Dear Bloomingfoods Member-Owner,

Thank you for your interest in running for the Board of Directors of Bloomington Cooperative Services. Serving on the Board is an exciting way to be involved in visioning the future of our cooperative business. The Board uses a combination of policy governance and strategic planning to guide the co-op towards a sustainable future for our community.

This year there are three open board positions. The Board Perpetuation Committee is charged with recommending a slate of candidates that can provide leadership for the co-op. Our Board and member-owners base their choices on the answers you provide to the questions you will find included in this packet. Additionally, the Committee will request a brief interview with each candidate.

This packet includes a number of items for you to read and return to us. These include:

1) Statement of agreement – Code of ethics and code of conduct. This statement sets the tone and states the expectations required to ensure professionalism on the part of the Board.

2) Candidate’s contact sheet – This provides the Board Perpetuation Committee with your name, address, and other contact information. It also verifies that you, as a fully paid member-owner, are eligible to run.

3) Candidate’s statement – This is your opportunity to communicate to the membership. We have included several questions for you to answer. Your answers will be published, providing members with information they use to make a decision.

4) A recent photo - please include a headshot (.jpg) that we can include in our newsletter and other materials.

The election process requires that all applications be submitted by June 1. You may submit your materials electronically by emailing or by turning them into customer service at any of our locations.

The Board Perpetuation Committeewillinterview and recommendapplicants for placement on the ballot.Any applicant who is notrecommended by the Board Perpetuation Committee, but who still desires to run for election, may do so by filing a petition that includes the names of at least 70 BCS members who have been fully paid members for at least 60 days. The deadline for filing petitions to the nominations committee isAugust 1.

The candidates’ statements will appear in the September newsletter. Ballots will be made available electronically and in our stores on September 1. The close of the election is September 30, and candidates will be informed of the results by October 10. The new slate of directors will be introduced at the Annual Meeting and announced in the November issue of Bloomingnews. Election winners begin their terms of office in November. In appreciation for their work on the Board, directors currently receive a quarterly stipend of $500 ($2,000 annually).

As a potential candidate, you are encouraged to attend at least one board meeting prior to the election (the meeting schedule is available at and to contact any member of the Committee with additional questions you have about the roles and responsibilities of board members. To attend a meeting or to request contact with a Committee member, please email .

We appreciate your interest and enthusiasm for serving on the Bloomington Cooperative Services Board.

In cooperation,

The Board Perpetuation Committee: Kristina Wiltsee, Lauren McCalister, Dedaimia Whitney, and Donna Stroup

Timeline

April 1 - Packets available at all store locations

June 1 – Deadline for submission of completed packets.

June 2-29 – Board Perpetuation Committee reviews packets and interviews candidates

June 30 – Slate of candidates published by Board Perpetuation Committee

August 1 – Petitions for candidacy due by 5pm.

September 1 – Candidate statements published in Bloomingnews. Voting is opened up to BCS membership.

September 30 – All ballots due by midnight

October 10 –Election results announced

Contact Us

If you have questions regarding completing or returning the candidate packet, please email or call 812-339-4442 x 110.

If you would like to attend a board meeting or to speak with one of the Board Perpetuation Committee members, please email or call 812-339-4442 x 110.

Photograph Information

We ask that each candidate include a recent, high quality(.jpg or high quality print version) photo with his or her submission. The photo will appear in publications such as the newsletter, on our website,and on the ballot.

You can email the photo to with your full name in the subject line. If you are sending a print photo, include it with your submission when you drop your completed packet off at the store.

Packet Submission

Via email– Because there are materials in the packet that require your signature, only signed and scanned packets can be returned via email to .

At the stores – Hardcopy completed packets should be submitted to customer service at any of our locations by close of business on June 1.

Via mail – If you are submitting packet materials by mail, please send them to:

Attention: Board Perpetuation Committee Bloomington Cooperative Services
117 S. Gentry Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47404

Packets must be emailed, dropped off at the store, or postmarked no later than June 1.

Bloomington Cooperative Services (BCS) Ends Statement

Because of BCS, people in Bloomington and South Central Indiana will have:

  • a market for local, organic, and healthy products, meeting the needs of consumers and producers;
  • increased cooperative ownership that strengthens the local economy and community;
  • a model of sustainable, profitable business;
  • increased understanding of the local food system and its importance.

