Quickbooks classes offered

Quickbooks is an accounting software program designed to help manage the needs of small businesses. Participants are encouraged to interact and ask questions. Professionals will be available to work closely with participants to answer questions or address individual issues. Certain discounts may apply to those that qualify. At both locations, participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop with QuickBooks software installed; however it is not mandatory at the St. Albans location.

Participants must pre-register to attend at either location.

Location: St. Albans Branch Office -130 Upper Welden St., St. Albans, VT.

Led by two of our Records and Payroll Tax Specialists, Lisa Gravel and Alicia Marcy.

Session #1: Tuesday, January 6 and Thursday, January 8 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.

Session #2: Tuesday, March 10 and Thursday, March 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.

The first session will cover proper set up of your company, vendors and customers, writing checks, making deposits, payroll and managing payroll liabilities. The second will cover purchases and dispositions, accounts payable, bank reconciliation, 1099 reporting and utilizing financial reports for management purposes.

Cost: $200/two day session. If you sign up for both sessions, you will receive a complimentary one-hour on-farm visit.

Contact: Alicia Marcy at alicia.marcy@yankeeaca.com or call 802-528-2957.

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Location: Granite State College - 27 Pleasant St., Claremont, NH.

Led by one of our Records and Payroll Tax Specialists, Nicholas Bullock, in cooperation with UNH Cooperative Extension.

Session #1: Tuesday, January 6 and Thursday, January 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

Session #2: Tuesday, January 13 and Thursday, January 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.

The four session course will teach producers how to use Quickbooks to manage their farm financial records. Learn how to set up the software, create invoices, enter payments, write checks to pay bills, and produce reports to monitor business performance. This course is focused on building skills and capacity so that participants can implement the knowledge they gain on their farms or related business in the coming year.

Cost: $400 for all four days.

Contact: Seth Wilner at seth.wilner@unh.edu or Sherrie Fontaine at sherrie.fontaine@unh.edu or call 603-863-9200.

New Employee - Joanna Lidback

Joanna testifying before Congress in 2014

Yankee is pleased to announce the hiring of Joanna Lidback. Joanna is the Association's newest business consultant. She will be working out of the Newport/Derby office.

Joanna began her career with Farm Credit in 2001, working for First Pioneer Farm Credit (now Farm Credit East) as a loan officer. In the mid-2000s, Joanna left Farm Credit to return to school. She returned to Farm Credit East (FCE) a few years later, working in their Enfield, CT office. At FCE, Joanna was the founder of the Knowledge Exchange Program and one of the lead authors of the Northeast Dairy Farm Summary. She also spent time working in FCE’s consulting program. In the summer of 2014, Joanna testified in Congress on the topic of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and biotechnology, appearing before the House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture.

Joanna has a degree in applied economics and management from Cornell University and an MBA from Babson College. She lives in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom with her husband and their two sons. With her family, she owns and operates The Farm at Wheeler Mountain, a 50-cow diversified dairy farm. Joanna also volunteers for 4-H, is active in Farm Bureau, and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Northeast Center for Risk Management.

From Joanna: “Having lived in Northeast Vermont on a dairy farm with my husband and family for the past four years, I am excited to join Yankee and get working directly with other farmers again. Every person I have come into contact with at Yankee has been very welcoming and supportive; a true family-like atmosphere. I am looking forward to using my skills, knowledge and experience to help ‘improve the income and well-being’ of ag producers and farm related businesses within our communities.”

Joanna brings outstanding knowledge of the agricultural community and the Farm Credit system, and her extensive experience makes her a valuable addition to the Yankee family. Please help us in giving Joanna a warm welcome!

   

Promotion - Chris Bessette

Yankee Farm Credit announces the creation of a new Commercial Lending Division, and the promotion of Chris Bessette to manage this division. As Assistant Vice President/Commercial Lending Division Manager, Chris will be responsible for many of the Association's largest non-dairy loans, including all of Yankee's purchased participation loans. His current portfolio already includes many of these accounts, and we expect this new division to grow when fully staffed. We currently have an opening for a credit analyst to support Chris. Click here for details.

Chris came to work for Yankee Farm Credit in 1998 as a loan officer following graduation from St. Lawrence University with degrees in economics and French. We lost Chris for five years when he moved to Pennsylvania in 2004 and served as a tax preparer and business management advisor for farmers in Southeastern PA. He returned to Vermont in 2009 and rejoined YFC as a Senior Loan Officer/Participation Specialist. Chris is a Farm Credit Tax Specialist and graduated from the Farm Credit System Leadership Development Program in 2013. He works in our White River Jct. office.

A little known fact about Chris – he is a movie star! In the 1995 movie Let's Go To The Farm, about the Bessette family farm in New Haven, Vermont, Chris is the high school senior headed off to college.

Please join me in congratulating Chris on this promotion.

Changes to Board Committees

At the October 24, 2014, board meeting, Yankee's Board of Directors made changes to various board committee assignments. The new committee assignments are:

Executive Committee
Rocklyn A. Giroux, Chairperson
Alan J. Bourbeau
Bryan E. Davis
Paul B. Franklin

Audit Committee
Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Chairperson
Thomas J. Colgan
Walter M. Gladstone
Celeste Kane-Stebbins
Stephen H. Taylor

Compensation Committee
Walter M. Gladstone, Chairperson
Thomas J. Colgan
Rocki-Lee DeWitt
Paul B. Franklin
Bradley N. Maxwell

Membership/Governance Committee
Alan J. Bourbeau, Chairperson
Bryan E. Davis
Paul B. Franklin
Celeste Kane-Stebbins
Bradley N. Maxwell