A Director's Chair:
HWFC moving into the future

by Lynne Lekakis, Board President

Parenting has taught me a lot about anticipation. When you get excited and you're six years old, you bounce up and down on your tippy-toes. Unfortunately, society doesn't really support that behavior in adults, especially in business. But of late, I've felt tempted to bounce by many of the things that have been happening at the Coop. Since this is the time of year for both reflection and anticipation, I'd like to tell you a little more about what's been happening, just in case you need an excuse to get in some bouncing.

Let's reflect first. We have met and successfully addressed many challenges in 2002. In April alone, we elected new Board members, rejected a reset proposal, lost our general manager, Board president and a Board member, and made a contingency plan for the running of the store. After that, we appointed some Board members, lost a few more, and held a special election, where we elected new Board members David Seaman and Kinga Zalavary, and former/current board members for additional terms. Welcome back to Craig Duncan Willis, George Broeckx, Howard Brent, and me. In the store, we lost the deli/food service, cheese, and front-end managers, and some changes were experienced in HABA. We were lucky to find qualified people to fill these positions, and have welcomed Nicole Bailey, Gustav Ericson, and Latonya McLean into the fold.

I'd like to give a special thanks to Elmer Bertsch for his thoughtful leadership as president of the Board from August until November. He provided a great deal of continuity during a time of change, and his experience is always valuable in our decision making. Cathy Neal also deserves a public "thank you" for stepping up as interim general manager, and working hard to keep the place running smoothly while we decide our next steps.

The Membership committee hosted a fabulous dinner at St. Sophia's church for member workers. It was most successful, and comments are still being heard in the aisles at the store about the food and the entertainment. Is there a cookbook coming out soon?

As for the future, several exciting things are happening. We have been working on a different approach from the top-down model of store management we've experienced in the past. The Board has been meeting weekly with the department heads to develop an alternative management structure. We are currently working on a collective approach that would give the department heads decision-making power, and also include another managerial position that would function as an equal to the others and focus primarily on operational issues. As in some collectives, the needs of the Coop would come first, and individual decisions would be limited to departmental concerns. We are looking forward to finishing up the process and implementing a new structure, and have enjoyed working together and learning more about each other's perspectives.

An ad hoc Strategic Planning committee has been meeting and thinking about the next steps for the Coop. Planning and implementing a long-term plan isn't simple, and the committee has sent out an RFP for a professional consultant to guide us in this process. Our hope is that we all get on the same page and work together to address some of the upcoming issues regarding our space, our position in the market, and our needs for the future. We are reviewing proposals and hope to start interviewing the respondents soon.

The Finance committee has been working with the staff to bring a realistic, workable budget for your review this month. We hope that you will agree it is a comprehensive approach that will help us all keep track of our progress. Congratulations to all the managers who played a role in the budgeting for their departments, and to the rest of the committee. The Personnel committee has unearthed some of the work of former personnel committees, and is making real headway on revamping the employee manual. Sorry we couldn't make the finished product our holiday gift, but we are getting closer and hope to have it completed soon. Other personnel issues have been surfacing, and we are doing our best to address them in a just manner.

I can't speak for everyone, because we are a team. But for me, working with nine people is challenging and rewarding, simultaneously. We don't always see things the same way and our experience base is quite diverse. It makes for interesting conversations. We continue working with our consultant. We bring our problems and challenges, and she helps us identify ways to solve them, or new approaches, etc. She's been helpful to many of our processes.

So that's what's made me feel like bouncing of late. I'm energized by the work we've done, and am looking to 2003 for the fruits of some of our labors-organic, of course.

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