Board Minutes 9-21-11
Riverwest Co-op Board Meeting
9/21/11 Minutes
Present: Sandra, Gibson, Jake, Shelly, Vince, Erin, Paula, Carolyn, Karen, Kathy, Mia, Dawn.
Minutes from 8/17/11 approved.
Building/Maintenance
Expansion - An ad hoc building committee needs to be formed. Committee’s first task should be developing a business plan, which the consultants need before they can help us. Peg Karpfinger and Pat Moore (Centro Cafe) are willing to sit down with the board to give us their insights on opening a restaurant. Expansion discussions should be under their own heading on agendas from now on.
Walk-in Cooler - Quote for Polar King cooler is expected to be around $13K-15K. Once a final estimate is in board will be asked for approval. The crane company that would be doing the installation will be doing a ‘drive by’ to see if it can be dropped in, otherwise we will have to get a smaller unit or build the unit. Air conditioners need to be moved and volunteers are needed to dig out the base. Hopefully cooler can be installed and working by October or November.
Other - All of the store’s existing cooler and freezers are having issues, and will probably need to be replaced in the near future; A locked area in the basement for storing catering supplies has been requested.
Actions needed: Form ad hoc committee; cooler price quote; schedule meeting with Centro; look into costs of new store coolers/freezers.
Communications/Events
Events - Co-op table at weekly farmers’ market has been very successful so far. We are still in need of Center Street Daze volunteers. The possibility of an Events committee separate from the Communications committee was raised.
Anniversary Party - The board discussed and approved using the anniversary party as an unofficial ‘kick-off’ of a fundraising drive for the walk-in cooler, with donations and silent auction proceeds from the party going towards its cost.
Finance
August reports - Reviewed board summary of finance reports. Sales are up, however co-op still lost money in August due to three UNFI deliveries and a quarterly insurance payment. Noted that the co-op should be able to plan ahead for regular costs like these. YTD, however, sales in both the store and the cafe are up compared to last year.
Finance committee - Committee asked the board for clarification of its advisory role and responsibilities. Recently several large expenditures that should have gone through the committee were not. Any out of the ordinary expenditures and raises should be brought to the finance committee.
Cafe payroll policy - Board reviewed and clarified the cafe payroll policy. Draft policy is as follows: Cafe staff are entitled to a regular $0.25 raise every six months; these raises do not need to be approved by the finance committee. Raises can be given up to 3 months before a regular raise is scheduled, however this raise will take the place of the scheduled raise (Employee and HR committee should be informed as such). Additionally, cafe managers can award raises as they see fit. as long as the cafe’s payroll stays under 41% of its costs (as calculated over a 6 month average). If the cafe’s payroll is at or over 41% (as calculated over a 6 month average), any proposed raises other than regularly schedule raises must be brought to the finance committee.
Actions needed: Finance and HR committees to review cafe raise policy.
HR (Committee meets every other Monday at 6 pm)
Annual reviews - Four annual reviews are expected to be completed this month.
Cafe communication - The HR committee talked individually to much of the cafe staff this month about concerns expressed about changes in cafe procedures and how those changes were communicated to cafe staff. Many staff were not aware that several of these changes were necessitated by health code regulations. The cafe staff has started having regular staff meetings and will be setting up a web page in order to facilitate better communication.
Volunteer Coordinator - Position has been posted in the store and online. Several resumes have already been received.
Membership
August was a record month for new members and membership renewals. Yay! Membership list has been updated for Anniversary Party mailing. A list of members needing updated addresses has been placed at the front counter.
Workers Collective
Weekly meetings will now be held on Sundays at 5 pm at the Public House, so that more staff is able to attend. The collective is also working on developing better communication with the HR committee.
Volunteers
Open Shifts - Store needs additional volunteers on Wednesdays days and Monday evenings.
Volunteer Recruitment - A few volunteers show up at weekly orientations, but many don’t return. Volunteers who fill out volunteer forms should be called, if only to leave them a message encouraging them to attend orientation. Membership committee is adding a line on membership form where members can indicate if they are interested in volunteering.
Inventory/Merchandizing
Inventory - Next inventory is Friday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 1. Request for volunteers is posted at the register.
Cafe
Changes - Business has slowed down for the fall. Co-managers are working on changes and additions to the menu, new weekend specials and a catering menus. Lost a couple of employees this month, but also gained a new employee.
Other Business
Tech Update - Ed the (awesome) Tech Guy updated the board on changes to the office technology. Hard drives, router, wifi access point were all in dire need of replacement. In addition to replacing these, the office computers now have (legit) MS Office, InDesign, Photoshop, and Adobe. Co-op now has three different wifi networks: “RWCoop” and “Coop” are internal password protected networks; “FreeWiFi” is free wifi for customers. Ed suggested creating different user accounts on upstairs computers for cafe/store/visitors/etc.
Employee Health Insurance - No new information; a meeting with an insurance agent is being scheduled.
Board Recruitment - It’s never too early to start thinking about recruiting board nominees. Board also agreed that bylaws should be reviewed soon.
