The Colorado UFPG: A Progress Report

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STARTING POINT:

Last December 7, Albert Wada and two other members of the Idaho UFPG talked to the SLV growers at the Monte Vista COOP room. Little was done the following week because many SLV growers were involved in out-of-town meetings. There were a few meetings of about a half-dozen concerned growers before Christmas, but the holiday season was upon us, and some interested growers were even out-of-town or out-of-country for the holidays. So the birth of the Colorado UFPG had to wait until January of 2005.

SINCE THEN:

So the Colorado UFPG has had about 6 weeks of 2005. What has happened:

1) FORMATION of Board of Directors, Districts, and Committees: It was decided to form 4 districts based on geography, so that growers would have representatives located close at hand. These were: Alamosa County, Rio Grande County, Saguache County, and Conejos / Costilla Counties. The first three were given 2 members on the Board of Directors with one representative from the Conejos / Costilla district based on potato production from each district. This resulted in a Board of Directors of 7 members.

Four Committees were formed to accomplish 4 major tasks: 1) Current Supply and Pricing, 2) Membership and Public Relations, 3) Future Crop, and 4) Oversight and Accountability. We are not limited to just four committees, and there are subcommittees formed in each major committee as needed. Each committee would be chaired by a member of the Board of Directors.

As of mid-January, the Colorado UFPG had no office, no phone, no mailing address.

2) ELECTION OF OFFICERS: This organization is to be solely run by growers, and the initial organization was done by growers. A General Grower Meeting was held Jan 12 at the Monte Vista Coop community room and was attended by about 100 SLV potato growers. At this meeting the representatives for the districts were all elected by majority vote, and volunteers for committees were requested. This could easily be identified as the birth of Colorado’s UFPG, January 12, 2005.

On this same day, the 7 representatives, who formed the Board of Directors, elected the various officers: President Dave Warsh, 1 st Vice-president Lynn McCullough, Secretary-Treasurer Jed Ellithorpe, and the four remaining vice-presidents were each elected to chair one of the major committees: Keith Holland: Membership and PR, Gary Gallagher: Current Crop Supply and Pricing, Jack Felmlee: Future Crop, and Moe Bond: Oversight and Accountability.

3) FORMATION OF COMMITTEES: The growers who had expressed interest in serving on a committee were contacted and the committees formed. This wasn’t instantaneous, and there is still some evolution going on.

Current Supply / Pricing: Gary Gallagher, chairman, James Beiriger, Russell Brown, Rick Ellithorpe, Jim Tonso, Brian Brownell, Jose Artaechevarria, Monty Smith, Kent Palmgren, Doug Shriver, Craig Perrin, and Brian Neufeld.

Future Crop: Jack Felmlee, chairman, Doug Gunnels, Roger Mix, Scott Scidmore, Doug Messick, Robert Jones, Rodger Wakasugi, Alvin Kunugi, Ken Stoeber, Rodney Smith, Bruce Heersink, Cory Myers, Mark Rogers, Jeannine Radtke, and Jeff Martinez.

Membership and PR: Keith Holland, chairman, Ron Stoeber, Danny Neufeld, John Myers, Cole Wakasugi, Kenneth Burback, Gilbert Fransen, Jr., Mark Smith, Jim McCullough, Brett Deacon, LeRoy Salazar, Adam Ellithorpe, Ernie Ford, and Chuck Howey.

Oversight: Moe Bond, chairman, Virgil Valdez, Rod Kehler, Mark Peterson, Ray Wright, Trevan Pepper, Kent Price, Thomas Ford, Ron Pepper, Justin Rogers, Clay Mitchell, and Jerry Smith.

4) FORMATION OF WEBSITE: It was felt that the internet would be a great tool to assist communications between the rural growers. From early on, e-mail was the primary means of communication between the active committee members. Chuck Howey and Jed Ellithorpe formed a committee to develop a website. Jed developed the logo for Colorado’s UFPG. The website, www.unitedpotatoco.com, has grown rapidly, and now consists of over 20 pages, with the primary volume devoted to committee minutes. Colorado’s site links to Idaho’s, www.unitedpotato.com, and theirs links to Colorado’s. It is expected that the Idaho address, www.unitedpotato.com, will eventually become the address for the national site. The site is locally hosted by Amigo.net in Alamosa.

