The following column appears in the Fall 2010 issue of Financial Partner magazine:
What We Offer
At our annual meetings last spring I talked about something that your board of directors and management added to our planning process this year. We tried to capture in three short phrases the most important things that Yankee offers to its customers. Here’s what we came up with:
1. Readily available capital
2. Competitive interest rates and services
3. Employees who represent our values
What do we mean?
Readily available capital
We are proud to be part of the Farm Credit System, which has been serving rural America since 1916. Within the Farm Credit System, Yankee’s relationship with CoBank helps us meet the credit needs of our customers. The Farm Credit System, CoBank and Yankee are all well-capitalized and profitable, which enabled us to operate throughout the financial crisis of 2008 without a hitch.
Competitive interest rates and services
Our interest rates are competitive, even after our October 1st increase of 0.25% in variable interest rates. Our rates look even better considering patronage refunds. We have paid patronage refunds every year since 1995.
Our financial services are also competitive, and include recordkeeping, income tax preparation, appraisal services, credit life insurance and crop insurance.
Employees who represent our values
It is our employees who make Yankee special. We have a talented group of employees, ranging from recent college graduates to veteran employees with more than 35 years of experience. One of the values we talk about is the importance of relationships and our pride that we are “Building Relationships That Last Generations.”
It’s about the customer
We exist to serve our customers, and to a considerable extent we are a reflection of our customers. Earlier this year I heard U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack say that “the value system of this country is centered in Rural America.” Our customers represent those values. We at Yankee are fortunate indeed to work with such outstanding customers.
A final word
This is our final issue of Financial Partner magazine. Next year we will replace the magazine with quarterly newsletters. One reason for making this change is our desire to be more “local.” Keeping our business in our local economy is a win/win situation for everyone. For our 2009 annual report cover, which featured Monument Farms, we switched to a local designer and printer. We were very pleased with their work and we’ll be using the same designer for our newsletter. Look for our first newsletter in March.
We will also continue to communicate via our web site (http://www.yankeeaca.com/) and our blog (yankeeaca.blogspot.com). Please stop by either of those two Internet sites and let us know what’s on your mind. You can also send e-mail to me directly at george.putnam@yankeeaca.com.
Click here for the complete Fall 2010 issue of Financial Partner magazine (3 MB PDF file).
