BOD Working Session 1.27.16 Meeting Notes
Board of Directors ~ Jan. MtgWed., Jan. 27; 7.30 - 9.30pm
The Co-op: 18 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn Facilitator: Renee Note-taker: Chad Timekeeper:
Directors Present: Renee, Keith, Christina,
Directors Absent: Jeannie Others in attendance: Glen (PSFC), DK, Meghan, Willow, Christina, Lauryl, Mira Welcome/Orientation (DK or Keith, 10 min)
Need to figure out what a quorum is (determined to be 3) Consent Agenda (2 min)
Agenda approved Finance and Membership Reports - just numbers, no discussion (5 min)
SALES TO DATE $36,880 Shoppers 203.75 Average per week: $45.5
Chad to remind Betsy to send member numbers to PSFC loan committee.
PSFC expects to see finance numbers in a timely member. Renee and Chad to connect on what this schedule is for finance & member numbers to be sent. Elections: Candidates introduce themselves and ppl can vote if they have not done so online. (Gov., 5 min) Discussion about how to handle “from the floor” nominees. Decided to vote on who is present. Floor nominated folks will be contacted to gauge their interest. Christina is the candidate in attendance. Meghan explained the ballot, including the by-law revisions.
DK suggested that it be clearly stated to members that all members are invited to all meetings (GM or Board).
Need to be more proactive about creating agendas. At least 7 days in advance to release to members to allow them the chance to decide if they want to attend based on the subject manner. Christina provided introduction. Review and Discuss new Board roles (All, 25 min)
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What are the new roles for the Board? (In this discussion we need to take into accout we’ll only be 4 board members, not 5. One of roles will have to be merged.)
Secretary/Project Manager act as Co-Leads/Co-Chairs of Board.
Can we have the “President” be the Project Manager? (According to law: Co-ops have to have President, but can be in name only)
Project Manager takes bird’s eye view of coop activities, manages project dashboard, and serves as connection point
Secretary/Ad hoc liaison organizes board meetings/agendas and is ad hoc point person for committees other than MOM, Merch and Finance. If so, update liaison roles and liaison calendar.
QUESTION: can the Secretary and PM roles be merged into two people (the co-chairs) that themselves can determine how to split up the work of those two roles? ANSWER: yes - up to the Board to make that decision
Review and update previous Board roles to fit with new ones.
Board mtgs? Still once a month on the last wed of the month (except Nov and Dec when it’s the 3rd?) And GM’s, propose to start in March, not Feb so then it’s March, June, Sept, Dec. (not Feb, May, August-bad month for GM, and Nov)
Meghan took lead in discussion of this section.
It was voted and confirmed last meeting that this is what we want.
Question: merging two of the roles is being tabled for right now until we find out if there are additional candidates (depends on write-ins)
MOM = marketing, outreach, membership
Board meetings to be every 4th Wednesday (except Nov and Dec when they will be the 3rd)
Note: anybody on Board can be the President
Project Manager is the primary person who is in close touch with the other board members.
Secretary has lower volume of responsibilities and fills gaps as needed. Ex: what do we need to do for a beer and wine license, whereas PM role is broader view of committees
Board: had conversation about specific roles they will all have. They will finalize this dependent on a 5th Board member.
Change “Secretary” role to be “Project Manager” because “Secretary” in this context is confusing. So really there are 2 PMs.
Renee: Will we still have committees liaise with Board? Discussion ensued. Idea from DK for each committee to submit a paragraph explaining current committee report. Christina highlighted importance of in-person communication (talking to people in store). Renee feels that in-person updates directly from committee is beneficial.
Idea: 1 “all committee” meeting a year (which would replace a board meeting) and then invite committees as needed Vote and approve new Bylaws (Meghan, 10 min).
Material changes to the bylaws are to:
Reduce the size of the board to five people
Reduce the General Meetings to 4 times annually
If so, agree on timeline
Suggest Members are eligible for work credit once for attending 1 GM/year
Rather than specify what officers the board should consist of, the board shall structure their internal workings as they desire, keeping with the demographic principles of the coop (certain officers are required by law; these will be in name only). Additional changes to the bylaws have been made to clarify existing provisions.
All of this was presented by Meghan.
Renee, Keith and Christina agreed to keep the Board meetings on the 4th Wednesday of the month. Agreed. Streamlining membership store labor and additional hours proposal (Lauryl, 25 min). Currently there are 72 available store shifts per week on ShiftPlanning. The actual # of these available slots filled each week is less than half (when accounting for floaters, no shows, members needing coverage.)
