NASCOE NORTHEAST AREA EXECUTIVE

2017 Candidacy Announcement

Richard Csutoras

First, I want to thank everyone for the support I’ve received during my first year as NEA Exec. We have a great team here and I appreciate all the hard work our area committee chairs, state presidents, and membership in general have done to support our producers and fellow employees. Our area might be the smallest in NASCOE, but we’re certainly not shy about speaking our mind. Agriculture is a little different in our part of the world and I love the passion and commitment that you all bring to ensuring that all our stakeholders are aware of it. I’m grateful to have been awarded the opportunity to represent you on NASCOE’s Executive board.

My primary goals coming in were to increase both communication and membership. I like to think we’ve had some success in both areas. We’re having area wide conference calls on a roughly quarterly basis. We’ve sent out a couple area bulletins designed to be informative and yet succinct in respect of your busy schedules. Plus we’ve made some progress in getting emails out timely and having membership signed up for the NASCOE distribution list. We’ve had a state in our area win the Dillard’s award for greatest Membership Increase (Congrats Massachusetts!) and we’re on track to have Rhode Island, a currently unaffiliated state, create their own association. We also just wrapped up a pretty great Rally in West Wareham, MA!

Of course, there is always more to do and I would really appreciate the opportunity to continue to represent you all in 2017-18 as the Northeast Area Executive. Should you all choose to elect me for a second year, I’m still going to continue to concentrate on communication and membership but I’m also going to add outreach as a priority. There is a real need to share both NASCOE’s and FSA’s story and no better time than now. I’m also hoping to bring some increased focus on other benefits that NASCOE membership brings. For example, I think we can really step up our area’s awards and scholarship participation and there is some opportunity in increasing programs and negotiations submissions as well. While it’s been incredibly busy at times, I have enjoyed this last year more than I ever imagined. Hopefully you will support me and allow me to serve you for another year.

Thanks you.

Rick Csutoras