5) ACQUISITION of OFFICE, PHONE, ETC.: UFPG wanted a centrally-located office, and Monte Vista was very popular. Then the Sunflower Bank donated us space in central Monte Vista with a boardroom for our meetings. Lyla Davis had been doing secretarial work for the UFPG for some time, working on her own computer and out of her home. Finally, the UFPG had a home, and phone and fax lines were ordered, a broadband internet DSL hookup, and a computer and printer were ordered. With the new phone numbers, etc, business cards could be ordered, and a post-office box opened.

6) GROWTH OF MEMBERSHIP: The UFPG can only function effectively with a majority of growers as members. It has been critical to get wide-spread grower involvement. This was a goal from the beginning, and many growers became committee members. Total membership in all the committees is approximately 50 growers. While the total number of potato growers in the SLV is not accurately known, it is over 100.

   The cost of joining the UFPG had to be kept low in order not to discourage growers. The basic price of joining was set at $100 (one-time) with a $2 per acre annual fee, which is approximately a half-penny per cwt of production. This was felt to be a negligible cost for any grower. Growers have been encouraged to join almost exclusively by chats with their neighbors. There have been obstacles like vacations, and almost all growers hate signing a piece of paper. Nevertheless, as this is being written, almost 2/3 of SLV growers are members, with many more expected to sign up shortly.

7) MONEY COLLECTED / MONEY SPENT: The inclusion of thousands of acres has generated many thousands of dollars of funding for the UFPG. However, this has only been coming in recently. Virtually all work this far has been voluntary on the part of the 50 active committee members. The office has been donated to us. Our booth space at the Potato/Grain School was donated. Most web development time donated. Individual growers are making Xerox copies out of their own pockets. Meetings have been held at the MV Coop, various banks, some potato processors, and essentially at any room big enough to hold the large committees. The large grower meeting to be held at the Inn at the Rio Grande will have the lunch provided by banks.

   It is the desire of the membership to spend as little as possible on overhead and administration, in order to focus any outlays on our basic purpose. Nevertheless, there have been expenses involved with phone line installation, web hookup, internet domain registration, technical help from Amigo, legal assistance, postage for mass mailings, opening a bank account, etc. Wall, Smith, and Bateman have offered the first $3,000 of accounting services at no cost. The McClure & Eggleston law firm has capped our first year’s legal costs at $3,000 (membership agreement, bylaws, incorporation). All checks have been made to the UFPG and deposited in our bank account. Auditing will be performed by the accountants. The UFPG is a legal corporation, formed as a member coop.

   It is remarkable that the Colorado UFPG has been formed for practically nothing because the members have donated so much time and resources. Not a single member has been paid for his or her time, and there has been plenty of time devoted so far.

WHERE TO FROM HERE

Now that the Colorado UFPG is up and running, what do we do with it? The inspiration was the formation of the Idaho UFPG; with the granddaddy state leading the way. UFPG/CO was formed primarily to support Idaho in their efforts. Several other potato growing areas are involved also.

There is no question that much can be accomplished if a big majority of the growers are involved. Grower price can be pushed up with negligible effect on retail price or total consumption. If state organizations can join together into a national coop, really exciting things are possible.

The 50 growers in the SLV who devote many hours to the UFPG each week aren’t stupid, nor are they daydreamers. They simply recognize the potential in working together instead of working against their neighbors as we have done so much in the past.

Those involved in forming the UFPG have accomplished near miracles in less than two months, but they take the long view. Multi-state cooperation will not be accomplished in a matter of months. Challenges like preventing an overload of potatoes because of over-planting and overproduction are daunting. Solutions to such problems will probably take years, and must be accomplished one step at a time!

While a Colorado organization can be effective and worthwhile, the foundation for a national UFPG is already being laid, and representatives from Colorado, Idaho, the Klamath Basin, Wisconsin, Washington, Oregon, and other areas will soon meet in Washington, DC!

The grower-members of the Colorado UFPG are working hard to make their first-year’s $2 per acre investment pay off immediately. However, their primary goal is to lay a foundation for nationwide grower cooperation that will be effective far into the future.