Most Recent News

Present: Jack, Leslie, Kate, Chelsea

I. Product Sub-Committee Update
a. Leslie will be liaison to committee and check in with Molly 1x month or as needed.
b. Next meeting: Wednesday August 6th, 6:30 at Liquid Planet.

II. Membership Sub-Committee Update (Kate)
a. Meeting second Wed of month?
b. Maxine will be liaison.

III. Operations Manual Revisited
a. Gaps/Updates
i. Update cashiering manual to include debit/credit machine, 2% surcharge (chelsea)
ii. Update stocking section (leslie)
iii. Weekly side work (Kate)
iv. Receiving Membership Payments (done)
v. Receiving deliveries and pricing-Update (Kate and Leslie)

IV. Policy decisions
a. Policy on check writing for over the amount
i. Propose to board that we do not offer.
b. Policy on bounced checks
i. Propose to board that we institute a $10 charge for any bounced check.
c. Policy on markups for special orders
i. Proposal to board: offer special orders at 20% markup for cases and bulk, except frozen and perishables, which cannot be ordered in bulk at this time. Non-case items will have a 25% markup.
d. Buying Club Update (Membership Committee)
i. Karen Schalm is working on a buying club manifesto

V. Member work requirements and opportunities
a. Member work opportunities pamphlet/leaflet (Chelsea)
i. Brainstormed needs. Chelsea will update and distribute.
b. Directory of Experienced Workers Update
i. Kate got limited feedback. Calls are needed.
ii. Kate will put list together and pass on to Tessa to call and ask them to take on training 1x per month.
c. Signage and Education in the store
i. 6 reasons to become a member- Max has a copy.
ii. Need artists for more permanent signs.
iii. As people are working, people should feel free to make signs as they think of them.
d. Facilities (Jack)
i. Jack to develop manual for weekly facilities shift
ii. One person per week, ideally on same day and time
iii. Jack will add to manual each week with additional tasks that need to be done.
iv. Need to create separate log book.
v. Jack will contact interested members and sign up for A,B,C,D week folks with a floater.
e. Need member station with:
i. Team log
ii. Board with sign up system
iii. Make a movable wall with easel?

VI. Operations Committee
a. Go back to meeting twice a month. Thursdays at 5:30 PM. Next: Leslie’s house w/ snacks.
b. Proposal for communication: Sub-Committees will provide written reports to Operations. Operations will go over each report at beginning of meeting. If Sub-Committee has agenda/decision items, a member will attend Operations Meeting. Those decision items will be then taken to the Board by Operations Member.

VII. Next meeting date/time- August 7th, 5:30 PM at Leslie's House.

Contact Chelsea Pennick at chelsea@atypedigital.com if you would like to participate in this committee.

Committee Members present: Meredith, Jessica, Erin, Beverly and Jessie

Open for comments:
Need to be open on Sunday? Decided to propose survey monkey/doodle to
be sent out to all members to resolve question. Beverly working on
survey monkey/doodle project.
Received comments from individuals who were deterred from becoming a
co-op member because of the 2 hr commitment / month. Individuals
mentioned that they'd prefer to pay more than work. Suggestion made
that individuals could purchase a certain amount of groceries at co-op
per month to fore go the 2 hours of volunteer time. Issue still in
need of more discussion.

Discussed Business Card layout:
Need to change: Add 'Sustainable Grocery' or ' groceries, beauty
products and more'
Add Landmark to written directions on back of card
Need to remove: Kate's cell # from card
Jessie agreed to research business card printing prices at Kinko's and
Denny's. Also will check about magnet prices and relay info back to
Erin.

Discussed call script and distributed numbers for all present to call
to recruit for upcoming OC tasks.

Next meeting June 28th at 5:45pm.

Minutes taken by Jessie Sherburne.

Missoula Community Co-op
Outreach Meeting Agenda
6/23/08
5:45-7:15 p.m.

Present: Jessica G., Kate K., Meredith P.

1.Grand Opening Recap
a. What worked? Media coverage, publicity, the food, “free” food, site layout (tent, grills, tables), the poster, membership info. (20+ new members), store sales, hay bales, street blocked off, truck as stage, cake walk, the weather

b. What didn’t? Timing of setup (took too long), size of crew, involvement of members, length (too long—3 hours should be maximum length), tickets, health dept. licensing. The main problem was that Meredith had some personal issues that intervened at the worst time and some items were not followed through on.

c. Things to change next time: More shade, tighten up schedule, fewer but more well-planned out activities, simplicity. We don’t necessarily need to do this next year. The neighborhood has a block party every year in August and we could participate in that.

