won't have to irrigate. 

Tom Vodicka: I think we should be good for another week at least anyway. I've been pretty lucky getting some rain.

Nic McCarthy: Good, we appreciate you guys joining us this morning and truly do appreciate your years of service and serving on the board as it's a vital thing for the cooperative, is to have member representation help guide and lead our cooperative into the future. Both of you have been on the board here for Heath, I think four years you said, and Tom on and off for let's call it 20, 25 years maybe. Somewhere in there. Both have pretty good experiences. And today we really want to talk about as we're entering the time and process of nominations, we really want to communicate to the membership the importance of having a strong board and the need to help recruit. And we want to use this as an avenue to let members know what the process is like and hopefully encourage some people to reach out and show some interest. And if not get on the ballot this year, maybe pursue an associate membership so you can see the inside workings of what the board experience is and how CVA runs in a deeper fashion. The one question I think that's always out there that members ask is, what does a board member actually do? And so I'll let both of you put into your own words, what do you do? What are your responsibilities when you go into the boardroom?

Tom Vodicka: I can go first. We just basically listen to our SVP's and what you bring to us to the board and different topics on whether it be investing in anything or expanding something or unfortunately sometimes take away things. It's all gets discussed. nobody takes it lightly and we put a lot of time and effort in it to try to make the correct decision for our patrons and CVA and hopefully make the right decisions. Don't always make the right decisions sometimes looking down the road, but we do our best.

Heath Reimers: That was pretty good. Probably what are we actually going to do? We get to hire this guy.

Nic McCarthy: Right? That's your first responsibility.

Heath Reimers: That's the first responsibility.

Tom Vodicka: I think we made that good decision.

Heath Reimers: We had that opportunity. And then we get to help make sure we like what he's doing. But yeah, a lot of times we get a vote on the big things and this podcast has touched on it before about any new ideas and we'll say the white corn cleaning facility, that was a big deal and that really gave the opportunity for this co-op to grow.

Nic McCarthy: Large investment.

Heath Reimers: Large investment. One I take advantage of it.

Nic McCarthy: That's good. And that's what we want to bring is expanded opportunities to the membership to be able to market grains in ways that we haven't before, especially as we look at our pathways to export markets are continuing to be challenged and changing. But I think Tom and Heath, you both hit on it really well is management brings a strategy to the boardroom and says, "Here's what we see." And I think as a board member and the advantage the co-op has with the owners being on the board and the people doing business with the cooperative on the board, they help guide that strategy to what you're seeing on your guys' operations and what you're hearing from others. And a perfect example is the white corn vision to continue to get in that food space. Really we talked about it a lot in the boardroom that we may lose some export markets with China having other avenues and we've got to find a way to try to help our farmers be profitable in what are new avenues. really good points there on helping with strategy and being able to do those things. I think one interesting thing that was brought up is, Tom, you talked about it, the tough decisions of taking things away or closing locations or exiting services. And that's a really hard topic, right? we know that there's always tough decisions that have to be made in businesses. And I think on the farm, that's been going on for years. You look at farms 35, 40 years ago all had livestock on it and all had either you were maybe in hogs or you had a few calves on feed or those type of things. And as things went and the farms changed, you have a lot of integrators today in the swine and poultry business and there was a choice that in that business, it seems like for the most part, you probably either went big or you went home. And those are some of the same things we face at the co-op today. Tell us about when leadership brings in a challenging topic like having to exit a location, how does that happen in the boardroom?

Tom Vodicka: For me, that's one of the hardest parts of this job. It's never fun going to somebody and closing something up or getting rid of something. But I just want everybody to know that we don't just come one morning and say, "Hey, we're going to do this or do that. " Sometimes it's a five, 10-year process. We got to plan.

Nic McCarthy: Reinvest into services.

Tom Vodicka: Reinvest. Yep. And we do everything we can to try to keep everything we can, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. Community's getting smaller and there's just certain things sometimes that just doesn't make sense anymore. It's hard, but it's I guess a hard decision to make.

