SASKATOON – After 18 years behind the wheel of Federated Co-operatives Ltd., Vern Leland will soon be back behind the wheel of his tractor, at his farm near Weldon, Sask.
And the timing couldn’t be much better.
The 59-year old Leland, a fixture on the Canadian co-operative scene for nearly two decades, presided over his final FCL annual meeting last week.
During a break in his hectic schedule, Leland said with a laugh that with the grain economy booming, he couldn’t have picked a better time to get back into farming.
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“That wasn’t part of the decision, but when I reflect on it we’re pretty fortunate to be doing it now,” he said.
His heart has always been on the farm, he said, even as he was guiding FCL out of the recession-induced torpor of the early 1980s and through the past decade of record sales and earnings.
Last week’s three-day annual meeting was as much a love-in for Leland as it was a business meeting. Tears flowed freely as delegates and staff members paid tribute to the outgoing president at every possible occasion. Leland himself battled to control his emotions as he bade a formal farewell on the meeting’s final day.
Longest in office
A look through the record books shows that Leland’s predecessors usually stayed in
office for three or four years.
So how does Leland explain his electoral longevity? It might have had something to do with his youth when he was first elected; or maybe the organization saw some value in stable leadership during tough times, then didn’t want to make changes when things started going so well.
“The board just kept electing me,” he said. “I was still enjoying it and had no reason to look for anything else.”
FCL’s new president Ed Klassen said one thing that always impressed him about Leland was his ability to identify with the average members and understand what they wanted and needed from their local co-op: “He had tremendous rapport with the ordinary people.”
In fact, that’s what Leland says he’ll miss most, meeting local members and watching the democratic process in action. If anything could be described as the guiding principle during his years as president, it was ensuring that the co-op’s democratic structure continued to work.
Leland is confident FCL “won’t skip a beat” in the wake of his departure, saying the company is in good hands on both the management and elected side.
“It’s not a one-man operation,” he said. “Things will go along as good as always.”
