Before, during and after as a MFFC Trustee

By Sue Van Hook, Board President

We believe that people who make the best MFFC trustees are those whose passion has already connected them to this hilltop farm and forest. Our volunteer board members first serve on one or more committees to offer their expertise as educators, lawyers, financiers, organizers, farmers or foresters. This entry point to the organization affords us one year to seek the best fits between the needs of our program, finance, governance or advancement committees and a new member to the advisory council. It is a two-way arrangement. An advisor may decide for or against service after one year as well. But our hope is that we get to know one another, appreciate the strengths a new member offers to the council, and invite them to join the board the following year as a trustee.

The current makeup of the MFFC board is simply wonderful. I so enjoy our time together as we all pitch in for open houses, trail days, cleaning cabins, parking cars, selling tickets, stuffing envelopes, reviewing forest and farm management plans, participating in strategic and master planning, and acting as passionate MFFC ambassadors near and far.

The board currently has 10 members and we seek to add up to 5 additional members per our bylaws in the next two years. If you have been waiting for an opportunity to give back to Merck Forest after enjoying one or seventy-one years here, please reach out to Director Rob Terry or a board member.

Often trustees completing their three-year terms linger on a committee or two out of love and a sense of devotion to this special place. Once a member of Merck Forest and Farmland Center, always a member, or so it seems.