1. Roll Call
Board Members Present:Gerard Adams, Kolene Allen, Tom Cary, Danielle Cenci, Nathan Creswick, Georgia Monroe, Tara Simmons, and Elizabeth Listello
Board Members Absent: Paul DeLeeuw
Others Present: Michael Hedrick, Deb Hoek, Lisa Nelson, and Christina Radisauskus
2. Reports from Committees
Membership
A. New Policies: Tara read what the Membership Committee came up with for the “Policy for Late Pick-ups and Alternate Pick-up times” and the “Policy for Forgotten Items.” After a lengthy discussion, the board members agreed that the policies would be written as:
West Michigan Cooperative Policy for Late Pick-ups and Alternate Pick-up times
If you fail to pick up your order during the designated pick-up day/time or if you cannot make the designated day/time, you must contact the WM Co-op at help@westmichigancoop.com or 616–248–0760 to arrange a time for pick-up at Media Rare within the next two business days (between 9am-5pm on the first business day and between 9am-3:30pm on the second business day).
The following penalties will apply:– Pick-up during the next business day – $15 fee
– Pick-up during the 2nd business day – $30 feeFees will help cover the costs of leaving the coolers/freezers running and the disruption of normal business hours at Media Rare.
At 3:30pm on the 2nd business day all remaining orders will be donated to a local non-profit and members will be responsible for paying their invoice in full within one week of the designated pick-up date by delivering the payment to Media Rare or by sending a check made out to WM Co-op to Jerry Adams at:
Media Rare
1111 Godfrey SW Bldg Q
Grand Rapids, MI 49503Payments must be received in a timely fashion in order to pay our Producers. Failure to receive payment within one week may lead to the cancellation of your membership.
Appeals based on extenuating circumstances will be heard and decisions made based on the discretion of the board.
** If you know ahead of time that you will not be able to pick up your order during the designated pick-up period, please try to find someone else to pick up your order for you.Policy for Forgotten Items –
If you realize that you have forgotten an item from your order please contact the WM Co-op at help@westmichigancoop.com or 616–248–0760 to arrange a time for pick-up at Media Rare within the next two business days (between 9am-5pm on the first business day and between 9am-3:30pm on the second business day). No penalties apply but any items left after two business days will be donated.
Motion to approve new policies. Motion seconded. Motion carried.
Out of the new policy discussion, it was agreed that we would have a table set up before the cashier table, where the user can stop to check his/her order one last time to make sure everything is accounted for.
B. Bounced Checks: The Board agreed that users who write bounced checked would be required to pay any banks fees incurred by the Co-op and be dealt with on an individual basis.
Jerry also asked Tara, as the Treasurer, to look into joining a different bank/credit union.
Vision
Tom reported that his committee has met once. They are looking at a few areas including system improvements for drop off/pick up, frequency of buying cycles, space needs, and equipment needs. They believe that within the next 6 months we will have 300–500 shoppers per month and thinks we need to get prepared for that. They discussed different options, including having different pickup times for groups of people. They also analyzed increasing shopping cycles to 2 a month. After weighing all the options, Tom suggested that we survey our users to see what they want. All the committees will work on questions that they'd like to see asked and we will try to have a user survey ready by the June shopping cycle.
Tom outlined a new strategy for the layout inside Media Rare. The new layout would have users enter the front door and exit the back so that traffic only flows one way. He explained that this process would require purchasing new freezers/coolers that are either open or have glass windows so products can be easily seen, and that only users would get their own goods with help from volunteers. The goods would be organized entirely different.
Georgia commented that last month's pickup was a “nightmare” in regards to finding frozen meat. There was too much meat stacked on top of one another and that it was very time consuming to find anything. It is obvious that we need to do something now, and we are going to be renting a freezer for May drop off/pick up. Tom mentioned that Nathan Creswick has a freezer truck for sale and weighed the options in regards to us buying it.
Beth asked how hard it would be to reorganize the user invoices into broad categories like dry, frozen, fridge and then having the physical locations correspond to the invoices to make pick-up faster. Jerry thought that it would be fairly easy to add these broad categories.
Danielle asked about egg sizes and mentioned the difficulty in organizing all the different egg sizes by producer. Some producers use different terms to describe egg sizes. This should be standard and we will ask the producers to conform.
Product
Danielle said that her committee has met twice.
Lisa Nelson organized all the licenses in a book so that everything is in order. Jerry asked that Lisa make a copy to be kept on site at Media Rare. Lisa asked if she could also scan the licenses and keep them online. Until that is done, we will keep a copy on site. Danielle also made note that the MDA is behind on license renewal. The licenses that expired in April are technically still valid until the MDA renews them.
Danielle reported that the committee did not think the producer application was appropriate. She asked if the committee could revise the application. We asked her to go ahead and revise the application and bring that to the next meeting.