Board Governance

The Board of Directors for Bloomington Cooperative Services uses a policy governance model to define our goals and provide limitations on how the General Manager is permitted to achieve those goals. See for more information.

The Board does not help select products to sell, manage staff, or reconcile bank accounts. The Board hires the General Manger, establishes broad policies, and monitors the General Manager’s compliance with those policies. The General Manager hires and supervises staff who oversee the day-to-day operations. The General Manger and staff develop and execute a strategic plan for achieving the Ends established by the Board.

The Board educates itself to understand the strategic directions presented by the General Manger and how they relate to our goals.

Acting on behalf of our member-owners, the Board ensures that our cooperative produces benefit and value and conducts business according to the “Seven International Cooperative Principles,” while avoiding unacceptable actions and situations.

"Co-ops are acts of the imagination, designed to help create a society that better provides for the needs and aspirations of individuals. This is the sense in which co-ops are agents of social autonomy. They exist to put dreams into practice."

– Brett Fairbairn, Cohesion, Consumerism, and Co-operatives: Looking Ahead for the Co-operative Retail System

What is a Cooperative?

A cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically- controlled enterprise.

Cooperative Values

Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others.

Cooperative Principles

First Principle: Voluntary and Open Membership
Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibility of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.

Second Principle: Democratic Member Control
Cooperatives are democratic organizations, controlled by their members. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. Members have equal voting rights—one member, one vote.

Third Principle: Member Economic Participation
Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of the cooperative. The board may allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative, and supporting other activities approved by the membership.

Fourth Principle: Autonomy and Independence
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.

Fifth Principle: Education, Training, and Information
Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public—particularly young people and opinion leaders—about the nature and benefits of cooperation.

Sixth Principle: Cooperation Among Cooperatives
Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures.

Seventh Principle: Concern for the Community
While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies accepted by their members.

Excerpts from the BCS Policy Manual

Policy Type:Board Process

Policy Title:C1 – Governing Style

Last Revised:June 1, 2011

We will govern in a way that emphasizes empowerment and clear accountability. In order to do this, we will:

  1. Focus our vision outward and toward the future as designated in our Ends Policy
  2. Observe the “10 Policy Governance Principles” (see appendix B)
  3. Maintain group discipline, authority, and responsibility
  4. Clearly distinguish Board and General Manager roles
  5. Encourage diverse viewpoints
  6. Obey all relevant laws and bylaws

Policy Type:Board Process

Policy Title:C2 – The Board’s Job

Last Revised:December 4, 2014

In order to govern successfully, we will:

  1. Articulate the vision of the cooperative in our Ends Policy and communicate this vision to the member-owners. The board, therefore, will:
  2. report periodically to the member-owners on its activities and decisions made on their behalf. At least annually, the board shall disseminate a statement of its values and a report of the organization’s financial resources and obligations (the balance sheet) and how those resources have been translated into services (the income statement).
  3. communicate regularly with the membership through printed and/or electronic media.
  4. post documents such as the bylaws, board agendas, and approved meeting minutes on the website. Paper copies of these documents are also available through the co-op’s primary business office to member-owners upon request.
  5. requests for information other than the bylaws, agendas, minutes, and newsletters by member-owners will be considered in accordance with guidelines set in Indiana Statute, IC 23-17-27-2 (see Appendix C).
  6. Hire, compensate, delegate responsibility to, and hold accountable a General Manager (see section D. Board Management Relationship policies).
  7. Have written governing policies that realistically address the broadest levels of all organizational decisions and situations. We will write these policies in the form of:
  8. Ends which reflect the members’ values (what, for whom, and at what value)
  9. Executive Limitations (binding, prudent and ethical limitations) as described in the Policy Governance principles.
  10. Board Process (how the board carries out its tasks)
  11. Board and General Manager relationship (how power is delegated and its proper use monitored)
  12. Rigorously monitor operational performance in the areas of Ends and Executive Limitations, and Board performance in the areas of Board Process and Board-Management Relationship.
  13. Perpetuate the Board’s leadership capacity using ongoing education, training, and recruitment.

Policy Type:Board Process

Policy Title:C5 – Directors’ Code of Conduct

Last Revised:January 9, 2015

We each commit ourselves to ethical, businesslike, and lawful conduct.

