Retired Co-Op Board President recognized for 32 years of service

Thirty-four years ago, Jack Sawatzky was elected as a member of the Farmers Cooperative Exchange board.

This year, Sawatzky was recognized for his service on the Farmers Cooperative board during the 103rd Annual Meeting of the Farmers Cooperative Exchange of Bessie-Cordell-Burns Flat.

Saatzky, who retired two years ago, was initially meant to be recognized last year during the annual meeting, however, the meeting was canceled due to COVID.

Although Sawatzky said he has greatly enjoyed his time on the board, being elected 34 years ago is something he had not expected.

“I wan’t even at the meeting and I got elected to the board. Somebody called me and said, ‘Hey, you got elected to the board. Are you going to take the position?’

And I said, ‘Well, I guess I will. I’ll try it out and see,’” Sawatsky said with a laugh.

After just a year as a member of the board, Sawatsky would go on to be elected as president of the board and

would remain in that position until his retirement.

Although Sawatzky said he faced some challenges initially, his overall time on the board was filled with accomplishments that he looked back on.

“The biggest accomplishments have been the expansion that we were able to do. We were just a local Co-Op in Bessie, and we were able to expand theM into the Cordell area and the Burns Flat area,” Sawatzky said. “Also in Burns Flat now the Co-Op owns the cotton gin so we’re not just grain Co-op, we’re also a cotton gin, which helps diversify the income and expenses.”

The expansions that Sawatsky was able to achieve were the purchases of three different locations in Bessie, Burns Flat, and Cordell.

Throughout his time on the board, Sawatzky credits his accomplishments to having worked with the same board members for more than 20 years.

“That’s when we were able to make a lot of these accomplishments that we did. It was because we had a common sense of where we wanted to go. We had a good board that worked together,” Sawatzky said. “When you have a lot of turnover on the board, it’s sometimes hard to get things moving in the right direction, but we had the same group of guys in there for over 20 years. When we decided which direction we wanted to go we could move that way and everybody would be on board.”

Looking back at his time on the board, Sawatzky said some of his favorite memories came from attending annual conventions hosted by Farmland Industries that took place across the United States.

While Sawatzky decided that it was time for somebody else to fill his leadership role, he did have some words of wisdom for current and future board members.

“Ask lots of questions. That’s the only way you find out what’s going on, and make sure you know what’s going on financially. Because ultimately the failure or success of the business goes back to the board. A manager can walk away anytime and not feel any repercussions from it, but the board does. The board is final. They’re the end of the road.”