[cgfc] 1 February General Membership Meeting Minutes

Fri Feb 6 13:43:19 CST 2004

Hi folks,
here are the minutes from our GMM. i apologize if i missed any comments.
i didn't have a recording device, so we had to rely on my typing skills.
let me know if there are things that i missed in text! Otherwise thanks
for
coming out to the GMM!

Stephanie
board secretary

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1 February 2004 : General Membership Meeting Minutes

Beth Facilitating . . .Thank you Beth!!

Introductions: Welcome All. . .40 people!
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Board Elections (Amy): Three board members are rerunning for election
(Karina, Tim, Eric). Karina: vote for me because I have so much more
let to do on the board. Likes working to make necessary things happen
at the coop. Eric is currently serving as the coordinator liason,
attending coordinator meetings once a month. . .keeping up relations
with the board and coordinators, enjoyed first year on the board and
wants to do it again, enjoys taking some of the burden off the
coordinators. Tim is running because he still has energy to continue
working on the board, he’s beginning to see that this is an exciting
time to be on the board of the coop.

Question: Tonya: what have you done in your year on the board and
what are you so excited about continuing?
A: Eric: we creating process for making things happen, where this
hasn’t been in place in the past, and have improved the separation of
rolls between the coordinators and the board for sharing the burden of
operations. Goal for future: getting the coordinators paid for all of
the hours that they work.
A: Tim: been working with the finance coordinator to better
understand the budget, wanting to improve the pay of coordinators, who
are currently being exploited for the hours they are working and not
being paid.
A: Karina: had no idea about coop process before being on the board
and enjoys filling in needed assignments and working with current board
members who get necessary work done.
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ByLaws/Board Update (Tim); turned in current bylaws that were read by
membership to the lawyer who told us that they are great, were we a
legal cooperative. We are currently an Illinois non-profit and need to
change our tax status to a cooperative, if we desire these bylaws to be
official. Which has led us to attaining proper tax status with the
IDF, leading us to current issues with the IDF regarding our program
status. The board is currently trying to settle this issue within the
coop mission, reasonable needs of coordinators for running a store, and
within the IDF (free rent).

Questions: (Molly): does the board anticipate voting on this at the
next GMM? Tim: can’t say at this time. (Dave): do we want to become
a cooperative? A: yes. Q: what do we need to change about the
bylaws? A: we are not entirely sure at this time, but this is a
question with a long answer, which could not be answered well at this
time.
Jim: are we incorporated separate from the IDF. A: yes. Q: is the
IDF issue a tax status or a more general one. A: more general. Q:
if members had opinions about what they would like to add to the
process, how could they do that? A: get in contact with any board
member or come to any board meeting. Q: will there be a
summary/outline provided in the future regarding this issue? A: any
decision, updates, or progress made on this issue will certainly be
made aware to the general membership. Q: are there copies of the
previous bylaws in store? A: yes, there are several copies available.
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Budget (Lisa): budget report, first 4 pages, shows our year to date
figures. We had very high repair maintenance (suspect wiring problem).
Had our highest sales ever this year. Gap between core worker
discount and non-worker bump is narrowing (we are making more money!).
Budget proposal assumptions (26% growth: average of the last 4 years).
Other assumptions are listed in the buget packet. Yearly data has
been provided to compare this year to former years. Deleted education
expenses and are now in to the outreach budget. Coordinators have
discussed the improvement budget, would like the improvements to be
approved, but will not seek improvements if the money is not there.

Q (Barbara): Does our current legal status allow us to spend our equity?
A:
Lisa does not know, but tends to be conservative with equity money.
The only reason we have funds in the equity account is because we
received the blooming prairie equity; we have been using this money in
the past always.
Q (mike): would have liked all the proposed improvement (a summary of
each on one page with the priority and cost of each). Would it be
possible to run through the improvements that they are recommending?
Molly: we are approving the annual budget for the year, so we are
going through each itemized proposed major expense and voting up or
down on it.
Q (Barbara): do we have any way of checking the performance of
current coordinators?
A (Eric): Eric will be submitting a proposal to the coordinators this
week for each coordinator to provide evaluations of their work, their
job descriptions with where they could use help and/or rational for
their tasks. Molly: coordinators currently had a software package
donated to better track their hours. Q (Ruth): who is keeping track
of this information. Lisa: is logging hours and keeping records, but
not making judgements.

Q: Have we updated our hardware given previous crashes? It has been
updated with cd burner in place and Lisa now feels comfortable with
current hardware.

