Minutes for the Fort Collins Food Co-Operative Board of Directors Meeting Monday September 19, 2016 6-8 p.m. Room 101, Gifford Bldg., Lake St., CSU Campus Minutes by Ed Secor
Attending
BOD: Steve DelGrosso, Patrick Gill, Ruth Inglis-Widrick, Amber Lamb, Jordan Lavalle, Jean Opsomer, Ed Secor
IGMT: Trinity Bigford, Chris Coen
Owners: James Hale (also CSU researcher)
Meeting called to order at 6:03 pm
1. Owner input (None)
2. Agenda a. Add to/delete items from Agenda Added item 3.c. Discuss Annual Meeting Added item 6.a.4. Find new day of week/month for BOD meeting Remove item 6.2.
b. Approve Consent Agenda 1. August 15 2016 minutes 2. Approve P2-3, P4-5, and P6 reports, all revised after presentation at Aug. 2016 meeting Jean moved approval of Consent Agenda, Steve seconded; unanimous approval.
3. IGMT Reports
Store Update: City Utilities/Efficiency Works program has provided free thermal shutters for the produce and drink coolers. Equipment was running well in Aug. IGMT has hired 3 new staff members, all are great (one wants more hours). Oakley was our on vacation and then out sick for a few weeks, but is now back and healthy. Discussion of business connections—Bean Cycle and FOCO Café are no longer ordering much (or anything) from the Co-op. Are there other downtown businesses we could nurture business relationships with? Last utility bill $400 less than previous month due to new AC & lighting; also getting Workers Comp rebate due to lower staffing costs. New website in works—hope to have it up by end of yr.; signed up for Winter Market again (underutilized last year?) (BOD should research the legality of having volunteers staff table at winter market—because we are “not non-profit”, there are limits on volunteer work at co-op)
Food trucks for food deserts idea—IGMT has discussed, including with Zia. Talk of partnering w/ non-profit; also, Food Bank & Project Grind doing similar things. Also—would likely be higher cost than in store, might not be attractive to the communities we would be trying to reach.
Chris sent out X-7 report—some got it, a few seem not to have. #4—issue with past two GMs has been fear of reporting losses, or calling out BOD on compliance with their own policies for fear of being fired. BOD needs to include IGMT in selfevaluations. –staff liason to BOD helpful? How do we set up policies to encourage GMs to be honest with BOD—maybe change wording of this policy section.
Ed moved to approve the X -7 report, and accept the financial reports; Jordan seconded; unanimous approval.
c. Annual Meeting
We will have Avo’s cater, (Rob has confirmed $10/person). We have some money in budget to cover cost. Room fee is discounted with purchase of food. No charge for using PA. Please let IGMT know of schedule for Oct BOD meeting—same week as annual mtg. (Oct 20, Thurs)— Stephanie notes this is one month from today!
4. BOD P8 Reports a. discussion/approval
5. Break
7:00PM
6. BOD Discussion (60 minutes total): a. Brief follow up/updates (18 minutes): 1. Proposal/vote to begin a tradition of having each BOD member to annually sign a statement agreeing to uphold/follow Directors’ Code of Conduct as found in Policy 5 of Master Register beginning in 2017 . Amber moved that BOD add Code of Conduct to Conflict of Interest affidavit, all BOD members will sign these statements annually (in Jan, at start of terms); Jordan seconded; unanimous approval. Ed will draft a new document combining the Conflict of Interest and Code of Conduct statements.
2. Contents of July’s Focus Group with James Hale by president 3. August Owner Picnic
Picnic good time, desire for more events, especially potlucks—good thing for appropriate committee to take on.
4. New Meeting Day?
Wednesdays best—next meeting Oct 12 in Statistics bldg on Oval.
b. Planning Committee Formation (40 minutes) 1.Review/discuss agreed upon committees and some possible tasks; also sign up all BOD members to committees; discuss recruitment possibilities:
Committees will be headed by BOD member, maybe with second BOD member— then also recruit general membership to help out. Each committee needs to have at least one BOD member, and each BOD member should serve on at least two committees
1. Executive: Ruth and Amber. (Ruth chairs) Tasks: Plan BOD agendas/meetings; draft Committee Charters, i.e. write a scope for Emily’s role in Community Marketplace Outreach efforts Add BOD training to this committee work. Should Secretary be on this committee? (No) Provide examples of documents (charters, P&M reports, etc), (handle grievances?)
2. Research: Ed, Ruth, Patrick (Ed chairs) Tasks: Research permanent GM team formation, BOD role in staff grievance procedures, etc. After this task is done, this committee can take on other research tasks—researching board training, market trends, any other subject identified by BOD/committee.
3. Engagement (Communications/Member Linkage): Jean, Steve, Jordan, Amber (Jordan chairs) Tasks: Event planning including 2016 Annual Meeting; facilitate BODowner communications and possibly support IGMT-Owner communications; explore possibility of bike delivery system, etc. Outreach—Planning community building events, spreading word about Co-op.
4. Election: Jean, Patrick (Patrick chairs) Tasks: Plan election and recruit BOD candidates Follow up with forms required of (new) BOD members, getting profiles for website, etc., track terms.
5. Visioning: Jean, Ruth, Steve, Ed, Patrick (Jean chairs) Tasks: Visioning for long-term future of the Co-op, track what’s happening Co-op world. Brainstorm ideas, bring to BOD for approval to take to GMT. Could support GMT in getting more folks into the store (is this Engagement?). Ultimately come up with one-yr; five-yr, etc visions.
General Discussion:
Communication/Outreach/Event Planning all involve ENGAGEMENT—how about “Engagement” Committee that would take on all those tasks. Is this too much work for one
committee (potential for 4 members of this committee)–Could form ad hoc committees to plan specific events if needed. Recommendation to keep committees from getting too fragmented, may result in repeated work by different committees; keep focus, synergy.
Jordan would like to establish and chair the Engagement Committee
Each committee should draft its own charter for BOD approval.
Need to start targeting owners who would be interested in being on committees—Emily, Laura have expressed interest. Recruit at annual meeting? Committees should meet and draft scope of work/charter before the annual meeting.
Other items noted: Sherpa is the new GM for the Durango food c-op Jean is having trouble receiving and sending messages through the GoogleGroup. Amber and/or Ed will make sure that Jean is indeed on the group, and his email is correct. Ed got signed Conflict of Interest affidavits from Jean and Steve—all BOD members are now current on this.
Ed moved to adjourn; Jean seconded; meeting adjourned at 8:05pm.