Nic McCarthy: And it's always a really sensitive topic, especially our board representation is in regions. And so we have representations in each one of our 10 regions. And I know it's a challenge for you guys when you have to go back and face some of your friends when we have to make those hard decisions and your fellow farmers and ranchers out there when we have to make those hard decisions and be able to say, "Here's why we did it. " But it is. That's probably one of the challenges of the board. And I think one thing that definitely is not the funnest part of being a board member here at CVA, but what are some of the fun things that happen? We talked about the tough stuff, but what's the exciting stuff?

Heath Reimers: I think I touched a little bit on the new ideas, the ways of finding new revenue for the farmers and the opening brand new elevators down in Kansas. Those are the good ideas where we're like, "let's actually build something." And we take great pride into being able to actually give people brand new facilities. The constant upkeep, the expansions, that's showing our growth. That shows that people rely on the co-op and like what we're doing.

Tom Vodicka: What he said, but one thing about I know being on the board too, it's not always just board decisions, just meeting new guys in different territories because it's amazing how much you find out how different you think, well, most of us are in Nebraska, but we go all the way from South Dakota to Kansas and Iowa. And it's amazing how different people's operations are just in that area. Just imagine over the whole country, the different operations that are going on and everybody has different ideas and different goals. And so it's fun to hear other people's perspective on things.

Nic McCarthy: Yep. For sure. For sure. I know both of you had mentioned one of the fun things is how we reinvest money back into assets and CVA's been a leader in the marketplace to do that. The amount of reinvestment that we've made back into capital expenditures has probably been some of the highest in the country when you look at locally owned cooperatives. But one other fun thing that we usually talk about in that boardroom is in reinvesting into capital expenditures is one way to distribute the profits that we generate every year. But what's some other ways that we generate the profits and those fun things that we talk about in the boardroom?

Heath Reimers: Got anything?

Tom Vodicka: Go ahead. I'm thinking.

Heath Reimers: You're thinking. All right. we're very fortunate to actually make money here and be able to give it back to the farmer. We strive ourselves to make sure we get the opportunity to do that. And I got to give our management team very good credit on ensuring that we get to do that.

Nic McCarthy: I think a really fun day to what Heath talks about is when we're able to bring the earnings that we've made through the wonderful business and we want to thank everybody for the business that they do with the cooperative. But I think one of the most satisfying days from my seat and from a board seat is when we get to make those decisions on retirement equity, paying equity back, and then the cash patronage side of things. And we work hard as leaders in that boardroom and not only leadership at CVA, but leadership in the board to really look at a sources and uses sheet that says, here's the path that we want to be on, the path to reinvest into assets and capital expenditures, the path that we want to be on for the retirement of equity. We need to get that money back into our patron's hands that we've used to help reinvest into the business. And then the money that we do just for the year earned business, the patronage that we're going to put back into our members' hands is always a fun day to vote on. And of course the great thing is the board gets to make those decisions. And it's a decision of your peers of representation of what you believe we should pay out and obviously what we should use to reinvest and what we should allocate as equity into the company. I think that's always a fun day for everybody and for us to be blessed to do those things because there's some that struggle to have earnings and be able to do those things. as we talk about and we get back to the baseline of our conversation today, obviously we're here to try to recruit to help the nomination committee generate some names and some quality candidates, not only to possibly run this year, but to become associates. What would you say who should consider serving and why when you think about some of your peers in the farming and ranching side of things? 

Tom Vodicka: Iif there's anything that you have a passion for, it could be school board, church board, co-op board. But I was always under the impression that if there's something you're passionate for and you care about and you want a voice and sometimes maybe you don't think things are going quite right and you just don't quite understand it, but get in there and see what's going on because we all try to do the best we can. And there's a lot of decision making and conversation goes on behind all of our decisions and we try to do the best we can.

