We’ve just learned that there are some households out there where more than one person eats regularly and the household only owns one share! Egads! We can’t have that! Seriously, our goal for the next few months is to identify households where this is the case and take steps to correct it. It has long been the policy of the Coop that if more than one person in your household eats, then each adult (>18 yrs.) should purchase a share. It enables us to have a clearer idea of how many members we actually have, enables our balance sheet to reflect a truer picture when we go to the bank for loans, and is actually more cooperative, which is why it was designed that way initially. We all work together.

The system supports the people who work and/or buy a share. They get a discount. Not everyone gets one—you have to make an effort. If your effort is greater, your discount is greater. When more than one person consistently benefits from a discount that they didn’t work to earn, it puts our entire discount structure in jeopardy and places a larger burden on those who do work.

So, we’re asking you first to self-identify. If you know that you are not pulling the weight of your entire household, please see Nate and he can set you up to get in the system. We’d like to start the new year knowing how many members we actually have. Please sign up before December 31. It’s our job to ensure that policies are being followed, and we don’t want to make this process more difficult than it has to be. Don’t bring your partner’s card to the register and expect that you’ll be given the discount. Don’t give the cashiers a hard time if they ask you why it says John on the card and you plainly look like a Jill. Your household memberships will be linked if you like, and one person can do all the work, or you can share it, as you prefer. You can buy a share with a variety of payment plans, so this needn’t be onerous for your holiday budget. We recognize that there are households where one person does the exclusive "Coopstyle" eating for a number of reasons and the others do not. That’s real, and it’s clear. But the people who don’t eat the food don’t come to membership meetings and participate either. You shouldn’t have all the benefits of membership without being a member. We want you to be a member. We want to hear your voice and we want you to be counted.