The Pork Checkoff’s Board of Directors last January decided to reinvent the checkoff program. Bill Even, Chief Executive Officer for the National Pork Board, says the idea behind this project was to become “consumer-focused, producer led.”
Board members collected feedback from 1,000 producers through interviews and surveys. National task forces also weighed in on the matter. Even says, ?The end result came out pretty clear.?
- Number one: ?We don?t need a five-year strategic plan anymore. The world changes too fast. The board has moved to an annual planning cycle with robust producer input that we?re going to pull in on an annual basis.
- Number two: ?Moving away from the idea of committees into task forces. We want to be able to tackle a project, wrestle it to the ground and show the results to producers.?
- Number three: ?Moving away from programs to projects. A project has a beginning and an end. It has time, scope, and budget. It is easy to identify and manage. We?re going to line projects up with task forces, get the work done, and report on a much tighter turnaround.
- Number four: ?The other piece is in the area of human nutrition. We?ve had a presence in the human nutrition space for a number of years. However, it is important that we are engaged on a higher level. The board has allocated nearly a million dollars to beef that up in 2020.?
The Pork Checkoff’s Board of Directors built an organization that will “remain agile, revelant for producers of all sizes and resilient heading into the future,” according to Even.