Heath Reimers: You're pretty good on that one. This board's for everybody that does business that's owning this co-op. I welcome any of them to apply. There's no real qualifications for this job. You don't have to have previous experience. I guess if you do get on the board, you'll find out that probably multiple of us actually do sit on multiple boards, but some of us don't. There's few of us that this is the first time they've ever sat on a board like this. And it's a really... The co-op, I'm the odd guy out here. I'm not that old, but when the co-ops were more locally owned, farmers used to sit on it all the time. The co-op was owned by the town, everybody that farmed around it. And it really rotated board members and they got to understand where their product, where their fertilizer's coming from, what does it take to get a sprayer and a spreader and the seed and the whole nine yards, your feed, we can go there too. And then as we've consolidated co-ops, we've seen less people want to sit on the boards. But the idea is still the same. If you want a better understanding on the fertilizer that you're putting on your corn and beans and the feed that you need to feed your hogs, your chickens, cattle, this is a great opportunity to learn and actually understand what's going on. And I think you overall get a better grasp on your own farming operation.

Nic McCarthy: Yep. And that might be one of the key learnings that you've taken away that's been a hidden benefit is the networking. I think Tom mentioned it earlier, the networking of the board with the size of our board and the size of our regions. The networking there is always, and it's always enjoyable for me to hear the conversations that the board's having about, well, I tried this and that didn't work and I tried this and that worked really good. And it's a network of peers that you're able to source and bounce ideas off of. With that, how would one, if they had interest in running for the board or potentially becoming an associate, if they're not ready to run for the board or want to just learn more, what's the best way to get involved and learn more about that?

Tom Vodicka: I'd say one of the best things is just talk to your local board person that's on the board and they can guide you and tell you how much time it actually takes to be on there. Or maybe your location manager, get online. You can Google CVA and find out what they're all about and just talk to people and ask questions.

Heath Reimers: I completely agree that most of the time the locations guys, especially local ones, they know who's sitting on the board. They definitely are willing to share a name. And go on to the cvacoop.com. I think it's, is it DOD/interest I think?

Nic McCarthy: BOD-interest. If you go to the website, obviously you can find the board interest portal link there that you can submit your name. Along with you can find out who the board members are by region on the website. And both of you brought up a good point. I think any of the local representation will for sure get you pointed in the right direction and to where we need to get to, to get your name and do those things. we would really encourage if you have any interest and we also have a packet that we can get out in the mail that walks through the responsibilities of the board, the time commitment, what it does as far as meetings and the time commitment that's needed to be a contributing board member there and should be a really good information source along with the website. anything that we miss that either of you would put on the list that you think about when you think about being a board member?

Tom Vodicka: As far as just talking to your current board members about running for the board and that don't need to be just that also. You could talk to your board members anytime you got a question, that's what we're here for. If we don't have the answer for you, we'll find one and hopefully we can go from there.

Nic McCarthy: I think it's a great resource. Communication.

Heath Reimers: Yep. I'll agree with the communication part. One thing probably I would say we talk about maybe some little funner things on the board is we do get to travel to some regional meetings around the country to represent the CVA, get a vote on much larger areas for our regional co-ops. And we get to meet people from all around the country. I think that's really neat to, you get a really vast network. But yeah, people interested in being an associate or a board or even just have questions. I think every board member is more than willing to listen to someone and pass the word on to get the answers.

Nic McCarthy: That's one really good point, Heath, and glad you brought it up, but there is a larger network of you get to meet not just CVA board members, but board members that represent cooperatives across the nation. We're very active in the state cooperative council, so you really do get to interact with other board members across all the states that we serve and hear what their challenges are, what their opportunities and successes are. And it's a larger network along with in great point seeing what the regionals, the Land O'Lakes and the CHSs and the AGPs of the world, what they're doing and what they're seeing in the marketplace. And sometimes that can be a little bit of a competitive advantage when you go back to your farm to know that, hey, the soybean crush is going to grow in Nebraska because we continue as AGP, as owners in AGP to expand that business. There's some insights there that can definitely help. I want to thank both of you for taking time out of the day. I know June is a very, very busy time of year with row crop farming and even on the livestock side of things. Heath you shared and good luck with your kids in the showing circuit here over the next few weeks. But want to thank you both for joining us and sharing the experiences. Again, if you're interested in helping shape the future of CVA, we encourage you to learn more about board service. Connect with the current board member or complete the board interest form available on our website, cvacoop.com. Leadership begins with willingness to step forward and your perspective can help guide the future of this cooperative for many years to come. Thank you for joining us at this episode of At the Table with CVA. We'll see you next time. Thank you. 

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