Mission
Untitled Page
The Ag Lenders Society of California is a non-profit organization whose purpose
is to serve as the premier provider of education and information for professionals
engaged directly or indirectly in the business of agricultural lending. The Society
focuses its efforts on current issues affecting both agriculture and agricultural
lending in the state of California, while providing a diversified network for agri-business
professionals.
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photos courtesy of Roy Martin
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Message from the President
“Plans are only good
intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.”
Peter Drucker Peter
Drucker was a celebrated management consultant.
He died about three years ago.
He consulted with numerous very
large companies including General Motors, General Electric, Citibank, Proctor
& Gamble to name a few. His ideas
for management and organizational strategies were revolutionary at the time. He was a big fan of decentralization
believing too many large organizations got involved in ventures that were not
suitable resulting in organizational failure.
This quotation seems appropriate this time of year when many parts of
the agricultural community are planning the preparations for the long summer
ahead and the resulting harvest.
Those of us
involved in the furnishing of capital for those ventures are planning
also. We often have goals to set and
quotas to reach all of which require careful planning. But we do not have the luxury of resting on
the plans. We only get somewhere if we
act. The acting is the hard work and the
best way for the work to be productive is to plan.
A great
plan was executed by Mike Layne of our board and a few others when they
presented the Dairy Seminar in early May.
Over 50 attended and were presented with very timely presentations about
an industry that has to plan for so many contingencies. The reviews for the seminar have been
glowing, to say the least. Thanks to all
of you who participated and many thanks again to Mike and his crew.
Another
fine plan will play out the week of June 16.
The Agricultural Lending Institute will again be presented. This two year program which is one of the
capstone events for our organization is devoted to training those in the ag
lending community those unique things needed to be proficient in this very
unique area of finance. Many of you who
are reading this article are alumni from this excellent course. Many thanks for the years of devotion by Roy
Martin and Curt Covington in making this a superb training program. A plan that
had to be changed but looks to be very successful is the water tour scheduled
for Friday June 27. Originally, the tour
was scheduled for the end of May but transportation issues prevailed and the
event needed to be rescheduled. Allan Cellini of our board is taking the lead
for this event. The tour will include visits
to the Tracy Fish Screen, Jones Pumping Plant and the Mendota Dam and
Pool. Early registration is a must due
to certain security concerns. Sign up
and plan to be there!
What ever
your plans may be, include one or more of these events. The Board wants to be and is responsive to
your needs. Feel free to contact any
board member with your suggestions for future events. Your suggestions will let us plan accordingly.
Okay, I’ve
worked “plan” in enough. Thanks for
reading and I hope to see you at one of these events!
Rene Lastreto, II
President
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