On Board With The Chairman - April 2024
Dear CDI Members/Owners,
I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Cory Vanderham, and I have the privilege of being your Chairman of the board for this upcoming year. I look forward to this opportunity that I have been presented with and will continue to do what we can to lead your Co-Op’s board of directors and the organization overall in the direction we have set forth. I’d like to thank our past Chairman, Simon Vander Woude, for his leadership the past seven years as Chairman, as well as Will Dyt and Gerben Leyendekker for their service on the board for the last nine years.
I would also like to continue the tradition started years ago of providing a snapshot of the monthly activity at the board of directors meeting through an “On Board with the Chairman” publication following each meeting.
To that end, this month’s meeting was opened by Brad Anderson and the first item on the agenda was electing a new Chairman for the coming year, as well as new Vice Chairs, which are Neil Zwart and John Bidart. Jay te Velde, Jr. was elected continue his role as Secretary and Eric te Velde will be Treasurer. Brad then gave his management report and updated the board on some of our key ongoing projects – most of which the membership heard at least pieces about at our Annual Membership Meeting last week. Brad invited Peter Ernster to provide some more extensive updates about Valley Natural Beverages(VNB). Peter and his team are doing a great job at keeping the construction crews moving at a good pace and making sure costs are in line with the budget. Peter also provided an update on how his sales team is going to market and the some of the early progress they have made in securing volume that will start as early as day one of plant operation.
Phil then presented our financial report for the month of March and year-to-date. March was a profitable month for CDI and we discussed projected performance over the coming months and through the rest of the year. Full-year projections are naturally difficult with volatile markets and still nine months remaining in the fiscal year, but 2024 performance year-to-date has certainly been dramatically improved from year-prior, and board and management are encouraged by the continued improvement we expect to see with the initiatives that were discussed at last week’s member meeting.
Dennis was up next with a report on plant operations. Hereported on our progress on the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) of thepowder and butter lines at all the plants, with some plants hitting new recordhighs in efficiencies. Dennis also updated the board on some of the projects currentlytaking place at the plants, and some opportunities the team has identified toimprove the throughput of milk at our plants and further increase efficiencies.
Rob was up next and provided a summary of the annual membership meeting that was held last week in Bakersfield. We had 118 members represented with 188 total people in attendance. It was a great meeting with important conversations taking place – both in terms of the presentation from management on our near-term work to transform this Co-Op, and the member-to-member conversations as fellow owners of this organization – and we thank everyone who showed up and participated. Rob also provided an update on our annual Washington, DC fly in that is taking place in a week and gave some insights on what they’re going to talk about while they’re on Capitol Hill.
Finally, as we condense the board from 16 directors to 13, we’re going to need more participation on committees within CDI. To anyone who is interested in jumping on a committee, please reach out to me or any other directors and we’ll do our best to get you involved. I hope everyone enjoys the spring weather while it’s around before the summer heat comes. Enjoy the beauty of the land that God has blessed us with and enjoy the time with family and friends. As always, please reach out to me or any other directors with concerns.
All the best,
Cory Vanderham
