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It's Not Goodbye; It's Thank You
It’s Not Goodbye; It’s Thank You
As I submit my final column as Chairman of the Illinois Soybean Association, I write in gratitude: proud of our accomplishments, confident in our strategy and direction, and inspired by all that we have accomplished together over the last two years. This experience has been, in a word, exhilarating. We are in the business of improving business for Illinois soybean farmers and their families, and it has been my honor to work for the men and women who feed and fuel our world, consistently posturing Illinois at center stage in our global marketplace.
Over the last two years, we worked to repair frayed relationships with members of Illinois commodity groups, unifying our voices and efforts, and brought Illinois corn and Illinois soy together under the same, shared booth at the Farm Progress Show. We built a new Bloomington office, large enough to accommodate our growing staff, programs and outreach services to farmers. We closed our downtown Chicago office and relocated to Lombard, a location strategically chosen for its close proximity to Chicagoland policy-makers and tremendous cost savings. We helped to facilitate an Illinois farm visit from the President of the United States and welcomed trade teams representing soy customers from around the world.
We revamped both ILSoy.org and ILSoyAdvisor.com as leading information hubs, bolstered by our renewed commitment to research in partnership with universities throughout the state. We developed SoyInnovator, an online platform dedicated to promoting innovation and technological ag advancement, encouraging farmers to keep their eyes on the future.
We grew our Corporate Partners program, which resulted in a stronger financial position for the Illinois Soybean Growers (ISG) and added value to our partners’ missions. Our flagship communication, Illinois Field & Bean Magazine, developed into a monthly publication, affording us the opportunity to provide our 43,000 Illinois soybean farmers updates on both ISA soybean checkoff and ISG membership and governmental affairs programs, providing advertisers and corporate sponsors access to our readership.
We expanded our Agronomy, Government Relations, and Market Development teams, allowing us to move more work in-house across the full breadth of our ISA community of talent and expertise. These teams are mobilizing efforts throughout the industry to grow our opportunities in every imaginable dimension, truly pioneering a more hopeful future for Illinois agriculture.
And we lived our values, meeting with farmers, listening to farmers, and taking those stories with us from Illinois to Egypt, to Puerto Rico, and all across our great nation.
I want to acknowledge the steadfast efforts of the ISA Board of Directors for their insight and commitment, and the ISA staff for their great performance over the last two years. These hardworking individuals lead with a mission-first mindset.
Rather than close with “goodbye,” I’ll simply say, “thank you.” I am leaving this association in capable hands, ready for what’s next.
