Riverwest Co-op

Board Meeting Minutes 12-21-11

Present: Sandra H., Chris E., Erin C., Kathy S., Jake H., Vince B., Shelly M., Karen R., Mia L., Paula G., Lisa S., Collin R., Joe, Kyle
 
Minutes from 11/16/11 Board meeting approved.
 
Workers' Collective:
Bike Delivery – Collin Rodgers is now delivering weekend brunch to the Public House, would like to expand to offering grocery and other cafe delivery.  He will bring a proposal from his bike courier collective to the Board.
Nichali has been hired and is back in the US.  He will be out of town from 12/29/11 – 1/7/12, and will start as volunteer coordinator on Monday, January 9.  Gibson plans to train Nichali for a few weeks, then be on call as long as needed.  Nichali has the following documents: volunteer application, volunteer schedule, co-op bylaws, etc.  He will also have the volunteer list.
 
Bike Couriers:
Collin, Joe, and others have formed a bicycle courier collective (Movement Courier Collective), and want to do deliveries for the co-op.  They are thinking of home grocery delivery, offered one or two days per week, and home deliveries from the cafe during limited hours.
Trial for a few days (per week), then consider expanding.  Delivery fee of $2?  Would need a plan for grocery delivery – would need to ring in before leaving the store, pay with credit card, etc.  Set up an email or cell number to contact to order?
Could promote a service like this for the homebound or disabled.  Something similar worked well for Willy St. Co-op.  Looking into also offering delivery from Sunrise, Falcon.
There are about 10 bikers in the collective, and they are committed to the project.  Prices for the services would need to be addressed by the group.  Do some research on how Peapod, Willy St., etc. do this.
Collin and Joe carry private insurance, so there shouldn't be a liability issue.  They would essentially operate as independent contractors.
Interest is indicated by the Board; we will look further into this.  Strong need for consistency was voiced.
 
Cafe:
Bike delivery of brunch to the Riverwest Public House is going really well.  It has been very helpful to have Collin in the kitchen.  Cafe is looking into better containers for the food (less spilling, better to keep food warm).  Get an insulated bag?
Mia made a bunch of candies; all are now gone.  She will make more.
Cafe will be having hummus always available pre-packed, as well as trying to sell more bulk salsa, kimchee, seitan.  Hoping to make up for slow winter sales with more bulk cafe sales.
 
Inventory/Merchandising:
Tuesday Jan. 3 and Wednesday Jan. 4 will be doing inventory.  Starting at 7:00am on Tuesday – come help if you can.  Paula did an awesome job with the Christmas craft consignment!
 
Finance:
October was a loss in the store; we are now overall negative for the year.  Finance will meet to look at the numbers sooner than the next meeting.  Gibson will look at Workers Comp, and all insurance costs (unemployment insurance, building insurance).  We had a lot of hospital visits (15?) this year – all knife injuries.  This is driving up our insurance costs.  Need to find out how long we need to go without injury before our rates go back down.
Cooler Financing/fundraising – Can we get a Donate button on the website?  Look into doing a Kickstarter?  Communications and Finance should have a joint meeting to discuss this and coordinate efforts.
 
Building/Maintenance:
Cooler installation is in process; there is a big hole in the backyard.  Vince is footing the bill to repair water damage discovered at the corner of the building while it is exposed.  The cooler installation costs are estimated to run $1,500 – 3,000 above the quote due to difficulty and extensiveness of the excavation, and removal of an old shed foundation.  Needed to waterproof the newly exposed cafe wall/foundation once it was exposed.  Build Milwaukee is building a full foundation under the cooler, so we could likely build on top of it in the future.
We have a new diagram from Build Milwaukee.  Vince and Karen verbally discussed details and issues with Peyton.  Information that was discussed can be compiled from their emails.  Need to find out details about what is included in the interior of the cooler – are shelves included?  Lights?  Interior cooler dimensions will be 12.4 x 9.11 feet.
We can't have a freezer inside the cooler, because it would freeze up the condenser and waste cooler space.  Add chest freezers in the basement if we need more freezer space.   Cooler will be coming on January 8/9; all work will be going on that week.
 
Communications:
Spaghetti Dinner is coming up on January 14.  Will be asking people to bring dessert and their own plates and forks.  We need to form an Events subcommittee to plan events – the constant event planning is keeping other Communications work from getting done.  Nancy and Sarah can't do the Spaghetti Dinner this year – they will pass on the information, and Tess and the cafe will do the work.
 
Volunteer:
Volunteer party (and welcome to Nichali ) is being organized, to be held at the Polish Falcon if we can't schedule it at the Public House.
 
Membership:
Membership committee meeting is being organized – send interested volunteers to Sandra.
 
HR:
Would like to know what they should be doing.  They are working on figuring out and communicating that.
 
Other business:
AORTA training folks coming to Milwaukee in March – do we want to get in on a joint training with Public House, others?
Riverwest Follies will be March 3 at Falcon Bowl – should we plan for co-op participation?
Wooly Bear Festival will be February 4, outside at Riverboat Road.
Little Free Library – a tiny library box has been offered to the co-op.  We accept and will find a place to mount it.  Lisa will be the point person.