The entire committee took a tour of Creswick Farms and were given pointers by Nathan on what they should be looking at, should it be deemed necessary to tour a facility. They are going to be using a checklist, similar to the checklist that Certified Naturally Grown uses to assess a farm. Rob is working on customizing the form to fit the Co-op's standards. Jerry asked what the committee would do if they found something not up to our standards. Nathan said that the committee would not be a regulatory thing, but that we would be able to verify how the producers list their products, should questions arise. Jerry expressed that it is important to make sure that Co-op users are getting what they expect.
There was a brief discussion regarding how old is too old in terms of frozen meat. A brief discussion followed. It was determined that frozen meat can't be packaged for more than 6 months in order to be sold to our users. If we find meat that is older than 6 months, then we will not accept it, and the producer will eat the cost. No exceptions!!! Tara asked that the producer committee write something up to be added to the Producer Bylaws, and implemented starting for the June cycle, after we have time to let all the producers know.
The committee is compiling a book of complaints/compliments and hope to have that available for anyone to look at soon. The book will be kept on site at Media Rara.
The committee is also going to talk with Paul about implementing a rating system for products.
Nathan thanked Danielle for all her hard work on her committee. Kolene and Jerry expressed their gratitude towards all the work that all the committees have been doing.
Tara discussed having a waiver for producers who hire drivers to deliver their goods on drop off day. The waiver would allow a producer to not be present or have a representative present during drop off and acceptance of those items would be the decision of the Co-op with the liability on the producer. The majority of the board decided that the waiver was a bad idea and that drivers of goods need to stay during the Co-op check in process. It was decided that nothing would change, meaning drivers of goods must wait during the check in process. If goods are rejected the driver must take the goods back, and that it is the responsibility of the producers to have a driver or deliverer of goods that is required to wait during the check in procedure, and must conform to these rules.
Marketing
Christina Radisauskus, who is chair of the Marketing Committee, spoke on behalf of the Marketing committee. She stated that the committee has met 3 times so far.
She said that there was confusion on the committee regarding their purpose. She quickly stated all her questions. The Board advised her that their role is to deal with getting new members, not already existing members (which is what the Membership Committee is for).
The Marketing Committee believes strongly in having a survey done and will work with the other committees to come up with a single survey for all current members. Christina will compile the survey questions from all committees and pass that on to Jerry.
The committee gathered advertising prices, looked at other organizations to partner with. Beth announced that she sponsored the Co-op membership into Local First and Local Harvest. Jerry said that he would like the Co-op to pay for sponsorship at the Local First Street Party in June. Jerry felt that it is important to partner up with other local organizations, like WYCE and Slow Foods.
Jerry said that the Marketing Committee should plan events for the public, and ask the Membership Committee to get users at the events.
Christina reported that the Library event was a success. She has also been in contact with Fountain Street Church's Organic Living Group. We will be listed in their next email newsletter.
Christina then stated that the committee has a lot of ideas for improving the Co-op's website and will get those suggestion to Paul.
2. Wiki/Website
Kolene encouraged all board members and committee members to get involved with the Wiki and Blog, as well as make website suggestions.
3. May's Drop-off
We will be renting a freezer to accommodate May's shopping cycle if sales go over $10,000.
4. Advertising in Food for Thought magazine
Tara passed advertising info about this new start up magazine to the Marketing Committee.
5. Wording Revision
A. Voting Membership – Tara read the policy regarding voting membership:
West Michigan Cooperative Voting Membership Policy
There are two ways to become a Voting Member of the West Michigan Co-op. Voting Members have a voice in the Co-op by having a vote at the Annual Meetings and Special Membership Meetings called during the year. They are also eligible for a seat on the Board of Directors, when there is a vacancy. If you are interested in becoming involved with the Co-op as a Voting Member please consider one of the two avenues below:
1.) Users of the West Michigan Cooperative may pay $100 to the Co-op to become a lifetime Voting Member of the Co-op. This is in addition to the $35 annual user fee, which must be maintained to remain a lifetime Voting Member.
2.) Users who volunteer five or more times in a calendar year, ending December 31st, will become a Voting Member for the following calendar year. You must volunteer five times every year to maintain a Voting Member status. Every January 1st the volunteer numbers will reset to zero.
If you have any questions or would like to know how many times you have volunteered, please contact Tara at tara@westmichigancoop.com.
Motion to approve. Motion seconded. Motion carried.
B. Discussion to revise two month trial period wording.
Motion to move to next meeting. Motion seconded. Motion carried.
6. Next Meeting
The board discussed meeting bi-monthly. The next meeting is scheduled for July 8.
We are not keeping the May 28 quarterly meeting.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:20 PM