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Transforming Member Relationships

Transforming Member Relationships
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Minnesota Milk Producers Association Adapted its Member Services in Response to the Pandemic
In the face of adversity, associations adapt and evolve to meet the changing needs of their members. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, stories of resilience have emerged from associations who have successfully turned difficult challenges into benefits for their respective industries and beyond. Minnesota Milk Producers Association is one such organization. MMPA was able to see a silver lining in the struggles brought on by the pandemic and translate it into tangible value for its members.
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“When the pandemic hit in the spring, our industry was at a crisis point,” explained MMPA Executive Director Lucas Sjostrom. “But as we worked our way through it, we discovered that being flexible was actually beneficial for our members and our staff.”
As a trade association representing approximately 700 dairy farmers around Minnesota, or about a third of the dairy farms in the state, MMPA focuses on policy, regulatory, and management issues at the state and sometimes national levels, in addition to offering educational opportunities for its farmer members. While they serve all types of dairy farmers around Minnesota, they have a particular fondness for helping young and beginning farmers get their operations started on a solid foundation.
As closures rippled through the state at the beginning of the pandemic, including shutdowns of schools and restaurants that are traditionally large customers of milk products, misinformation was spreading rampant and creating anxiety and uncertainly for dairy farmers. MMPA acted quickly to communicate facts that would quell rumors and raise support with state legislators.

“Through a combination of virtual tools, we held up to three meetings a week for our dairy farmer members to help share information on policy from industry officials and offer reassurance as the pandemic unfolded,” Sjostrom said.
As spring turned to summer, MMPA ramped up its remote offerings to connect with more members. Taking advantage of the warm weather, they changed their traditional meeting format to golf outings and held board meetings outdoors in parks. The change was a win-win for everyone: it required less MMPA staff time to plan and resulted in more quality time to talk with dairy farmer members and associate members. It also resulted in more successful fundraising opportunities for MMPA’s scholarship program.
MMPA’s held its first virtual annual meeting in December, and member engagement has already surpassed what it has been in the past. The association began accepting mail-in ballots for board elections for the first time, and MMPA reported that it had four times the participation as previous years.
“Minnesota Milk Producers Associationwas able to see a silver lining in thestruggles brought on by the pandemicand translate it into tangible value for itsmembers.”
Meeting virtually has also been more efficient for the dairy farmers, who are geographically spread out around the state and can sometimes find it difficult to leave their farms when they have cows that need to be cared for every day. For MMPA staff, half of whom were already working remotely, it was business as usual.
“For many of our meetings, we found that between 7-9 pm was the best time for the farmers and staff instead of the more typical 10 am or 2-3 pm,” said Sjostrom. “For purposes of farm safety and agronomic reasons, daylight is valuable to farmers, so hosting virtual meetings after the sun goes down was a better use of everyone’s time.”
Another unexpected benefit that MMPA has discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic is increased attention to one of their top policy issues: access to broadband internet in rural areas. Although it’s an issue that has been in the association’s top five list for several years, the exploding number of residents in rural areas needing access to broadband for work, school, and other purposes has brought it to the forefront. MMPA has been working to bring more awareness to the issue in the state legislature, and through its partnership with the American Connection Project Broadband Coalition, there is a push for national legislation to bring broadband to the last mile.
In the face of adversity and uncertainty, MMPA’s dairy farmer members know they can count on their association to provide a stable foundation to help them weather any storm and come out stronger than before. It’s an investment to create a more stable, prosperous future.
To learn more about MMPA, visit www.mnmilk.org.
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