Middlebury Cooperative holds Annual Meeting.

With Large Bonuses to Members

Saturday February 23rd was beautiful day, and brought good attendance for the 53rd Annual Meeting of Middlebury Cooperative, held at the school in Knoxville, PA.

The day started with an informal reception and registration. During the reception milk punch was served by the Dairy Maid, Katie Johnson, helping her was Ross Thomas, and Katie Thomas. After the fun reception, short talks from guest speakers in the dairy industry, and local farm organizations addressed the members. The guests in attendance were David C.Arms (dairy economist and consultant), Howard Kravitz (CEO Emkay Trading ) Sherry Butters (Tioga county FSA director) Anthony Schlieser (Haylor AIB INS.) Kerry Dietrich (CPA) Following the speakers the children in attendance separated for their own special I'm A Middlebury Co-Op Kid program set up by Annette Miles. The children made crafts, played games, and had a ratty farm hat contest all the children had a fun time.

Following the speakers, Donald Gilman gave the invocation and, Pauline Graves catered another excellent meal. Applause was given to Pauline for the superb job done during 15 years of annual meetings.

The Meeting was opened with proof due notice and minutes being read by Bonnita Gilman Secretary. President Donald Gilman gave his Annual Report. Don first thanked the board and Dennis Graves Vice President for the great job done over the past year. Don explained the Cooperative sales of 17 million dollars, and producer prices averaging $15/cwt, and some months over $17/cwt. Don went over additional premiums and showed charts, pointing out over $490,000 above the federal order price paid by Middlebury Cooperative. The matching pension and Quarterly Bonus payment program was explained, and Don held up a check for $0.38 /cwt. that each member had in their folder for the 4th Quarter. Don mentioned the returned dues program after the 2nd year of membership. Don went on further to explain each and every member of Middlebury Co-Op is treated equal with no special deals being offered. By doing this equal share of profits are all paid out by the end of each year equally, and in the true spirit of a Cooperative. The Middlebury Co-Op homepage ( www.epix.net/~dgilman ) update was explained with Member Page access for individual Lab Reports, producer for sale items, and Newsletters. Pictures of the Annual meeting will also be posted on the home page shortly. Don stated as the year 2002 progresses, we would monitor market conditions, take appropriate steps to gain additional premiums, and spot sales. Then as always we will return any and all profits to each and every member equally. All this and more from a truly Dues free Local Cooperative. All this makes Middlebury Cooperative consistently year after year the highest net return for each and every Member.

Middlebury Cooperatives CPA Kerry Dietrich went over the year end balance sheets, pointing out all profits paid back to Members. Kerry also brought up how efficiently the Co-Op is managed, with extremely low overhead.

Audit & Nominating Committee Chairman Lorry Butler, first reported the findings of the audit Committee, and approved by the Membership. Lorry reported two terms for directors were up, Donald Gilman, and Dennis Graves. Both Donald and Denny were reelected to the board.

Don announced special quality plaques in recognition of yearly averages. Seven quality plaques were awarded to Lorry Butler, Dennis Graves, Michael Morton, Dale L. Smith, Roger Mills, Jack Thomas Jr., and Mark Pinney. There were 25 Quality certificates also awarded. This year we had two new categories, the lowest average cell count and the lowest average bacteria in the Cooperative. In the lowest cell count a plaque was awarded to David & Ann Lichty. In the Lowest Bacteria Category we had a tie and awarded two plaques to, Dale & Gary Nickerson, and Kent L. Kenyon.

The Meeting was adjourned and all left knowing Middlebury Cooperative is # 1 Working For You.