Food Conspiracy Board Meeting

Food Conspiracy Board Meeting

Approved Minutes

Food Conspiracy Board Meeting

Approved Minutes of 09/04/10

A regular meeting of the Food Conspiracy Board of Directors was held at the Pima Friends Meeting House, 931 N 5th Avenue, Tucson, at 6:30 pm on September 1, 2010.

Present

Cody Witham (Board Sec.)

Eric Lauterback-Colby (Staff Rep)

Shefali Milezarek-Desai (Board Member)

Vanessa Saavedra (Recording Secretary):

Natanya Siegal (Board Treasurer):

Betty King (Board Member)

Joyce Liska (Board Member)
Linda Laev (Board Member)

Ben Kuzma (GM)

Paula Wilk (Board member)

Melina Lew (Marketing & Membership manager)

George Milan (owner)

Absent

Megan Hartman—in Maine

Rob McLaine

1. Paula called the meeting to order at ___6:35__ p.m.

2. Review of Agenda and noted changes

No changes.

3. Check-in

Cody Witham (Board Sec.) : Back in school

Eric Lauterback-Colby (Staff Rep): Really busy @ co-op, new shelves, new refrigerator space, etc.

Shefali Milezarek-Desai (Board Member): baby son said his first word: Hi

Vanessa Saavedra (Recording Secretary): --

Natanya Siegal (Board Treasurer): Hi!

Betty King (Board Member): son back in school; doing consulting

Joyce Liska (Board Member): not much
Linda Laev (Board Member): youngest son off to college

Ben Kuzma (GM): lots of co-op stuff going on

Paula Wilk (Board member): has been working with The Screening Room to have food-related films

Melina Lew: New newsletter out

George Milan (owner): present in support role

4. Consent Agenda

Betty moved to approve remainder of consent agenda, including appointment of new board member Shefali; Natanya seconded the motion.

Yes 6 No 0 Abstain ___ [2 absent (Megan, Rob)]

5. Owner Time

Paula reads email comment received from an owner regarding the store name (owner doesn’t want to see the Food Conspiracy name change) and the new newsletter (owner strenuously objects to new format).

6. GM Information for the Board

Ben: Wi-Fi coming next week; will have new seating area. Ben’s and Eric’s concerns about safety and security have been addressed and resolved. Some discussion among Board members regarding use of BaseCamp vs. Google; Google is preferred.

7. Items from Consent Agenda

N/A

8. Board Work

  1. Financial Update

Ben: Co-Op will no longer be posting detailed financial information on its bulletin board. The Board has determined that doing so is not in the Co-op’s best interest. A summary of financials will be posted for public review.

  1. 2010 Board Planning Calendar

Cody: Not much has changed from last year at this point.

  1. L-12 Policy Reflection

Betty asks about the different stages of expansion/new locations. Ben explains that at Stage 3, the Board would need to be convinced that the plans will work out and that the leases should be signed. NCGA has a stake in the Co-op’s success at this point, as well, and will be involved at this stage. Paula: Board had a much simpler L-12 policy before; asks George if he remembers this. George explains that the policy was actually much more complex and detailed, but operationally the management ended up doing far more research and being more involved than Board members, so policy was revised. Ben notes that there is an Expansion Toolbox which contains a great deal of information, though it is somewhat dated; Natanya states that she believes she has a copy in the Co-Op library. Shefali asks if it would be possible to see former L-12 policy; George answers that it may be available but that it contains so much extraneous detail that it would likely not be particularly helpful. Paula suggests that Board members engage in further discussion via email. Eric inquires about availability of older minutes, etc., for Board purposes; Paula agrees that the discussion should continue but that there is not enough time today.

  1. Committee Reports
  2. Board Development Committee: Joyce has no substantive updates.
  3. Elections: Linda: This was her first meeting w/ Elections committee; they are keeping most of the Calendar that Michael had already set: February 12--Meet the Candidates; March 5--Annual Meeting. Melina: St. Mark’s will be used again for annual meeting. Paula notes that annual meeting falls to a number of committees and that Board members need to be thinking of ideas and suggesting them early (email to Paula).
  4. Owner Linkage – Natanya: Board members can do a great deal to improve owner linkage; e.g., quarterly BOD bagging @ check-out; Nov. 11 movie @ Screening Room. Paula: other opportunities to link with members are First Friday; 9/4 in-store demo; Patrick doing some finance workshops on 9/23 and 9/25.

Natanya handed out a report with the following information:

Sept. 1, 2010 Owner Linkage Committee Report (OLC)

The Owner Linkage Committee is a standing committee whose function is to consider research, develop and recommend to the board strategies for sustained, effective communication with owners.

Primary purpose of such communication is to;

  1. Create opportunities for educational dialog among the Board and other Owners relating to current and potential Co-op ends:
  2. Foster Board-level consideration of Owner values and ideas.

Ends Statement:

As a result of all the efforts, all the programs, and everything we do at Food Conspiracy Co-op, we intend to create;

  • Access to safe products and healthy, nutritious foods, as locally and sustainably produced as possible.
  • Socially responsible, ethical, and cooperative business practices;
  • A sense of community and the opportunity to participate in cooperative decision making;
  • Conscious lifestyle choices made with knowledge of:
  • Do-it- yourself (DIY) options; and
  • Health, social, ecological, and economic impacts;
  • Expanded presence in the Tucson community; and
  • Inclusive and diverse Co-op ownership.

The above is submitted at every meeting to keep us on track of what we are doing.

