by Jeannine Bindl, Board President
The end of our harvest season is upon us. In just a few weeks, Thanksgiving will be here with all of its delicious smells and offerings. The season is busy for many of us. Our stores have many ways we can help reduce stress without sacrificing flavor. More information about turkeys, pies, and Thanksgiving accoutrements can be found on page 14.
Owner Appreciation
In October many of your Board members had the opportunity to serve cake and connect with you during our Owner Appreciation festivities. We are so thankful for you and your investment in our community. Thank you for coming out to enjoy the fun!
Monitoring Reports
At our October Board meeting we reviewed three of our B policies (the set of policies that define the General Manager’s Constraints). Policy review is one way the Board of Directors monitors the Co-op as a business. This month we reviewed our Financial Conditions and Activities, Planning and Financial Budgeting, and Asset Protection policies. These are known internally as policy B1, 2, and 3 respectively. Our Financial Conditions and Activities policy is reviewed quarterly; all other policies are monitored annually unless we need more information or the policy needs to be reviewed to better fit our needs. I am pleased to report that all three monitoring reports were approved both by the Finance Committee and the Board of Directors.
We need your skills
Your Board has also been working on identifying the skills that we already have and those that we need, to be the strategic and visionary entity of our Cooperative. At our October meeting we identified financial oversight, cultural competency (or equity, diversity, and inclusion), and Owner relations as skills we would like be more adept in. Community connections we would like to strengthen at the Board level are local food, sustainability, education, and communications/media. This is where you come in! Do you or someone you know have an interest in offering your skills to the future success of our Co-op? If so, you can email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will have more information on running for the Board after the new year. By contacting us now, we can keep you up-to-date on how and when to get connected.
From our collective table to yours, we wish you a wonderful November and Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you again for choosing to invest in your cooperative, your community, and yourself. Cheers!