General Meeting: 10/29/14

General Meeting Agenda and Minutes Oct. 29, 2014, 7:00PM-9:00PM

The Co-op: 18 Putnam Ave.

Board members present: DK Holland, Sean Mullane, Renee Bergan, Jeannie Hamilton, Rachelle Faroul, Allison Stewart, Keith Almon (manning the store), William Laviano (via skype for presentation only)

Absent: Hillary Frileck (notified)

Any person attending may participate equally in discussions, and all Co-op members (who are also co owners) may vote. Members may receive work credit if they attend (allotted 3 times a year).

Welcome/Orientation 7-7:15PM (15 min.) Welcome and explanation of what/who/why the Co-op is. Please ask questions!

Approve Minutes (1 min.) from previous GM (please read beforehand on the Website)

Facilitator, Secretary and Timekeeper Choices and/or Approval (1 min.) Facilitator (Renee) will conduct meeting fairly and impartially, ensure that any meeting rules are followed, and will keep meeting to agenda. Secretary (Jeannie) will take meeting minutes (which will be posted on the Website prior to next GM). Timekeeper will keep the meeting on schedule.

Presentation of Main Agenda and Pending Agenda Queue (1 min.) Main Agenda is prepared by the Board of Directors at a Working Session, based on member submissions and discussions, and published to members in advance of meeting on the Website (along with the time/date/place of the next Board Working Session which are also open to members.)

Finance and Membership Reports 7:20-7:35PM (15 min) Up to date information about the Co-op (Finance and Membership Committees)

MAIN AGENDA 7:35-8:40PM (65 min)

Officer Elections: Come vote for the next round of Officers!  (Gov., 5 min.) MINDY

• Several paper votes were passed out. Mindy is counting votes.

Committee Presentation:  The IT Committee will present what they have been working on and what plans they have for the future. (IT, 15 min.) MATIAS

• Matias is the co-chair along with Micha (?)

CURRENT WORK -  Store IT & Websites / Cloud services. IT hosts the www...greenehillfood.coop. They keep member at Greene Hill Food Coop site. Membership also use the site to run member numbers. Also, powers sign up flow. System also sends out newsletters. Host server also works with key fob check up. We use a cloud service (RatSpace). We pay $30 per month for this. We have a Google Apps account. It creates the  ….@greenehillfood.coop emails. We pay $50 per year for the Google App account. We have dropbox accounts for several committees that IT maintains.

• STORE IT - store IT is something that is in the works. The POS is being investigated. They are also maintaining the PC’s and printers in the office. Neither Micha or Matis has much time to be in the store constantly to fix the store IT issues.
• FUTURE PLAN -need new members that could come into the store to fix the computers every two weeks. Would need to find someone reliable and trustworthy.
• Renee suggests that IT should ask members to put in a large amount of hours at one time and trick the system to report Shift Planning hours.
• Question - why spend money for @greenehillfood.coop emails? The @greenehillfood.coop is a forwarding service.
• Question - our current version of website does not have the most current version of WordPress. Can we update WordPress? IT- Just so you know that WordPress always has an update. It can be updated.

Committee Presentation:  The Membership Committee will present what they have been working on and what plans they have for the future. (Membership, 15 min.)

• Allison does not feel that the store coordinator should do crib sheets as proposed by William. William feels that it is vital that the crib needs to be consistently done by someone responsible.
• Johnathan & Daniel are working to improve swap and shift shifts. Currently Shiftplanning is not the best basis for creating this platform at this moment, but this is in the works with membership.

• We want members to work at the store when it is working. Sean has stated that membership is key.

New POS System Comparison:  Revel vs IS4C:  (Finance/IT, 30 min)  Andrew Hapke (Finance) and Matias Pelenur (IT) will provide a comparison of the 2 systems to decide which one we should purchase.

• The search for new POS system has come out about 1.5 year ago because we got a loan.
• Shopkeep & Revel were the two POS that were desired because it works with an ipad. Revel turned out to be the best.
• Current POS has multiple issues. Scale breaks, computer stalls, etc. It currently has crappy hardware & very old software. The parts and pieces were bought from ebay. The computers are about 15 years old.
• We need a bigger loan that what we originally request ($4K). We now need a 10K loan after some investigation.
• IT proposes to possibly use and IT Coop which offers discounted services for the update of our current software.
• IT coop has quoted for a full revamp for about 7K in hardware. Scanner scale is $1600 each within this quote. TOTAL cost is 20K for the full revamp. 13K for partial revamp (old hardware / new other stuff) $105 /month support for each POS station.
• IT likes to support other coops like this IT coop. IT feels confident that once the new system is installed it will work flawlessly. The system will have a learning curve.
• PSFC is willing donate their old POS scales / computers this might help us with updating the current system.
• IT recommends that we use an ipad system because it is cheaper and would be easier to maintain.
• Revel has made it clear that we are the bottom of their totem pole.
• Revel is ipad base POS. This will be all new software and hardware. We would get scanner wands. Monthy fee is $50/station. There $3200 software license lifetime fee. $10,400 total to completely install.
• Revel is more user friendly. One cashier member feels that the integrated is not necessarily better than a scanner wand as with our current integrated scan system does not work well.
• An anonymous donor is willing to pay whatever it will take to make this happen.
• Revel has a clock in / clock out system, but does not work with shiftplanning.
• Revel is Cloud Base and is designed to work offline. We should have a backup.
• Our current loan is sort of a grant...it’s really an extended loan.
• ACTION: POS team to return back with a report on Revel’s reputation with other local stores.

• Election Results: Who won? (Gov., 1 min.)

• Renee Bergan, Pres; Allison Stewart, VP; Sean Mullane, Treasurer; no sec

OPEN FORUM 8:40 - 8:55PM (15 min)

Brief comments on topics not on the Main Agenda but relevant to the Co-op. Items that will require more time to discuss may be submitted as future agenda items.

INSULATION

• $300 dollars have already been donated for insulation. We need $500 dollars more.
• $54 is spent for the GM S. Oxford space.
• There is great concern about keeping the space warm for the workers.
• We currently spend $1500 on electricity.
• There is strong argument that we will save money if we insulate.
• There is also argument to create a positive shopping environment.
• We will move forward to request donation for insulation.

GOOD NEIGHBORS

Beverly Emmons, founder ot Good Neighbors A volunteer program to help senior citizens who need extra help made a Proposal: for the Good Neighbors members to pay for membership, but not work. They will buy the groceries. This will be a good will organization to good will organization proposal.

• GHFC already has a bylaw that individuals who want to join, but have medical or other reason cannot work can still be a member to shop.
• Good neighbors is willing to pay full fee.
• Multiple members feel that this is great and feel that as a Coop our current language is not clear that the above mentioned bylaw exists.
• Good Neighbors offers transportation for their members. They will go shopping at the coop with their member to find if what Pathmark has also exists at the coop.

CLOSING 8:55 - 9PM (5 min)

• Next Board Working Session is Wed., Nov. 12,  7:30-9:30pm at The Co-op.

All are welcome. Please email board@greenehillfood.coop if you plan to attend (work credit applies!)

• Next General Meeting is Wed., Dec. 2 -- same time, same place.
• Want to be a facilitator, secretary, timekeeper or to propose items for a future GM agenda?

Please email board@greenehillfood.coop (work credit applies!)