Page 4 - Summer 2024 - 2.pub

Look around, and look ahead

BY JOHN BELLER

For those of us who still have need to organize our will hear from special guest Dr.
schedules around the academic calendar, or who recall Brooks Blevins along with our
our time served in classrooms with something like angst Arkansas Bank Commissioner
or dread, this time of year is bracing. There is a Susannah Marshall and others.
quickening, a clarifying urgency that comes with the sight Please join us for this cool event on
of football helmets and school supplies and the sound of October 9th.
school buses and band practice. Despite the fact that it Second, engage ACB as we begin a
definitely still feels like summer outdoors, summer strategic planning process. In
vacation is over, and it is time to get back to work.
November, the ACB Board and
That sense of urgency might seem heightened in an Director Chris Padgett will
election year. If we take our rights and responsibilities as participate in a strategic planning John Beller is the ACB president
citizens seriously, if we think deeply about our values and session for our organization. It has and president & CEO at the
priorities, and if we care passionately about our been a few years since ACB has Bank of Cave City.
communities and neighbors, the decisions we make gone through a planning exercise You may connect with John at
together in elections – the opinions we voice, the like this, and I am hopeful we will jbeller@bkcc.net
questions we answer, the women and men we allow to be able to develop some fresh ideas for how our association can
serve in public office – will matter a great deal to us. engage and empower our members in the years ahead. Our banks
Election season has an insistent way of pressing in on our play vital roles in the communities we serve, and we do well when
time and energy. our neighbors thrive and flourish. If there are initiatives we should
When we feel that press of time and events, of consider, issues we should address, programming we should offer, or
circumstance and momentum, it is important for leaders capacities and competencies we can help develop, I encourage you
to remember to look around and look ahead. There are to reach out to me, Chris Padgett, or another ACB director so that we
two opportunities to do that sort of thing this fall with can bring it to this planning conversation.
ACB. As we ready ourselves for a new season – a school year, an election,
First, make time to attend the Management and or maybe a new project or opportunity at your bank – remember
Directors’ Conference on October 9th at the Clinton this: you are a leader, and your leadership matters. Take good care of
Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock. This short the folks around you. Make a positive investment in your people and
conference is a great opportunity to gather as friends your place. Plan for whatever comes next. Look around, and look
who share an interest in the welfare and prosperity of our ahead.
communities and our state and who believe in the good
our industry and our businesses can do for those goals. In
addition to seeing old friends and making new ones, we

.

Seminars

and

Institutes

A RKANSAS | 4 | Summer 2024
COMMUNITY BANKER