2. OC Structure

a. We discussed the purpose of the Outreach Committee. The OC’s job is to build community support and awareness through advertising/marketing, public outreach, events, merchandise. We need to attract more members and help to engage the members that we already have in shopping and working for the development of the co-op. Farmer’s Market, workshops and classes, events like a wine tasting, the member meeting, and publishing the newsletter are examples of specific OC tasks. Kate indicated that she would be interested in working on educational programs, perhaps in partnership with the new artist’s collective.

i.Direct member communications--establishing initial contact with new members and performing follow-up contact and trainings—is the purview of a different committee, perhaps a subcommittee of Operations.

b. We simply don’t have enough people on the committee to accomplish everything that we’d like to do. Meredith has been thinking about this and proposes that the people who attend the OC meetings are the “team leaders” and co-op members who want to participate in a specific activity or task are the “team members”. Using the example of the Grand Opening, the OC member who is the “point person” for the event could call upon members who have expressed an interest in outreach, specifically events, to help with setup, cleanup, staffing activities, etc.

i. We decided that since we have such a small committee at this time we would focus on three areas this summer: Staffing the Farmer’s market from 10-1pm each week (point person-Jessica), producing a newsletter (point person-Kate) and a wine tasting (point person-Meredith). Each of these specific activities fit in to more general categories of public outreach, publications and events.

ii. We agreed that it is a priority to contact people in our database who have indicated interest in Outreach. Kate will pull a list and divide it into categories (PR/Media, Public outreach, etc.). We will call everyone and try to engage them in activities over the summer. Meredith said that she would prepare a short script to use when calling people.

c. The committee chair will be responsible for keeping track of hours worked by team members. Each committee will have a binder with timesheets in it. Members inform the chair of work they have done and the information is recorded on the timesheets.

3. Merchandise/Materials/Branding

a. We will revisit the idea of producing magnets to give away. This is something that people could put on their refrigerator that would remind them to shop at the co-op.

b. Jessica suggested that we produce a business card with our hours and contact info. on the front and a map and written directions on the back. Kate will get the file created by Marci Mansfield and will send it to Meredith and Jessica who will work on this.

c. We all agreed that the poster done by Jonathan was fabulous and is a graphic identity that we like. Kate will talk with him about continuing to help us establish this visual look.

4. Next meeting: Monday July 14th- Co-op at 5:45 pm.

Terri, Charyn, Merrill

Budget- completed by next committee meeting--Terri
based on past performance
Phone calls-several minor issues from a few members-location and hours not convenient to them
solultion-adjust hours,

25% mark up- more sales needed to pay fixed expense, use member equity if needed, overall keep prices low and hope it works
with increase marketing, more members, and expand inventory.

Grand Opening
beer and wine sales-tickets, 21years ID stamp, keg pu, petty cash, sales #, tables

Have Fun!

next Fin/Dev meeting- Monday July 14 noon @ Dauphines

I Revised Product Policy
a The Committee made a few more minor changes. The revised2 version is attached.
b The Committee decided to include education about product selections and ingredients/nutrition as an integral part of the product policy for now. At some point, this may be split off as its own policy or document that will guide a separate committee’s work.

II Outreach to Membership Plan
a Use the New Member Orientations to reach out to membership and solicit input;
b Post a copy in the store with input cards
i Kate will email Shantelle about designing the cards
c Start a blog thread on the Policy to gather input
i Kate will announce and link to blog in a weekly email or the next newsletter.
d Deadline for comments: September 1, 2008.

III Research Needs
a Next steps for Committee are to focus on product research needs:
i Carrying OG WIC items, i.e. how to meet minimum requirements for generic foods and carry other good WIC items. Where to get generic item-Costco?
ii What is ecofarmed?
iii What other hormones might be found in dairy that members should know about?
iv Certification needed from local producers to carry and sell their products.
b Where to start?
i Contact Alberta Coop about what they have done (Kate)
ii Start with what is in the store (Molly has begun this)
iii What can found from local or independent sources

IV Committee Governance
a Molly agreed to Chair Committee
b Molly will contact Amy and Leslie (?) about setting a new meeting day and time.
c Additional committee members need to be solicited from the general membership to conduct research and other product tasks as needed.