Fort Collins Food Co-op
Board of Directors Meeting
Monday, January 22, 2018, 6-8pm
Room 113, Statistics Building, CSU Campus
Minutes by Steve DelGrosso
Attending:
BOD: Maria Winnie (by phone), Cindy Griffin, Amber Lamb, Josh Greene, Samantha Bergonia, Steve DelGrosso
IGMT:
Member/owners:
Note—official actions (votes) in italics, other action items in bold.
Called to order at 6:10
1. Introductions and Announcements
Cindy moving to Washington in Spring
Steve and Amber beginning 3rd year
Josh and Sam starting
2. Assignments
Read policy register, 7 cooperative principles, governance system, etc.
Consider other governance models
Present system not highly useful
Maybe governance is not the best terminology
Policies are most useful when tough decisions need to be made, but should not be invoked day to day
3. Retreat
Retreat at Waverly Fire Station (tentative)
Summarized 2017 retreat.
Refined retreat agenda
Define goals
Move management team beyond interim
History of why interim management team was created. Summary of what led to fiscal crisis 3 years ago. Summary of pros/cons of policy governance and how much oversight should BOD exercise?
4. Officers and Committees
Secretary – Steve
Co-Chair model
Josh interested in vice-president
Treasurer currently Jean
Officer roles need updated – particularly make president and vice-president roles and duties more shared (Co-Chair model)
Committee goals and personnel also need revisited:
Research, visioning, executive, elections, engagement
Sam interested in engagement
Amber nominated Maria as president, Josh for vice president, Steve for Secretary, Jean for Treasurer. Josh seconded.
Passed unanimously
Amber nominated Sam for Engagement committee chair. Josh seconded.
Passed unanimously
5. Summary of 2017 BOD performance:
Settled on optimal board # of members. Voted unanimously to take out the loan. Tried a lot of strategies and methods that did not yield good results. Realized that roles need to be better defined. President should not have all the responsibility and role needs redefined. For example, president should not be the target when problems emerge. Drop box records and files were organized and research material compiled. Confidence and trust appear to be increasing and should be further developed. The team and staff likely have different motivations than people who work in corporate atmospheres.
Make self-evaluation forms and hopes worksheet (i.e., what do members want to get out of the experience). Consider forms from other organizations. What kind of evaluation should board consider soliciting from management team? Staff can already make comments to board using folder in back room. Who is ombuds person? Better to have more than 1; Sam, Josh, Jean, Steve
Discussed having a formal procedure to determine why folks leave the board. Strive to have the board function more as a team; e.g., beer with the board activity was good.
Maybe reach out to former board members.
6. Miscellaneous discussions
Fiscal year is calendar year
Discussed encouraging staff to analyze sales and margins to better determine which departments and products have the best margins
GM team and individual duties should be written down.
Amber moved to adjourn the meeting, Cindy seconded. Meeting adjourned at 8:06 pm.