Owner Linkage Meeting- Aug 7, Present; Melina Lew (Marketing and Ownership Manager), Cody Porter Witham, & Natanya Siegel. Discussed how the BODs and Owners/non-owners with the Ownership Manager can work together to engage owners and to learn more about their needs.

We talked about the following activities for the BODs to get involved with;

  1. Practical hands on improvements (garden, solar & etc.)
  2. Update bulletin board with dates and times of BOD’s committee meetings.
  3. Co-op tour- in the past rarely did someone show up. Suggested someone call up the new owners & schedule a tour if interested. Just a phone call can bring connection with the co-op.
  4. Solar Rock – will be decided if it will happen and if so the BODs will have a booth.
  5. Chicken coup tours – will occur in December. Farm tours were stopped due to expense.
  6. BOD’s bagging, there were few complaints. It will continue due to the belief there are many more positive responses. Each BOD member to try and do it once every 4 months & let Ben know.
  7. Co-op has decided not to do anything for National Co-op Awareness week.
  8. Nov 11-14, three days of films at the Screening Room concerning our food
  9. Potential program, healthy snacks program with the Community Food Bank

We did not talk about from the last OLC meeting

  1. Message board on google, that would help linkage between owners & the BODs
  2. Community Room for activities
  3. Cody’s work with Melina on the list serves.
  4. Board study projects, once every 6 months
  5. Learning about the owners and what they want and model service in a visible way.
  6. BOD members volunteer to give presentations in the community.
  7. Try and have at least one BOD member present at each store-sponsored activity.
  8. How do we show measures of success? 1) Having all board positions filled. 2) 25% increase of owners on committees.
  9. Community lectures (watershed, Bicas & etc.) 3rd Wednesday & have an expansion meeting
  10. The worldcafecommunity.org/worldcafe.com
  11. 1st Fridays, Sept 3, the Owner Linkage will have a table

There seems to be a lot of different activities that the Co-op is doing and that the BODs can become involve in. It was suggested that we do not put more on the BOD’s table then in the first column. I do think we need to see how effective as BODs we are in each of us obtaining and learning about the direction of our co-op and to help it to get there. Below are some of the store activities for this year. If you have not signed up yet think of signing up for one especially if no one is signed up.

Store events with BOD signing up:

  • Sept. 3, 1st Friday, 6 - 8 pm – Natanya
  • Sept. 4, Saturday, Demo Day, 4 - 6 pm- Linda
  • Sept. 18, Saturday, Demo Day, 4 - 6 pm –
  • Sept. 19, Ice Cream Sunday, 4 - 7 pm – Betty
  • Oct. 10, Sunday, Non-GMO Day – 4 to 6 pm –
  • Nov. 11, Education Screening Room –
  • Nov. 12, Regular food film
  • Nov. 13,
  • Nov 14, Local restaurant/educator

The last four day’s information will be given once it is finalized. We might just have a board table on Nov. 11.

*** End of Linkage Committee written report ***

Board Meeting Evaluation/Monitoring Form

Date of Meeting 09/01/2010

In a continual effort to improve its Policy Governance process, the Food Conspiracy Board of Directors developed this form to evaluate its progress. This evaluation is the board as a whole, not individual board members.

  1. The board was prepared for the meeting

X Satisfactory Needs ImprovementUnsatisfactory

  1. The boards time was appropriately spent on Ends as opposed to Means

X Satisfactory Needs ImprovementUnsatisfactory

  1. Each board member was given an adequate opportunity to participate in discussion and decision making.

X Satisfactory Needs ImprovementUnsatisfactory

  1. The board’s treatment of all persons was courteous, dignified and fair.

X Satisfactory Needs ImprovementUnsatisfactory

  1. The board adhered to its adopted governance style:
  2. It emphasized outward vision:

X Yes No

  1. It encouraged diversity in viewpoints:

X Yes No

  1. It exercised strategic leadership more than overseeing administrative detail:

X Yes No

  1. It maintained a clear distinction between board and management roles:

X Yes No

  1. It looked to the future:

X Yes No

  1. Did the Board Encourage Owner Participation?

X Satisfactory Needs ImprovementUnsatisfactory

Evaluation comments:

  1. Future Board Meeting Presentations

Paula: If people find these presentations useful, BOD can keep hosting them. One is planned for October about the Refugee Network Harvesting Program. November might be a good month for presentation on expansion policy. December could be about a CSA program; CSA downtown and CSA in Ajo have expressed a willingness to participate and a panel discussion might be possible.

Break at 7:24 pm.

Presentation

Paula introduces speakers Robert Ojeda and Nick Henry from the Food Bank’s CommunityResourceCenter; introductions are made all around. Robert explains what programs the CRC administers and what they do. Projects include a home gardening cooperative for low-income families; school and community gardens program; demonstration garden at food bank; many educational programs for youth; three farmer’s markets (at Marana, Santa Cruz, and Food Bank); child nutrition program (healthy snacks for children); community outreach; helping low-income families to learn and maneuver food stamp program. Nick discusses the latest grant, a two year grant awarded in March from the Center for Disease Control, called Communities Putting Prevention to Work. Project covers Tucson, Marana, and Ajo, and is a community health initiative targeted at policy, systemic issues, environment (increasing physical wellness through activity and healthy food).

9. Next Meeting/Calendar

The next Board meeting is October 6 , 2010, at 6:30 PM.

10.Adjournment

Cody moved to adjourn the meeting and Betty seconded the motion.

7 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstained. The meeting adjourned at ___8:42_____ p.m.

Date minutes approved: ______

Signature: ______

Board Secretary