Do you know who your Southeastern Cotton Ginners Ass’n. Leaders are? Southeastern Cotton Ginners Association, is the only ginner organization exclusively representing the ginning industry throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. You probably knew that but did you know how the association is governed?
Southeastern Cotton Ginners is broken down into four state units. Georgia and South Carolina are stand-alone units while Florida is part of the Alabama State Unit and Virginia is part of the North Carolina State Unit. Each state unit has six regular board members and an officer. Two members of the Board are elected from each state unit at the Southern Southeastern Annual Meeting. These elections are held on Friday morning before the first general session at the Annual Meeting. Board Members are able to serve two three-year terms before having to rotate off for a year.
Officers are elected by the board of directors every other year. The terms are two years for each position as an officer and the President rotates state units with each new election cycle. for 2017 and 2018, the President is Wes Morgan from Rolling Hills gin in North Carolina. Next in line is current Vice President, Drake Perrow from Cameron, SC. The current Secretary is Steve Sterling at the Producers Coop Gin in Alabama, and the Treasurer is Ben Evans with Coffee County Gin in Georgia. In 2019 at the annual meeting, North Carolina will elect a new officer for the rotation as Wes will move to the Chairman of the Board position, currently held by Kent Fountain.
All of this information is in the Gin Roster that is distributed to members and Associate members each year. In case you’re wondering I will list your directors below. For more information on their date of term and whether or not they may succeed themselves, please refer to the gin roster.
Alabama / Florida:
Ron Bailey, Rich Lindsey, Joe McDonald, Billy Sickler, Jim Greene, and Michael Deshazo
Georgia:
Brad Glenn, Scott Mitchell, Ralph Sandeford, Don Daily, Craig Huckaby, and Mark Peele
North Carolina / Virginia:
Len Alphin, Chuck Wainwright, Todd Waters, Dean Kight, Taylor Ward, and Allen Hudson
South Carolina:
Kirby Johnson, Ed Coker, Ernie Muldrow, Burt Rickenbaker, D Brown, and Jim Holstein.
Your Board Members and Officers are here to represent you and your interest in the positions and activities of YOUR association. Please contact them if you have an issue that needs addressing or if you are not happy with the activities of the organization. These are the people that give the Staff their marching orders. We can’t do anything without the consent of the Board. We encourage you to come to the Annual Meeting and participate in the governing of the organization by attending the State Unit meetings this January.
More information on the Annual Meeting can be found at www.southern-southeastern.org . We look forward to seeing you there!