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While the most important focus for the business is to ‘make our members better off’, it was recognised earlier this year by the Board that improvements could be made in the way that the business interacts with members.

Other members of the committee are: Willie Campbell (chairman, Local Representative group), Mike Gorton (vice-chairman, Local Representative group), Roger Evans (farmer director), Beverley Hodson (non-executive director), Alan Taylor (membership director) and Paul Flanagan (communications director).

Robert Shearlaw explained: “The over-riding objective of the committee is to look at ways to drive a team culture within the business stretching from the grass roots members right through to the chairman. While the delivery of our business strategy will of course always take precedence, I think everyone recognises that we can certainly improve on the way we all interact and communicate with members.

“As a committee, we will gauge our success in areas such as driving more open dialogue across the organisation, and ensuring that when information is shared across the business, it is done in a structured way that can be understood by everyone. With the business developing fast, more than ever there is a need that we bring people with us.

“An early priority for the committee has looked at the interaction of the Local Representatives with the business with the aim of better equipping them for conversations with members. We ran a workshop with the Local Representatives and I believe that we are making some progress in this area. From a wider membership point of view, the committee has worked with our communications team on the revamped newsletter, the updated website, and the DVD for members on our cheese business,” said Robert.

“I am fully aware that much still requires to be done to improve the interaction of the business with members. However, the knock-on impact of improving our performance in this area is huge. I am a great believer in the maxim – what gets measured gets done, and we have focused on a number of areas where we believe we can improve things. I commit to regularly updating members through this newsletter and other communication channels on our progress.”