GM Notes September 18, 2012

Timekeeper/Gregor, Secretary/Kathryn, Facilitator/ iris Committee Reports: -Marketing- DK Brand book is complete. They have done more store signage and have a chalkboard. Mural is in process for back wall, to be painted 9/23. Applying for a 2013 grant. French documentary filmmaker will be filming afternoon of mural prep from 2 to 4. Need more graphic designers.

-Finance- Christina $120,000 in bank. Fiscal year ends 9/30 need @ 20 members to help with complete inventory. Trying to get an auditor that has worked with PSFC. Need the accountant to tell us what they need to be doing. Need leaders for the committee.

-Membership- Nick 1134 members, 73 on leave. Trying to decide what level of staff we need at the store for membership desk. We’re at the point where we have to stop shoppers who have not completed the required work hours. Working on better feedback procedures, like an exit interview, establish policies, need a facilitator for emails, which can be done from home.

-OPS Nick. They had a good shift leader training. 10/2 is the next training at the store. About a ¼ of the shifts are filled for the 1st Monday opening on Oct 8th. Having an inventory day on 9/30 from 10 to 4. Need 20 volunteers.

-Personnel Giselle Job description is out for the p/t store manager. Was posted in lots of places. Personnel committee will do preliminary screening to winnow the candidates. Personnel will bring 3 to 4 of the best to steering. The caliber of the applicants so far is very high.

-Governance-Al Election committee set up the online voting. Financial insurance for the coop is s a complicated issue, as not many groups require it. They will suggest for the next Steering meeting. Researching hyper local honey issues in order to sell at coop. Investigating the food sampling permits and process required. Will present to the next SC.

No It or Design/ Build members present.

-Outreach Rosana NYCHA had a good turnout at a recent meeting. They are creating a script for coop tours and collaborating with education. WIC update until/unless we are open 7 days/week WIC is not an option.

Oct 6th event- noon to 6 at the Putnam Triangle. Free to the public. Will have vendors, face painting, live chickens, recycling info, dance and yoga lessons.

-Merchandising Aaron- Getting more buyers involved to spread the purchasing responsibilities. Starting to record inventory on spreadsheets to get ready for POS system tracking. Having some IT challenges. New signage for shelf talkers coming in. Prepping for the “open shop” day on 10/6 from 12 to 6. 2 days later is the first Monday so they are ramping up the inventory purchasing.

-Website Geoff New website is “steps” away, probably on the weekend. New site will expand the social aspect of the site, have recipes, chat, etc.

Approved the GM notes from August.

Election- for 2012 board 2 slots open Tad, Aaron and Nick running for 3 year terms. We need a 50-member quorum to vote. Will seed new members after election tonight. No nominations from the floor.

-Grievance Committee documents detailing the suggested process were presented to GM. Giselle moved to approve, seconded by Al. APPROVED

-Update on banked Hours Nick In April GM voted to discuss banked hours again in September. The reasons against starting to accept banked hours now is the ongoing variability of labor and shifts currently and we are adding another requiring many more shifts. Suggestion that we start using banked hours Feb 1, 2013. We need a fully functioning store, fully staffed. There is a lot of prep to start distributing the hours as well. If someone needs to access hours prior to this, they can go thru the Grievance Committee. It was recommended we get a task force together to bring to the Jan GM the actual suggestions.

day

Approved Unanimously.

Refrigeration expense- They are used units with a maintenance contract. Current units are not cold enough and not efficient enough. Contract will require 40% down, 11 % interest over 3 years. Finance will review the final contract to be sure terms are as stated. . There is no penalty for early loan payoff. All APPROVED the go ahead to spend the money as stated for refrigeration. purchase.

NEW DIRECTORS Silas announced that we made quorum, over 90 votes received online. Aaron and Nick are new Board members. New board was seeded.

Vote to approve grievance procedure Vote to revisit application of banked hours at January GM Vote to approve the $60,00 refrigeration expenses, with $30,00 down. Board voted to approve all three previous Gm votes.

Other item: Pablo says we have to connect to another water meter and that will incur @ $2,00 expense.

Next GM meetings: October 16th, Tuesday Nov 20th Tuesday. No GM in December

Submitted by Kathryn Zarczynski