BOARDROOM BRIEF
Greetings from the Board Room:
FCS Financial’s care for
community
My, my! How time flies by.
As we slip from fall into winter,
I hope that each and all are
approaching the finish line of the
2018 harvest that seems to never
end. Another Thanksgiving has
come and gone with much to be
thankful for. Were you thankful
for FCS Financial?
FCS Financial recently
celebrated 100 years of serving
our customer/owners in rural
Missouri. Your cooperative has a
proud heritage and the cooperative
structure of governance has much
to do with the longevity of our
organization. There are seven
guiding principles of cooperatives;
they are as follows:
• Open and voluntary
membership
• Democratic member control
• Member’s economic
participation
• Autonomy and independence
• Education, training, and
information
• Cooperation among
cooperatives
• Concern for community
I would like to focus on
“Concern for community.” Maybe
it is best summed up by the
motto I learned back in 1982 as
a “Greenhand.” “Learning to do,
Doing to earn, Earning to live,
Living to serve” Just as in our
individual lives, our cooperative
finds itself engaged in each of the
four progressive stages.
By definition “Concern for
community” is FCS Financial
assisting in the sustainable
development and the investment
in rural Missouri through policies
supported by our member-owners.
All of the programs and initiatives
that follow were developed
through ideas born in stockholder
advisory meetings and employee
workgroups, vetted in the FCS
Financial boardroom, and then
implemented and administered
by FCS Financial management
and staff for the benefit of our
communities. You can be proud to
be a member of a cooperative that
is truly “Living to serve.”
As a cooperative, FCS
Financial expressed its care for
community by:
• Funding 792 Ag youth
projects totaling nearly $1.1
million.
• Establishing the FCS
Financial Rural Community
and Ag Foundation with
an initial investment of $1
million, to date funding eight
grants totaling $67,500.
• Distributed over $550,000
in scholarships to Missouri
students.
• Participated with FFA and 4H
in Shaping Rural Missouri
Grants on 227 projects
totaling over $110,000.
• Partnered with FCS Financial
staff thru Partners in Doing
and Boost your Impact to
volunteer more than 1,300
hours and donate nearly
Kenny Bergmann, Chairman
$40,000 to worthy rural
Missouri needs.
• Giving more than $1.5 million
to FFA and 4H chapters.
It makes me proud to be a part
of, and humbled to serve in, the
leadership of FCS Financial.
To see how FCS Financial
is caring for your community
visit the News and Events page at
www.myfcsfinancial.com. Scroll
through the stories that show our
commitment to the sustainable
development of your rural
Missouri community.
Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year!
Kenny
HEARTBEAT | WINTER 2018 27