Goals: improve operations/shopping/working experience, increase sales per labor hour/break even, serve more members with increased shopping times, reduce barriers to joining, counteract burnout Maintain or increase hours of operation with less labor, such as 41 - 46 store shifts/week Lauryl will present 3 proposals for improved hours/staffing.
Lauryl explained the documents
Store Coordinator role could take on supporting certain committee work (like Shift Planning mgmt).
Part of the streamlining is to have 3 ppl on at any time. Shift Leader, Floor Person, Cashier. Re-orientation to make everyone responsible for training.
DK - was there any analysis on sales from 2:30-4:30 on Mon/Wed. Lauryl - no numbers, but it does get busy.
Signage at the welcome desk needs to be better to explain what’s going on. You’re welcome - check yourself in.
Can IT have a noise play if low hours warning comes up?
Turn monitor to cashier desk to make visible?
Keith - raised slight concern about $15/hr. Perhaps it should be higher? Just something to think about. Consistency of hours - open every day would be good.
Lauryl - does have a couple people in mind for add’l hiring role. Would like to nominate ASAP. Now is the time to get this in place to get more $$ in prep for summer slow time.
DK - send proposals as survey to members and non-members as a marketing and inclusion initiative.
Renee - question about how merch is affected. Lauryl and Merch meeting this weekend to iron out details.
Lauryl did send this to Finance, but didn’t hear back from them yet.
All in attendance are in favor of 7 day proposal
How to handle announcement of changes to members? Need to notify members who have recurring shift
Member check-in: what about low hours? - make sound happen on check-in (check with IT). Can a report of check-ins WITH status be made? (there is already an export done of check-ins)
Renee - there is a survey going out to all members and non-members already in which this proposal can be added. Revamp Trial Membership (Chad, 20 min )
Instead of issuing paper cards, issue trial members their own keyfob and get them entered into our CRM. By doing this, we will be able to collect actual check-in data to see how frequently specific trial members are shopping. Right now, we have no way of knowing that. Also, giving the trial members a keyfob will create a sense of belonging - like they are already members.
Advantages:
We will get actual data to help us make better decisions.
We can more easily see which trial members convert to full membership.
Follow-up with the trial members will be easier.
The check-in system already in place to handle this. The system would alert the check-in desk when a trial membership is expired. This has been tested and works as expected.
Disadvantages:
A little more administrative overhead as the trial members will need to get entered into Civi. This could be minimized by giving check-in desk workers the ability to enter trial members into Civi on the spot. This would be really easy to do by simply writing up some simple instructions.
We'll go through the keyfobs quickly so we need to figure out how to be ready to order more (I have no idea who/how these were ordered originally).
Education: We need to educate our members on this change so they handle it properly when working at the store. There would need to be specific and concise instructions at the check-in desk
Discussion point: Should we keep the trial membership at 2 months for now or change to 1 month? Pros/Cons of each?
Previous proposal addresses the education concern b/c store coordinator will know how to do this process and can train others/support.
Chad suggests incremental approach to get data that can help us make the decision (e.g. maybe to change to day pass or go to orientation first).
Relatively low conversion rate for trial members.
Membership is moving towards monthly orientations now and by doing that, trial members can be invited to learn more.
Keep trial memberships at 2 months for right now. Re-evaluate this summer.
Sounds great!
Everyone is in agreement yay. Election results (Gov., 1 min)
45 voters. Christina elected to Board. All by-laws ratified
Review and approve votes (notetaker, 3 min)
Keith moves to approve board votes and bylaws ratifications.
Christina seconds. *Note: Minute/note-takers - please see link for secretary responsibilities
Pls don’t forget to SHARE this doc with completed notes with the Board after mtg
Move to March Board mtg: Implement stronger double makeup policy or stronger enforcements when members miss their shift (All, 25 min ) Suggestion: If you do not follow the shift swapping procedure and do not show up for your shift, you will be considered a “No Call, No Show” and receive a double make-up, which requires you to make up 2 shifts within the next 4 weeks (before your shift cycles back). Issue, how implement it, who tracks this? Suggestion: Notated on crib sheet if no show/no call by SL. Whomever adds crib sheet hours to SP, checks to see if that person attempted to find a replacement on the shift swap google group. IF none were made they owe 2 make ups. Question, Do we have manpower and technical infrastructure to do this? Would need IT to create some kind of “FLAGGING” situation. Other suggestions?