Actions needed: All board members should read bylaws before the next meeting.
9/21/11 Minutes
Present: Sandra, Gibson, Jake, Shelly, Vince, Erin, Paula, Carolyn, Karen, Kathy, Mia, Dawn.
Minutes from 8/17/11 approved.
Building/Maintenance
Expansion - An ad hoc building committee needs to be formed. Committee’s first task should be developing a business plan, which the consultants need before they can help us. Peg Karpfinger and Pat Moore (Centro Cafe) are willing to sit down with the board to give us their insights on opening a restaurant. Expansion discussions should be under their own heading on agendas from now on.
Walk-in Cooler - Quote for Polar King cooler is expected to be around $13K-15K. Once a final estimate is in board will be asked for approval. The crane company that would be doing the installation will be doing a ‘drive by’ to see if it can be dropped in, otherwise we will have to get a smaller unit or build the unit. Air conditioners need to be moved and volunteers are needed to dig out the base. Hopefully cooler can be installed and working by October or November.
Other - All of the store’s existing cooler and freezers are having issues, and will probably need to be replaced in the near future; A locked area in the basement for storing catering supplies has been requested.
Actions needed: Form ad hoc committee; cooler price quote; schedule meeting with Centro; look into costs of new store coolers/freezers.
Communications/Events
Events - Co-op table at weekly farmers’ market has been very successful so far. We are still in need of Center Street Daze volunteers. The possibility of an Events committee separate from the Communications committee was raised.
Anniversary Party - The board discussed and approved using the anniversary party as an unofficial ‘kick-off’ of a fundraising drive for the walk-in cooler, with donations and silent auction proceeds from the party going towards its cost.
Finance
August reports - Reviewed board summary of finance reports. Sales are up, however co-op still lost money in August due to three UNFI deliveries and a quarterly insurance payment. Noted that the co-op should be able to plan ahead for regular costs like these. YTD, however, sales in both the store and the cafe are up compared to last year.
Finance committee - Committee asked the board for clarification of its advisory role and responsibilities. Recently several large expenditures that should have gone through the committee were not. Any out of the ordinary expenditures and raises should be brought to the finance committee.
Cafe payroll policy - Board reviewed and clarified the cafe payroll policy. Draft policy is as follows: Cafe staff are entitled to a regular $0.25 raise every six months; these raises do not need to be approved by the finance committee. Raises can be given up to 3 months before a regular raise is scheduled, however this raise will take the place of the scheduled raise (Employee and HR committee should be informed as such). Additionally, cafe managers can award raises as they see fit. as long as the cafe’s payroll stays under 41% of its costs (as calculated over a 6 month average). If the cafe’s payroll is at or over 41% (as calculated over a 6 month average), any proposed raises other than regularly schedule raises must be brought to the finance committee.
Actions needed: Finance and HR committees to review cafe raise policy.
HR (Committee meets every other Monday at 6 pm)
Annual reviews - Four annual reviews are expected to be completed this month.
Cafe communication - The HR committee talked individually to much of the cafe staff this month about concerns expressed about changes in cafe procedures and how those changes were communicated to cafe staff. Many staff were not aware that several of these changes were necessitated by health code regulations. The cafe staff has started having regular staff meetings and will be setting up a web page in order to facilitate better communication.
Volunteer Coordinator - Position has been posted in the store and online. Several resumes have already been received.
Membership
August was a record month for new members and membership renewals. Yay! Membership list has been updated for Anniversary Party mailing. A list of members needing updated addresses has been placed at the front counter.
Workers Collective
Weekly meetings will now be held on Sundays at 5 pm at the Public House, so that more staff is able to attend. The collective is also working on developing better communication with the HR committee.
Volunteers
Open Shifts - Store needs additional volunteers on Wednesdays days and Monday evenings.
Volunteer Recruitment - A few volunteers show up at weekly orientations, but many don’t return. Volunteers who fill out volunteer forms should be called, if only to leave them a message encouraging them to attend orientation. Membership committee is adding a line on membership form where members can indicate if they are interested in volunteering.
Inventory/Merchandizing
Inventory - Next inventory is Friday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 1. Request for volunteers is posted at the register.
Cafe
Changes - Business has slowed down for the fall. Co-managers are working on changes and additions to the menu, new weekend specials and a catering menus. Lost a couple of employees this month, but also gained a new employee.
Other Business
Tech Update - Ed the (awesome) Tech Guy updated the board on changes to the office technology. Hard drives, router, wifi access point were all in dire need of replacement. In addition to replacing these, the office computers now have (legit) MS Office, InDesign, Photoshop, and Adobe. Co-op now has three different wifi networks: “RWCoop” and “Coop” are internal password protected networks; “FreeWiFi” is free wifi for customers. Ed suggested creating different user accounts on upstairs computers for cafe/store/visitors/etc.
Employee Health Insurance - No new information; a meeting with an insurance agent is being scheduled.
Board Recruitment - It’s never too early to start thinking about recruiting board nominees. Board also agreed that bylaws should be reviewed soon.
Actions needed: All board members should read bylaws before the next meeting.
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