Courtney says farewell to patrons at annual meeting

Chip Courtney will step down as general manager at the end of July

It was a bittersweet event Tuesday morning as the Medford Cooperative held its annual meeting at the Simek Recreation Center. In addition to the normal reports on the health of the Cooperative and its divisions, the event was also the last one for longtime general manager Chip Courtney.

As with other businesses, the Medford Cooperative was impacted by the COVID- 19 pandemic.

“[T]he COVID 19 Pandemic hit in early spring last year and completely changed our business in the course of a few days,” Courtney said.

Fortunately, they were able to quickly respond and with a workforce considered essential, they were up to the challenge of providing for the needs of their patrons and customers.

“They have done just a fantastic job of serving our community cooperatively and professionally as our Mission Statement says. Many times over 25 employees were either sick or quarantined and the rest of the staff stepped up and worked hard to continue to provide the goods and services that we all need every day,” Courtney said.

Courtney credits the dedication of the employees for the record sales of nearly $75 million and $2.66 million in earnings for the year, allowing the return of nearly 6% in patronage refunds to cooperative members.

Courtney also highlighted the efforts the Cooperative has taken to help the community as a whole. These efforts totaled nearly a half a million dollars.

“We provided restaurant coupons, dairy donations to the families of school children, bonuses to our employees, helping hand food bags to several food pantries, eliminated our picking fee for on-line shopping, made our senior discount available seven days per week, partnered with the FFA to provide free milk certificates for area food pantries, hosted a drive through Santa event for our area children, and much much more. Obviously we are still navigating our way through this crisis but we hope and pray that it will end sooner rather than later. We thank you all for your outstanding support and patience as we continue to do our best to serve you each and every day,” Courtney said.

Courtney also spoke to the challenges facing the Cooperative in the future with increased local competition with the opening of Tractor Central and with the two new Kwik Trip stores coming to Medford.

“Obviously we’ll need to stay at the top of our game and continue to evolve to be the absolute best we can be in order to sustain the success that we’ve built but I have no doubt that we will,” he said.

Courtney ended his speech saying good bye to the patrons and employees who he has worked with over the past 32 years.

“As you know in several weeks my career here at the Medford Cooperative will come to an end. I would never have guessed that when Mel Tilch walked in to my office in Hayward so many years ago that it would lead to this. I feel truly blessed in so many ways to have had the opportunity to serve you and this wonderful organization. I’m blessed to have a wonderful wife Sue and a family that’s always been there for me and have been my biggest supporters. I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to have worked with the greatest group of employees you can imagine. Not only are they as hard working and dedicated as any you’ll find anywhere but they are my friends and my second family. I -and we - certainly owe them a debt of gratitude. Would all of our employees who are here please stand and would you please join me in giving them a big round of applause.”

“I’m also blessed to have worked directly for a deeply committed group of men and women who have made up our board of directors over the years. We have tackled some great challenges and at times overcome adversity. We have had some failures but fortunately far more successes. Your board went through a time consuming and rigorous process to select our new General Manager. It was a very difficult decision with several outstanding candidates. In the end they’ve chosen Chris Piotrowski as our new general manager and I’d like to welcome him to our cooperative and our community. I just have so much appreciation and respect for each of our board members that I’d like all of our present and past board members who are here to stand and be recognized.”

“And lastly I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of this community and work for you for the past 32 years. I’m not going anywhere, I can’t imagine living anywhere else but it’ll be different now. I look around the room and see not just patrons and customers but friends that I’ve known for a long time. No words can express how much I appreciate what you’ve done for my family and I. Your confidence and support has meant the world to me and kept me going as we faced the challenges that come with the operation of a company as large and diverse as ours. John F. Kennedy said “We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.” You’ve made a difference in my life and I’ll never forget it. So, from the bottom of my heart God bless you and thank you for everything.”