Aug 28, 2023

Management firm to handle PVGA executive leadership

Directors of the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association (PVGA) have approved allowing a management firm to run their grower organization.

Wanner Associates of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will manage the PVGA. During a May 30 special board meeting, board members voted to authorize the association’s executive committee to negotiate a final agreement with Wanner. A contract was finalized on July 21. Wanner is scheduled to begin its services on Sept 1.

PVGA represents Pennsylvania’s vegetable, potato and berry growers.

William Troxell, PVGA’s current executive director, will continue in his role during a transition period until his planned retirement on Dec. 15. Afterwards, Tammy Linn of Wanner Associates is set to become the PVGA’s executive director, according to a news release.

The selection of Wanner concludes a search process that began more than a year ago. Wanner Associates has been in business since 1985. The firm provides management services to 19 other associations, including the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association and the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. In addition, Wanner offers lobbying and government affairs advocacy services. At the organization, a staff of 13 professionals serve their clients, according to the release.

“While the board originally planned for a much longer transition period before Troxell’s retirement, given Wanner’s experience in managing associations and transitions, the three-and-a-half-month transition should be sufficient to ensure that PVGA services, publications and events continue seamlessly,” PVGA officials said in the release.

Troxell began as the executive secretary of the association in December 1983, 40 years ago, while also working full-time on the farm of then PVGA president Dale Whitenight of Danville, Pennsylvania.

Troxell succeeded William Christian who had been PVGA’s first paid executive secretary from 1978 to 1983. Previously, the association was managed by volunteer officers with assistance from Penn State Extension personnel. Troxell contracted with the Association as Troxell Administrative Services which included his wife Cheryl and paid assistant Trisha Hoffman.

Linn joined Wanner in 2021. She offers more than 35 years of multidisciplinary association management experience for various-sized organizations. Linn is well-versed in association protocols and has worked closely with executive leadership, board and committee members, associate members, and the general membership.

PVGA is based in Richfield, Pennsylvania, northwest of Harrisburg. In 1998, the organization was instrumental in founding the Pennsylvania Vegetable Marketing and Research Program, a state marketing order for Pennsylvania vegetable growers established under the Pennsylvania Agricultural Commodities Marketing Act.