In Attendance: Nick K., Peyton C., Gibson C., Lisa K., Chris E., Richard G., Sandra H.

Topics of focus: Training, Decision Making and Communication, Analysis of business operations.

Training: Group identified need to establish personnel training roles. A need was expressed to have a designated Café trainer. Should it should automatically be the responsibility of a Manager? Consensus reached over a need for more business training overall for Co-op.

Decision Making: Discussion of having some Café managerial tasks spilt up among employees. There may be a slight bump in wages or bonus for those tasks. Decision making for day-to-day operations could be moved to smaller groups or teams, and reducing Worker’s Collective Meetings to once a month. Board discussed profits vs. costs, needs for portion control and improved appearance for café product. To move our business focus away from just “making profit” to “making community”, we need to continue to transition volunteers to paid staff roles when necessary.

Analysis of business operations: In the store, we felt better tracking of spoilage could be done. This would assist inventory in making more accurate ordering decisions. Discussed need for more reports on profits and costs, including payroll, which is currently at 54% of our costs. (A more desirable number would be around 43%.) Question was brought up as to the affect of paid staff vs. volunteer staff to Co-op’s profits and loss. There is a agreed need to analyze the Café staff schedules. (Just to clarify, the store is not currently operating at a loss, but the Café is.) Discussion of moving to a worker-owned business model. We acknowledge the need to tighten up overall business plan before any major changes, expansion, etc. Also, any major changes would require membership input and approval

Task List from this meeting:

1. Build training program for Café. Board would like to see Michelle J. take on the training, and Justin R. taking on evaluating progress.

1. Gibson will provide reports by department showing profits and loss.

1. Events: Streamline the organizing process, Café needs to pick up some tasks currently done by staff/volunteers.

1. Decision making: Allow committees to do more decision making as a long term goal, rather that relying heavily on Board/Worker’s Collective.

1. More emphasis on costing for all operations (café, store, events, etc.) More usage of portion control, spoilage monitoring, getting credit from distributors for bad product, etc.