What better way to say happy 30th anniversary to the Co-op than with a cake?Board president Sandy Tardiff and Manager Anne Carter do the honors.
During the past year, the Board of Directors has become more confident and comfortable with Policy Governance, our operating system which clearly outlines our monitoring obligations to the cooperative, while allowing us to make the time needed for the Board’s most important work: imagining our future. We continued holding an annual October retreat with our Cooperative Development Service consultant, Michael Healey. In 2008, we strengthened all Directors’ understanding of Policy Governance, and also focused on member linkage, and Board recruitment & development. One result of this work was a real choice for member-owners at the ballot box this year, with more Board candidates than open positions! Jean Bailey, Sharon Olson, and Jean Young were elected to three year Board terms, with over 80 members casting ballots.
Education of all Directors in subjects like strengthening local economies and communities, using resources sustainably, and the business of cooperative groceries is very important and a continuing theme for the Board. Besides holding an annual retreat, all directors read articles from the Cooperative Grocer regularly, and this year we watched and discussed a speech given by economist and historian Gar Alperovitz to the Weaver’s Way Co-op in Philadelphia; this video is making its way around the co-op world and discusses the type of local economies we could envision if co-ops take their business model seriously. Employee and cooperatively owned businesses are becoming increasingly common in the United States as people try to regain some control over their local economies. This is an area the Board is very interested in pursuing, and may be the topic of our next retreat.
In conclusion, I would like to encourage all member-owners to think about the larger vision of our store as it is written down in our Ends Policies (what results do we want, for whom, at what cost):
1. A greater sense of community for people in our area.
2. Community members are better informed about cooperative principles and personal and environmental health.
3. People in our community have access to healthy products.
4. A vibrant local food economy.
How, together, do we make these broad ideas come alive? What actions should be taken to help us all realize these overarching possibilities? This is the conversation the Board of Directors would like to have with member-owners. Thank you for your support of this cooperatively owned business!
Sandra Tardiff, 2008 Board President
