[to be amended/approved at the June 19 GM]

GM Meeting Minutes April 26, 2012

Introduction to Co-op conducted by Nick

Approval of Doug as Facilitator, Kathryn as Secretary

Approval of last GM minutes

Committee Reports:

Governance: Giselle -- Still working on co-op policies such as harassment, policy issues around hiring a general manager (or part time manager), employment laws, insurance requirements, etc.

Marketing/Branding: Sara-- they've subdivided to 3 teams to better address special issues and have more frequent meetings.  Working on signage and strategies for he Brand Book, making plans for their work for the balance of the year.  Organizing the Flickr account, working on the printed tote bags.

Design/Build:  Armin -- Making progress on getting and relocating the walk-in cooler, cleaning up continues on the adjacent Laundromat space , working to build new produce shelves for which they NEED LABOR and committee help, ASAP.

Outreach:  Erin reporting for Renee -- working on committee liaison work, canvassing and tabling more outdoors.  Working with Education, had first joint meeting.

Membership: Nick -- About 985 members.  We plan to celebrate the 1000th member with an online profile and dinner for 2 at Olea.  What a milestone for us!  Phone bank to contact members how have not yet worked or signed up for work shifts takes place on Monday April 30 from 6:30 to 9:00.  This fact of no-shows has impacted store at cashier level, for receiving and general burden for those who've stayed longer hours or covered for no-shows so far.

IT -- no one representing

Merchandising: Ben-- They are expanding number of buyers so workload is spread out and we can improve vendor relationships.  Moving some products around to be more intuitively organized.  Working on bulk-repackaging, getting flowers, beans.  They do pay attention to member requests in the comment book.

Ops:  Will we be expanding opening hours? Yes, but it's a factor of people showing up and signing up and until that seems stable we'd be inviting chaos to add another day now.

Education: Rachel -- They made a short video on minestrone soup making.  They did a food cooking event at Habana Outpost's earth day celebration.

Website: DK-- will be hiring a person to do wiring for store.  They've been very active.

Main Agenda:

Banked Hours Discussion:  We officially opened the week of December 11 and that began the official work requirement.  Many, many members have lots of hours banked from weeks to years of getting co-op off the ground.  We are still struggling with people who have not worked their shifts and this is a BIG concern.  It hinders many things, including expanded shopping hours.  We envision discussing this again around September 1st if situation is more stable.  It's too risky at this stage to allow time off and release of banked hours. As of next week, ID cards will be scanned to record attendance at store for work shifts.

Mural Art:  DK & Oona -- they have a volunteer to either do mural herself or work with kids/community or combination of both to organize and execute.  Group said they'd like to have kids and community involved which would be more in line with our missions.

Member Relief Council: Erin -- had two proposals which were voted on and approved by the members present.

A) That people with a permanent disability be exempted from work requirements as long as proof of disability is demonstrated.  What this proof(s) would entail exactly will be delineated later.  APPROVED by majority

B) That people can take a temporary medical leave, again with proof of condition, for whatever period is deemed necessary by doctor or supervising health care provider.  APPROVED by majority

WIC:  discussion, Giselle read Amanda's prepared statement.

The Co-op is not able to accept WIC (Women, Infants and Children) as a means of payment at this time.  We do not have the space or the person-power to keep in stock all of the specific items New York State WIC requires.  We are looking into accepting WIC in the future, as well as other strategies for making the Co-op more accessible to all members of the Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, and surrounding communities.   If you are interested in spending WIC vouchers at the store or have other feedback for the Co-op, please email  outreach@greenehillfood.coop or write a note in the "comment book" at the front of the store at 18 Putnam.

The determination is that we are not financially or physically prepared to implement WIC at this time.  Some of the required products are not aligned with our current mission around food, but we will revisit, at a later date.  There is another store nearby that participates in WIC (Met Foods on Fulton).  Most Co-ops have not implemented WIC for these reasons, whereas larger groceries often have the staffing/financing/incentives to handle.

HR Committee:  Giselle --committee is being formed to strategize and describe position requirements for a part time store manager (title to be determined)

Next GM:  May 22.  Ideas for agenda items:  Discuss strategy for employee.  Discuss when we will have a party/grand opening?  it was suggested that we have a "running queue" for agenda ideas and add them where appropriate.  Should we NOT have July or August GMs?

Board meeting:  Giselle, DK, Lawrence, Christina, Doug present (Amanda and Pablo absent).  Voted to approve both the items approved by the membership (see A and B above under Membership)

Submitted April 29, 2012 by Kathryn

Note: attendance ranged from 20 to 34 during course of meeting