PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – SEPTEMBER 6TH

I had an idea to use this space to share an update in the format of CFBC’s Forum monthly updates. For those unfamiliar with Forum, an update is a quick recap of three recent or upcoming events: the best, the worst and what I’m looking forward to. I thought it would be a great way to both share what’s going on in CFBC and to demonstrate the update process to our non-CFBC readers. When I penciled this idea in for this letter, I never dreamed we’d have this kind of month, but here goes.

The Worst: We recently said goodbye to a dear friend and a valuable member of my Forum, Jeff Miller. No one expects to pass at 51, but Jeff was prepared on all fronts: faith, family and business. I’ve never met a person more dedicated and loving to his family and friends. He will be sorely missed, but we’ll always remember him with a smile, as he wanted.

The Best: Hands down, remembering Jeff. Michelle and the Miller family knocked it out the park with Jeff’s funeral and luncheon reception. I’ve always believed the best measure of the quality of a person is the quality of the people they leave in their path. The reflection of Jeff’s love and devotion as a father is obvious when you meet his children. His three kids have a nickname for Jeff: Superman. He coached all of his kid’s baseball, softball and basketball teams.  He even organized the umps for baseball and ran the booster club. Truly Superman.

Our Forum meeting took place shortly after Jeff’s funeral. We spent four hours simply talking about Jeff and the eight years we spent with him in Forum, what he meant to us and what we learned from him. We talked about his world famous Bears game tailgates, specifically remembering the lamb chops and the deep fried Oreos. We reminisced about our crazy times (insert beers and cigars) at his cottage in Michigan. Mostly, we kept coming back to his sterling example of faith and love of family, as well as his incredible capacity to give back.  Again, it was inspiring and uplifting, just as Jeff would have wanted.

What I’m looking forward to:  It may sound odd, but I’m looking forward to all the little silver linings that will undoubtedly come from this tragedy. Our Forum has dedicated ourselves to helping Michelle and the Miller family in any way we possibly can. To me, this is what CFBC is all about.  Nothing too complex, we simply help each other navigate the storms the best we can…just as Jeff always did and would have wanted for all of us.


Jeff Conner
Liners Direct
CFBC President 2016-2017




Share This:

Facebooktwitterlinkedinmail