The HWFC Board of Directors met on Wednesday, October 22.

Linda Lawrence has resigned from the Board. Director Howard Brent has assumed her position as vice-president of the Board. The Board will consider options for filling the opening for a director.

The committee has decided that the Coop should have both a full audit and an evaluation of accounting procedures.

The budget is being prepared. It is expected that the Coop will have surplus income this year. Ways of expending some of these funds to reduce tax liability were discussed. These included possible shareholder dividends, increased year-end coupons for working members, staff bonuses, new equipment, or simply saving the money for future needs despite increased taxes. The Board asked the committee to look at the various options and make recommendations at an upcoming meeting about surplus funds. The recent strategic planning group recommended a 5 percent community contribution from any surplus funds. A policy for these donations is needed. Two Board members and a staff member will work on this.

The committee reported on recent activities. These included providing brochures on food irradiation from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and an initiative to inform the Albany city school board about irradiated food and to keep it out of school lunches. The committee has also been discussing with staff the possibilities for more gluten-free products.

The Collective Management Team is currently reformatting the sales flyer that is produced monthly in-house. The intent is to make it a more informational flyer and to feature the produce, bulk, deli, and cheese sections of the Coop more prominently. The amount of other kinds of sales items will remain the same, but there will be more material about the above-mentioned areas. The intention is to highlight fresh foods, not just packaged foods. This idea came from the recent strategic planning retreat.

The operations and administrative coordinator presented materials on the possible organizational changes among associations of coops. (There are several cooperative grocers associations.) The National Cooperative Grocers Association will be presenting a fleshed-out version of their "merged model" in January, with discussion among members to take place in February and a vote on this proposal in March. The OA coordinator pointed out some of the effects of possible changes, and asked the Board to read the information on this and to pass on their questions and concerns to her in advance of the meeting.

A Board member noted that there is still no Board-approved marketing plan. It was decided that two Board and two staff members would meet shortly to discuss this issue.

The Board met in executive session at the end of the meeting.

Minutes of all meetings are available at the Coop. Minutes of the most recent meeting are posted on the bulletin board.