General Meeting AGENDA Wednesday, June 22, 7.30 - 9.30pm The Co-op: 18 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn

Facilitator: Emily Miner Minute-taker: Matthew Talmage Minute-takers - please see link to secretary responsibilities.

Directors in attendance: Keith, Jeannie, Christina Absent: Renee

Any person attending may participate equally in discussions, but only Co-op members/owners may vote on any issues. Member/owners may receive work credit if they attend (allotted 1 time a year).

Next General Meeting is September 28nd at the store. Want to be a facilitator, secretary, timekeeper or to propose items for a future GM agenda? Please email board@greenehillfood.coop.

Welcome/Orientation 7:30-7:40 (10 min.) Welcome and introductions. Brief explanation of the purpose of the General Meeting. Questions welcomed!

Attendees: Emily Miner, Jeannie Hamilton, Eamonn Farrell, Matthew Talmage, Lauryl Berger-Chen, Willow Westwood, Christina le Moine, Keith Almon, DK Holland

Consent Agenda: 7:40-7:45 (5 mins) (Facilitator)

A collective vote on decisions that have already been made or that don’t generally require/solicit discussion. Attendees can pull out any item they would like more discussion on, and this item will be moved to discussion at the end of the meeting. Information on all consent agenda item votes will be circulated in advance of the meeting.

• Ratify minutes from previous Board meeting (please read beforehand on the Website)

Meeting Warm-up 7:45-8:05 (20 min.) (Emily Miner)

• Interactive group activity to get to know each other and get in a “cooperative” spirit.

First round: DK and Willow won; second round Jeannie and Eamon were winners

Membership and Finance Reports 8:05 - 8:15 (10 min) (Membership; Finance)

Monthly membership report (here)

• Current number of working members: 370
• Number of new members and deactivated in May:
  • New: 5, plus 4 reactivated
  • Deactivated: 0
• Number of exiting members waiting for investment returns:

Confirm: When members go off leave, they are coming back to active

It doesn’t seem like we have a high matriculation from trial member to regular member

Is the trial membership dissuading people that would normally join straight out?

If we are getting more stable, perhaps we consider deactivating the trial membership/

What is membership doing to ensure the trial members feel a sense of belonging?

Willow is working with Chad to look at and streamline the process from “interested to coop” to “full working member” via the email communication that we’re disseminating

Keith: how about email to trial members informing them of orientation day/time each month

Willow: take on filling out a community board and have posted in store; also will work with Chad to streamline email communication with new members

 

Problems with Shift Planning: info sheet on process handed out in orientation should be on website ACTION ITEM:: Emily will follow up with conversation with Chad and Willow about getting that to happen

Monthly finance report (here)

• Average weekly sale for May: $12,159
• Range from $10,589 (over Memorial Day weekend) to $13,455 (the second-highest amount all year!!)
• Broke 300 shoppers for one week; the rest of the weeks ~280 shoppers
• Average basket size ~$40
• Feedback about $50 basket campaign: some people felt pressured as they could not afford $50/week as a single person.Maybe we can change emphasis to bringing in friends rather than buy more; we need more families; emphasis on bringing in members as opposed to increasing the average basket size to $50 also helps coop get the labor resources we need.

Committee Updates 8:15-8:45 (30 mins) (Committee Chairs)

• General updates and asks for help or support
• Willow and Membership: about 3 people on social media; 2 graphic designers which is short on labor, many people are working on newsletter, which should be evaluated/analyzed; seeking to get more general-help committee members; some suggestions to use a FB group as a community board; Willows project idea: mural project on the gates to cover graffiti. Emily has a friend that facilitates mural projects; Keith’s caveat is that any images of people will be approved by the subjects; consensus is that we own the gates, but we all feel we should communicate intentions with the landlord

Space 8:45-8:55 (10 mins) (Keith) Update on our options such as a long term lease or co-partners

• Go to HUD- lobby that we are a “community benefit”
  • *find out if it is HUD or HBD
  • Speak to Paula Seagal with 596 Acres (expert at protecting and lobbying)
    • PR- NPR, newspaper, letters, emails, etc
    • Block 1991, Lot 3

Keith on update: Owner, Renee, wanted to use the office space for meetings, landlord is not showing half of the office space; how is the estate arranged in order to find out who has say in the future of the building. Emily asks: will we be held responsible to empty out the half of the office space that the landlords want to rent. They won’t show the space until September. We will have a 30 day notice before we have to clear out the area. Ultimately, we want to turn the office into retail space. Who coordinates the clean-up? DBOP which is basically Darryl and his wife. Pablo is still around. And a few others that appear in the middle of the night and help out like elfin cobblers.

Other Topics 8:55 - 9:05 (10 mins) Review of items “parked” during meeting and space for discussion/comments on topics not on the main agenda. Items will require more time to discuss may be included as future agenda items.

Willow’s friend thinks the store should be featured in Humans of New York (HONY). She’ll start on that.

Closing 9:05 - 9:10 (5 min) (Notetaker) Board review/approval: Board reviews votes at the end of each GM No votes taken.

Agenda Items for Next Month Need to follow up on what we’re doing with cleaning out the office space.