I hope you had a great spring and successful planting season. Overall, our fields look good. With the recent moisture and heat, our crops are really taking off. Daily prayers for a cooperative growing season and strong yields.
I have been lucky enough to visit a couple customers recently. Two very different operations, but I was struck by a couple of similarities. After thinking about these, I have noticed this has been true of almost all of my member visits during my 18 years at GreenStone.
The two core similarities are pride in the operation and family involvement. This isn’t new. My grandfather proudly displayed a sign on his barn in Chapin, Mich., that read, “P.E. Jones and Sons.” When my dad bought the farm and needed to replace the barn after a fire, the sign changed to “L.D. Jones and Family.”
My grandparents and dad were very proud of their small farm. My grandparents were also proud of their livestock hauling business and partial ownership in the Owosso Livestock Sales. Every one of our customers is proud of their farm and business. And if multiple members of the family are involved in the operation, then that pride is just multiplied.
During one of the visits, I sat at a table in the member’s very nice farm office and shop listening to him describe how he grew the farm while in partnership with his best friend. I believe the quote was, “We might as well be brothers.” (The member’s son was also at the table with us and is already a GreenStone member.) The member described with pride how they slowly acquired their land and built relationships with their neighbors. Before I left, he was proud to show off a new piece of equipment that was essentially built by hand by the father and son.
During the other visit, I learned of the five generations that have been the owner/operators of the still growing business in rural Michigan. I saw pictures of the great-great grandfather in the 1920s and the great grandfather in the 1940s. The percentages are high that the sixth generation will eventually take over the business as I already met the 11-year-old son pushing a broom starting his summer job. Once again, the pride that this very hard-working family has in their business can’t be missed.
I see this at every customer visit – regardless if it’s a farm business or a new family home. It is, however, always impressive and I never take it for granted. Our member-owners put everything they have emotionally, physically and financially into their operations and families. You deserve to be proud.
I don’t own GreenStone. You do as members. But I can tell you I am very proud to be a part of and lead this organization. I have 650 teammates that are also very proud to be a part of GreenStone and we try to meet our mission every day: “To promote the business success of our customers and the rural community by being the best at providing credit and financial services.” Hopefully, you feel we are meeting our mission for you.
We will receive our “report card” from our members this summer when we see the results of our customer satisfaction survey. For those of you that received the survey, thank you for taking the time to complete it.
I can also tell you, your organization continues to perform well financially. Numbers through the first half of the year look very solid.
This quarter I also wanted to recognize the service and contributions of one of our long-time appointed directors, Gene College. Gene has served on GreenStone’s board of directors since 2009 and serves as the board’s financial expert and audit committee chair. He will be retiring from the board effective December 31, 2025. I can’t thank Gene enough for the leadership and guidance he has provided GreenStone and me personally. I know we have Gene’s expertise to lean on for another six months or so, but I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to recognize all of his contributions to our organization.
You will hear more about our two new appointed directors later in this issue, but I first wanted to welcome to GreenStone Paul Lindow and Rick Snyder. Paul will replace Gene as the board’s financial expert and audit committee chair, while Rick will serve as the board’s technology and cybersecurity expert and chair the newly formed technology committee. Both of these individuals bring extensive experience to GreenStone and our board of directors.
As always, thank you for feeding me, my family, our country and the world; and thank you for your membership and commitment to GreenStone!
Please reach out to me any time I can be of assistance.
To view the summer 2025 issue of Partners magazine in its entirety, click here.