  1. Every director is responsible at all times for acting in good faith, in a manner which she/he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the Cooperative, and with such care as an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances.
  2. Directors must demonstrate loyalty to the interests of the Cooperative’s owners. This accountability supersedes any conflicting loyalty such as that to advocacy or interest groups, membership on other Boards or staffs, and the personal interest of any director acting as an individual consumer or member.
  1. There will be no self-dealing or any conduct of private business or personal services between any director and the Cooperative except as procedurally controlled to assure openness, competitive opportunity, and equal access to “inside” information.
  2. When the Board is to decide on an issue about which a director has an unavoidable conflict of interest, that director shall abstain from the conversation and the vote.
  3. A director who accepts employment by Bloomington Cooperative Services must first resign from the Board.
  1. Directors may not attempt to exercise individual authority over the organization.
  1. When interacting with the GM or employees, directors must carefully and openly recognize their lack of authority.
  2. When interacting with the public, the press, or other entities, directors must recognize the same limitation and the inability of any director to speak for the Board except to repeat explicitly stated Board decisions.
  1. Directors will respect the confidentiality appropriate to issues of a sensitive nature and must continue to honor confidentiality after leaving Board service.
  2. Directors will prepare for and attend all trainings and Board meetings as specified in the bylaws.
  3. Directors will support the legitimacy and authority of the Board’s decision on any matter, irrespective of the director’s personal position on the issue.
  4. Any director who does not follow the code of conduct policy shall resign from the Board if requested to do so by a 2/3 majority vote of the remaining Board.

As a member of the Board of Directors, I will abide by this Directors’ Code of Conduct, as enumerated above. I agree that if, in the opinion of the majority of the Board, I have violated the letter or spirit of this Agreement, I shall resign my position on the Board immediately.

______
Signature of Candidate Date

Bloomington Cooperative Services, Incorporated

117 S. Gentry Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47404

Phone: 812-339-4442Fax: 812-339-4104

E-mail: Website:

Candidate Contact Sheet and Potential Conflict Disclosure

Bloomington Cooperative Services, Inc. requires that all Board members be fullypaid member-owners. I verify that I am a fully paid member-owner.

Indiana law requires you to be at least 18 years of age to serve on a board. I verify that I am at least 18 years of age.

Name (please print):______

Address:______

City:______State:______Zip:______

Phone:______E-mail:______

Please disclose any real or potential conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest includes any personal, professional, or financial relationship that may or could be perceived to influence the Board candidate’s judgment, compromise his/her ability to carry out Board responsibilities, or could be a detriment to the Board’s integrity.

Signature:______

Member Number:______Date:______

Board Candidate Statement

Your answers to the questions below will be published in the September newsletter, on the Bloomingfoods website, and with the ballot. This is your way to communicate to co-op member-owners your interest and qualifications for serving on the Board.

The Board Perpetuation Committee must receive your completed candidate application, including answers to the following questions, no later than June 1.

Please submit your typed answers on or attached to this form.

Please answer each of the following questions, limiting your answers for each question to approximately 50-75 words.

  1. Why are you interested in serving on the Board of BCS?
  1. What experience or involvement have you had with Bloomingfoods or other cooperatives?
  2. What has been your experience in working cooperatively in with small groups of people (such as: being a member of a committee, team sports, or volunteer as part of a work group for any organization)?
  3. Please share any professional, volunteer, or life experience you have had that will provide insight when serving on the BCS Board of Directors. Include knowledge, skills, formal training, and education that will contribute to the mission of our co-op.
  4. How do your values and lifestyle align with the values and mission of the co-op (see Ends Statement)?
  5. Given the stated Ends of BCS, what do you see as the primary role of BCS in the community?
  6. What are opportunities and challenges you see for BCS in the future expression of these Ends?
  7. Please share any other brief statement that you feel is particularly important regarding your potential service as a member of the Board.

Petition for Election to the Board of Directors

I, ______(please print name), submit this petition to run for the Board of Directors of Bloomington Cooperative Services, Inc. in the annual election. I submit the signatures at least 70BCS member-owners (who have been fullypaid member-owners for at least 60 days) in support of said petition. I have submitted a completed candidate application, including the candidate statement, and turned it in by the June 1 deadline.

______
Signature of Candidate Date

Please request full petition form by calling 812-339-4442.

The form must be received at any of our locations or emailed to no later than August 1.