Q: (Kate); doesn’t feel comfortable voting on this at the time on
this issue because we do not have job descriptions (board) and wasn’t
aware that we were going to be voting at this time.
A: (Jill): we need to approve or not budget for the year. What we
are voting on is not will this proposed money be spent, buo if it is
possible to add to budget it will be added.
Lisa: will not work if not given a raise.

Molly: wisest way to go about budgeting is to include all expenses
that we would desire to have from now to Dec. 31. this is a difficult
process. Coordinators/board would like approval from membership to
spend money in these categories (we cannot provide specific details of
what we will need).

Barbara: Was there an evaluation that suppose to have been done that
wasn’t?
Kate/Amy/Eric: these are only proposals at this time.

Lisa: appolgizes for getting upset previously, needs a pay increased
and expresses stressful situation that she is in with current salary.

Tim: curious about priority of budget improvements? Which come
before others?
Lisa: we will spend on needed items such as staples. The payroll
increases will also be a priority. The rest will come if there is enough
money to allocate.
Beth: Is there anyone opposed to voting on the budget? No opposition.
Would we be willing to vote on budget?

Mike: would like summary to vote on each item separately.

Lisa: summarizing budget proposals, tim listing them together on the
board.
Trays=450.00
Bulk Bins=450.00
Roll Cart=100.00
Carts=180.00
Lighting=636.00
Shelves $1200.00
Misc. $600.00 (we need our own credit card machine, ours is on loan)
Cooler $8,000.00

Tim: still unclear about what has priority.

Lisa: would like the coordinators to come together and prioritize. We
would prioritize payroll above other budget items, and outreach
spending. Mike would like to see prioritized list prior to general
membership meeting.
Molly: money is spent in the order of current urgency and crisis.
Steve: the idea for budget should be reporting money that we have
presently with expressing priorities of how money will be distributed.
Jill: we are asking for general approval that these are all worthy
expenses and then for membership leave to discretion of the
coordinators.
Dave: didn’t we used to vote on all expenses among the membership,
with decisions not made by the coordinators? What about hourly pay. .
..are we consensing to increase their pay or are we consensing that it
is a worthy cause?
Beth: we are voting on the good idea premise (we are voting on
improvements), not to increase pay officially.

Beth: approval about all improvements except the produce cooler
(3416.00). any opposition? No.

Produce Cooler (Brandy): propose that we use equity money to purchase
new produce cooler. Our current cooler does not keep the produce up to
standards.
Q: do we know if the unit absolutely needs to be replaced?
A: we currently have an electrical problem and a unit problem and
brandy is currently addressing the unit issue.
Q: all the produce that we have on sale every week, is that a function
of the produce going bad in the current unit.
A: most of that produce comes to us in a bad state and has already
been budgeted, not at a loss.
Q: is fixing the electrical unit a priority before purchasing the unit?
A: we need to sort out the breaker issue with the IDF first, but we
could purchase the cooler with current electrical status.
Q: Is it feasible to purchase the cooler without using the equity
money?
Lisa: This is two issues: do we want a produce cooler? And do we
want to use equity to use this?

Mike: It would be appropriate to approve the budget at this time.
Beth: anyone opposed?
Bob: whoooa. Are pay increases approved?
Beth: what is the next step in assessing pay increases?
Eric: two things need to happen. . .assessment of hoursr
Bob: Is there a timeline for this matter?
Brandy: the board had hired Lisa to do a specific task, not pay
increases.
Jill: we approved that we want the coop to support the hours that are
currently being worked. After evaluations, we could assess exact
number of hours and who. Right now we are deciding about the number of
hours the membership would desire for the store to provide its services.
Barbara: we need the board and coordinators to increase pay as a
priority (Board hears a call to prioritize the number of hours that
people are payed). Barbara raised the issue of evaluations at the
spring meeting, it is not a new issue.
Mike: trusts that the coordinators have developed the pay increases
and have come up with the most efficient plan with which to do so.
Beth: calls for board to approve for pay raises to begin tomorrow?
Bob: unclear about decision; has the board requested something from
the coordinators that they did not receive.
Kate: No. Explains process that we have dealt with since Nov.
Beth: Board approves that pay increases begin tomorrow, contingent on
job evaluations. Eric will be submitting this proposal to the
coordinators. Eric acknowledges that his original idea for this
process would be evaluations prior to pay increases, not the other way
around, as is currently being proposed.

Pay Raises approved by membership with submitted job evaluations to
begin 
immediately and 2004 budget approved.
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Prizes for Potluck:
Most Creative: Amy Clay (seaweed salad) and Katy Curry (almond,
chocolate pie)
Most Colorful: Eliana Brown (citrus salad)
Most Flavorful: Jeanne (lasagna).

Thanks to all attendants and potluck contributers!

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