AS usual organiser of presentations, his own life membership of the Farm Machinery and Industry Association (FM&IA) of WA came as a surprise to its executive officer John Henchy.
FM&IA of WA chairman Brad Forrester announced the life membership to loud applause from members at the annual meeting on August 6.
"We love Hench in his role and he's going for his 15th year next year," Mr Forrester told the meeting.
"We think it (life membership) is appropriate for the job he has been doing, not just for the FM&IA and TMA (Tractor and Machinery Association of Australia), but for the whole agriculture industry.
"I'm sure the whole room appreciates having something to do with you and the friendships that have endured over your time (as FM&IA of WA executive officer)," Mr Forrester said of Mr Henchy.
"John usually puts together all the bios (member biographies for presentations) and organises presentations at events like this, so we (FM&IA executive committee members) had to try and do it without him knowing," he explained.
They succeeded.
"They (committee) kept it a secret, absolutely," Mr Henchy said after accepting his life membership award.
"They asked me a couple of questions and I answered them because they asked, but I had no idea what it was for," he admitted.
"Thanks Brad and everybody, it's much appreciated.
"I'm not sure what life membership actually means, but I am sure it's really important.
"I just love what I do and the people I work with.
"I'm very happy with today, happy with the (conference) content, but when you look around at people laughing and chatting together, that is what it's all about."
FM& IA members later privately praised Mr Henchy for the skills he brought to achieving harmonious agricultural machinery industry consensus between commercially competitive members.
His skills in advocating on the industry's behalf with State and Federal governments and his ability to work collaboratively with the likes of education providers, Main Roads WA and Quarantine WA to achieve rapid results, was also praised.
"What John does for the (agricultural machinery) industry, he also does for the benefit of farmers," said Peter Nunn, managing director of Nufab Engineering, Geraldton.
Mr Henchy has been FM&IA of WA's executive officer since September, 2007 and a TMA board member since July, 2015.
Prior to that, Mr Henchy worked for John Deere Australia and New Zealand.
He was division marketing manager and later product development manager, working with John Deere factories in the United States, Europe and Brazil to determine the best products for Australia and New Zealand and helping the factories understand the requirements of the local markets.
A graduate of the Institute of Agricultural Engineers, Mr Henchy was educated at Essex Institute of Agriculture in the United Kingdom.
- FMIA of WA's executive committee was re-elected unopposed on a show of hands for a third year at the annual meeting.
There were no additional nominations received.
Outgoing executive committee chairman Mr Forrester, just before he was re-elected to the position for another year, said the executive committee members had originally been elected together and had worked well together since then.
"They are dedicated, have experience and I think they deserve to be re-elected," Mr Forrester said before members endorsed his view with their votes.
Mr Forrester (AFGRI Equipment, Esperance) was re-elected FM&IA of WA chairman and Tim Boekeman (Boekeman Machinery sales manager, Dalwallinu) was re-elected deputy chairman.
Re-elected executive committee members were Greg Baird (Goldacres Spray Centre, Goomalling), Ken Brown (Wattleup Tractors, Kewdale), Michael Bailey (Primary Sales Australia, Midvale), Mike Hutton (CLAAS Harvest Centre, Northam), Matt Newham (Staines Esperance), Peter Nunn (Nufab Industries, Geraldton) and Anthony Ryan (McIntosh & Son northern branches dealer principal, Perth).
