General Meeting Notes 1/25/17

General Meeting NotesWednesday, January 25th, 2017, 7:30 - 9:30 pm The Co-op: 18 Putnam Ave, Brooklyn Facilitator: Jeannie Note-taker:  Cecile Note-takers - please see link to secretary responsibilities. Timekeeper: Ray Directors Present: Jeannie, DK, Cecile, Lauryl, Elizabeth, Christina Directors Absent: Others in attendance: Reina Kennedy, Tess Dworman, Emma Hedditch, Erika McGinty, Lindsay Reichart, Gunnar Burke, Ray Jolicoeur 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 February 22nd 2017 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  7:30-7:35 (5 min)

Welcome and introductions. Brief explanation of the purpose of the Board Meeting. Questions welcomed!

Consent Agenda  7:35-7:40 (5 mins)

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  ratified: yes:11 abstention:1

1. Store Coordinator Update  7:40-7:50 (10min)

  • Updates for new hires Amie & Raina  Working members do not need to pay investment but if they stop working at the Coop they can only stay member if they pay investment.

2. Membership and Finance Report  7:50-8:05 (15min)

  • Monthly membership report (here)need update
    • Current number of working members: 437
    • Number of new members and deactivated in November: 15 new members,  2 reactivated member,  41 trial members
    • Number of existing members waiting for investment returns: under 50 as per GM 10/26/16
    • We’ve seen roughly a 25% increase in membership since January.
  • Monthly finance report

 

3. Boards Re-organization 8:05-8:20 (15min) (Board)

  • Tabled from last meeting:
    • GHFC accounts Doc. Update access spreadsheet  Sean Mullane can update
    • GHFC Board/Chairs contact list to be updated Cecile will share the doc with committee chairs for update
  • Vote for a new President: Postponed until we find another other board member
  • Reassign tasks taken on by Keith:  List tasks
  • Recruiting a new board member:  Reach out to members through the website, next newsletter, talking around If you are interested please e-mail at board@greenehillfood.coop
  • Clarify board members liaison roles :
    • Finance & Merchandising: JEANNIE
    • Marketing & Website: DK
    • Outreach: DK through Ray Jolicoeur
    • Membership & Investment: CECILE
    • IT: CECILE
    • Store coordinators: CHRISTINA
    • Governance: CHRISTINA
    • Operations: ELIZABETH (renamed from Design build/Operations)
    • HR: CHRISTINA
    • Relocation: CECILE
  • Lauryl is pointing out that the board members need to read the bylaws about the ex-officios board members for compliance issue (only one ex-officios allowed). DK suggested to amend bylaws. Christina to reach out to Governance to check on this issue.

4.  Committees updates  8:20-8:50 (30min) (Committee liaisons)

  • Finance= Report presented by Jeannie at the meeting
  • Merch=
    • The Merch team has noticed that the glass front fridges are breaking down with more frequency. Elizabeth to reach out to Operation to fix the problem.
    • Merch has started to switch buying by categories, in general we need more members for categories and at the moment  Merch really need one member for “Snacks” and one for “Frozen”.
  • Beer license= Lindsay Reichart, Gunnar Burke, Todd Miner are taking over the completion of the beer license. Lindsay went through the application, it needs some updates, and re-signing. Time frame 6 months. We can only do beer, NY state does not allow to have beer and wine (it would require a different license).
  • Marketing= Ray, has been able to reach many members of the marketing team. Some Co-op Board shared their thoughts and ideas for marketing priorities for 2017

Updates on 3 main priorities:

    • Update on website Erika is working on the revamping
    • Update on Newsletter and Social Media - Meeting 2/1/17 - Update at Next Board meeting
    • Update on plans for eventual storefront upgrade so that passers-by can:
      • understand what the Co-op is about
      • be motivated to join
      • Better overall esthetics
      • More complete update at a future Board meeting
    • Create a sign for the delivery hours - Ray is coordinating
    • Next Open House: proposed date April 8th. Verious ideas have been explored by the Outreach Committee such as a raffle (yoga teacher,... using members resources to offer prizes - see Outreach committee for details)
    • New project to establish member services directory so we can add it to the website. Marketing will work with Membership and Outreach committees to establish this directory.
  • IT= Misha is compiling some stand alone tasks for potential IT helpers, Cecile sent doc. to Marketing and Membership to add/edit tasks list.  Also to propose reaching out to Park Slope for recruiting, voted YES Misha please reach out to Park Slope.
  • Gov= Still need an assistant? A:Mira is coordinating a meeting in January. Meeting did not happen. Christina sent an email, no response. Christina to call Mira, reach out to Lauryl about it and concern about privacy
  • Membership=
    • New Member Onboarding process: (Alexandra Peters & Sophie Masure) Orientation and follow-up/informational emails and how a new member works their first shift.  Updates? None
    • Trial member follow-up: (Outreach Carolyn Romberg). Trial member follow-up: large pool of trial members who don’t sign up. Contact by phone, by email? Trial members not clear about transfer to full membership at check-in, updates? Reina said that this task has been spread out.
    • Member labor enforcement starting:  In October, we had roughly: 427 active members (-112 trial members) =  315 active members (-60 committee/board folks -75  floaters) = 180 consistent store workforce. Reality is 114 are working, so 65 of our current active members are not working = 20% of active members not working. Updates? None
      • Upcoming initiatives:
        • Check-in system email notifications for low hours updates? None
        • Double make-ups for no-show shifts. Updates? None
    • Membership Committee Chair replacement: Chad Donnick is leaving end of April 2017. For more information about what this position entails, email membership@greenehillfood.coop. Marketing  just put an ad on the home page
  • Membership/Investments = Renee Bergan has taken charge of Investment. Has Renee been made aware that Finance would like to alerted to requests to have record? Update? Cecile sent email to  Renee about finance request.

