Tips for Successful Family Farm Business Succession Meetings
With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas on the horizon, 2020 is surely an odd year for our normal holiday traditions. For many of us trying to follow the recommendations of health officials, it will be a quieter holiday season with little or no family gatherings. So why write about family meetings? First, I generally discourage using the holidays for these meetings anyway. So this is a reminder, to not use the holiday season as a forum for discussing the family farm succession plan. Second, as we have learned, there are new and useful ways of communicating when we are required to stay distant. Take advantage of Zoom meetings and other technology as a tool to help continue the discussion of succession on your family farm or ranch. Third, despite the current situation, the need to have these discussions remains a constant in a successful farm and ranch succession plan (or any family business for that matter).
Because succession planning is about bringing together the goals of multiple individuals, it means that a certain amount of give and take will be needed. If succession planning is viewed as a winner take all, my way or no way, proposition, the odds of success will be very slim. The family meeting or meetings become a forum to listen to the ideas and concerns of all the relevant parties and then put in motion a plan that will allow for the farm or ranch to successfully transition to the next generation.
In his book Counseling with our Councils, M. Russell Ballard writes: “Like other councils, the family council can be a positive, causative force in [our] lives. It can bring order to the home, provide a forum for soothing hurt feelings, give parents an important tool with which to combat outside influences, and create an opportunity to teach . . . .” The family meeting or family council can be a great forum for working through the tough decisions that sound planning requires.
With such importance, when holding a family meeting or family council, some thought should go into preparing for and holding the meeting. Here are some suggestions:
Keep it positive.
Encourage participation, but don’t try to control it.
Be creative with the location and setting of the meeting.
Have an agenda.
Set goals and objectives for the farm or ranch transition.
Reconcile priorities.
Turn goals and objectives into action steps.
Keep written minutes of the meeting so that there is a good record to refer back to in future meetings.
Circulate the minutes among the participants for approval.
Follow-up.
Get outside help if needed.
This post is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing herein creates an attorney-client relationship between Hallock & Hallock and the reader.