FCS Financial: One Hundred Years July 2016 | Page 119

While the records can tell how many dollars have been invested
by FCS Financial in Missouri agriculture, there is no way to quantify
FCS Financial’s total contribution to the lives of rural Missourians.
Long-time member Billy Murphy, who still refers to Production
Credit as his “backbone,” appreciates as much as anyone the nature
of the cooperative system. “I love it. They tell you how much money
they made, they tell you how much money they spent, how much
money the CEO gets, and if they’ve got a little money left over you
get a dividend. The dividend is fine but that’s not the most important
part.” When interviewed and given an open platform for speaking
on the state of FCS Financial, Chairman of the Board James Nive ns
responded matter-of-factly, “My position as chairman doesn’t allow
me a platform. This is a co-op. It’s the board’s obligation to run it for
the benefit of the members,” he said. “I don’t have an agenda. I want
to see a sound, stable organization that has served me well for over
thirty years, do the same for the next thirty years or longer.”
That kind of commitment to the organization and the rural
community it serves can be heard over and over again in different
stories of different occasions from the earliest days to the present. All
have a common thread: a universal empathy for the hard work and
dedication of those who came before so each successive generation
could have a better life. For James, that story goes back to the Great
Depression era. “Southwest Missouri was a hardscrabble place to
farm,” he recalled. “The farm that my dad bought in the 1950s was
one that my grandfather lost during the Depression.” James’s daughter
now treasures a kitchen table a tenant once gave to her grandfather as
a rent payment. It is those memories and those connections that lie at
the root of their dedication.
While the annual meetings of the earlier days have gone by
the wayside and are conducted these days by mail, the annual gettogethers have been replaced by Customer Appreciation Days where
patronage checks are distributed. In the Chillicothe office, Darrell
Skipper and his co-workers invite their customers to lunch at the
office with food they prepare themselves. “It adds to the sense of
community . . . makes our customers feel like we’re all part of the
same family,” he said. The menu usually has pulled pork and the

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