5. Committee Asks and Gives  8:50-9:00 (10mins) (Committee Chairs) Committees asks for help or support / others give

  • Marketing = Marketing needs the profiles and pictures from every board member - please.
  • Merch= Looking for a buyer to take over snacks.
  • Finance = Requesting budget from each committee. Relocation needs a recommendation about maximum rent
  • Gov= needs assistant
  • Membership/Investments = Communication with Finance
  • IT = Update from last meeting question: Is Committees@greenhill account redirecting email to the committee chairs?

Misha answered: Committees@greenhillfood.coop redirects to the respective committee mailing lists and not to individual chairs or members. Committee chairs all have the primary responsibility for managing the lists for their own committees.

  • Operation= Relocation needs helps for “move budget”, also need a budget to replace refrigerator and freezer in the store in case they totally break down.

6. Lease Committee and Relocation  9:00- 9:15 (15mins) (Board)

  • Update on the current situation DK:  The case was dismissed in court January 3rd because Collymores’ lawyer was absent. A meeting is set-up to meet with Renee collymores to discuss: Renee apparently want for us to give up the expansion space. Letisha James will be present. DK, Christina, and Matthew will attend.
  • Relocation (Matthew and Cecile):
    • Meeting with Eric Adams Borough President 01/12/17: empathetic to our cause but pointed out that real estate prices are high in our neighborhood. He suggested we follow up with Richard Bearak, Borough Land Use Director.
    • Meeting with Robert Perris CB2 District Manager 01/12/17: he was familiar with our circumstance. We discussed Coop options moving forward: (CB=Community Board)
      • Garden of Eden: Obtaining empty lot from the city: dissuaded because the containers would be a huge hassle; starting from scratch
      • Angel: someone that would help the coop buy a space for us to have permanently; he had spoken with a friend at the Park Slope Food Coop and was told that PSFC is not the organization that could ever make the decision to purchase a building because of their decision making process is not one that could handle such a procedure
      • Partner: find a developer that would benefit by having a grocery store as part of their development, ie, they’re able to build higher in exchange for the community benefit of coop as tenant through program like FRESH; CB3 carries that program, CB2 does not.

We spoke of specific locations and their potential, e.g. empty loft building on Fulton next to Crispus Attucks playground between Downing and Irving. The senior center a little west of there is going to take that building over. Maybe we can work on getting the main floor there? Suggested we get a hold of his counterpart in CB3, Henry Butler. He also suggested we contact Director of City Planning, Brooklyn, Winston VonEngel and deputy director Alex Sommer, For info: as per blueprint our current location is 2496 SF including party-walls: Storage and Walk-in: 500SF - Store: 1096SF - Extension: 900SF

7. Bike Rack  9:15 - 9:25 (10mins) (Notetaker)

  • GM and Board Meeting to be move from 7:30 to 7:00 voted yes
  • Marketing suggested Mural on roller down gates? Lindsay Reichart to reach out to Marketing as she is interested in the mural and Marketing wants to make other change to the front store to make it more obvious that the store is open, Marketing to present budget for those changes
  • Rebecca Schwartz: I work with businesses in Brooklyn such as Citrico, Faun, & Dos Toros. I help these businesses put together energy plans that gets them running on 100% renewable energy at low rates, while also providing complete energy management services. Essentially, my job is to lighten your load by managing everything that your business does with regards to energy, while also reducing your costs and helping to make you a leader in New York's renewable energy scene. I'd love to set up a quick 10-15 minute meeting so I can explain everything that I do - I am sure you're busy and I promise to make it worth your while. If you'd prefer, we can set up a call. Would you let me know a few good times to meet? I'd appreciate the time and think Phoenix Energy could be a great benefit to Greene Hill Food Co-op and I'd love to show you how. rschwartz@phoenixenergygroup.com who are buying electricity, Elizabeth to find out who is our current supplier Jeannie says ConEdison and if Rebecca Schwartz proposition is interesting
  • Member/owners may receive work credit if they attend (allotted 1 time a year). Reconsider 1 time year, Next meeting
  • Avoiding store shut down on open hours: Determine the amount of extra hours for the store coordinators per week to cover for members shift shortage Christina is organizing a meeting with store coordinators to discuss
  • Position of the Store coordinator(s) with respect to the board

Closing  9:25 - 9:30 (5 min) (Notetaker)

Board review/approval:  Board reviews votes at the end of each GM

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