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A Report from the Annual Meetingby Deborah Trupin The 2002 Honest Weight Food Coop Annual Meeting took place on Sunday, April 21 at the Sage College of Albany. HWFC staff provided copious and delicious refreshments, which members enjoyed before the official start of the meeting. About 135 members attended the meeting. HWFC member and facilitator Janice Fontanella called the meeting to order at 6:15 pm. The first order of business was the election of new members for the Board of Directors. Eleven candidates stood for the four open seats on the Board: Denison Barker, Howard Brent, George Broeckx, Barry Feinman, Marjorie Knechtel, Lynne Lekakis, Linda Lawrence, Virginia McEwen, Christian Schider, Rebekah Tainer, and David Seaman. Of the candidates, Brent, Broeckx, Lawrence, and McEwen were running for re-election. Each candidate made a two-minute speech about his/her experience, views on the Coop issues, and why s/he was running for the Board. Barry Feinman was unable to attend the meeting but sent a written statement, which Janice read. Members then asked the candidates questions; all candidates responded to all questions. Questions focused on issues of communication, diversity, and growth. After the question period, members voted. 134 ballots were distributed; 133 ballots were returned. Marjorie Knechtel, Linda Lawrence, Virginia McEwen, and Christian Schider were elected to the Board. Virginia, Christian, and Linda will serve 3-year terms. Marjorie will serve a 1-year term. (The Board had previously decided that the 3-year terms would go to the three candidates with the most votes, while the candidate getting the fourth highest votes would serve a one-year term. Term expirations are staggered to insure that three Board members rotate off the Board each year.) Annual Report Presented The next item of business was the presentation of the Annual Report by General Manager Ed Jenner and Board President Jeff Lewis. The written Annual Report was distributed to members as they entered the meeting. Ed noted that 2001 was a good year, that the Coop met budget projections, and that sales were slightly better than expected. He anticipated that the profit from the year would be used for store improvements, staff bonuses, and member-worker discount bonus coupons. (This last was an innovation at the end of 2001 and was well-received by members.) Ed also reported that:
o There was an increase in donations to local
organizations. Ed and Jeff took questions/suggestions from members. Among these were: "Who is money donated to, and how is that decided?" Ed said that he makes the final decision, and that there is an application form. The member posing the question requested that a list of donations be included in the Coop Scoop. A member suggested that non-member discounts be based on need, rather than on age. Ed responded that Nate (and others on staff) were working on this and invited the member to volunteer to work on this. There were questions about staff morale, specifically about raises for part-time employees. Ed responded that there was no freeze in place and that he was unaware of a part-time employee having requested a raise. There was a question about the exploration of satellite stores: "What is the status of this? What is the process for involving membership and staff in deciding if this is a part of our vision?" Ed explained that, as noted in a recent issue of the Coop Scoop, local groups in Saratoga and Hudson had approached HWFC to inquire about setting up local coops similar to HWFC, with the possibility of connections between the organizations. Ed reported that he was analyzing the numbers in order to prepare a recommendation about whether or not to proceed any further. He specified that if there was any possibility of a union with another group, it would be by a vote of the membership. A member suggested that membership be involved sooner and noted that this relates to the issues of disclosure, which the member felt is an on-going issue for the Coop. Store "Reset" Voted Down The last official item of business was a discussion of and vote on the proposed "reset" of the store. This issue had been discussed and tabled at the Budget Meeting in January, as members wanted more information and assurances that staff had had input into the plans. Dave Seaman, who had designed the proposed reset, summarized the plan, then sketched the proposed changes on the board. He and Ed noted that the plan has not changed substantially from what was published last winter and discussed at the Budget Meeting. It included an electrical upgrade, an HVAC upgrade, changes in plumbing, and a space increase of 39%. Dave and Ed took questions from the floor: "How will this effect our lease? Will the landlord see the improvements and jack the rent?" We have nine years left on the lease, with fixed raises built in. "Concerning the electrical upgrade-If we do not approve the reset, will there be sufficient power for the summer." Yes. "What is the cost of the electrical work that must be done for safety reasons?" About $20,000. "What is the staging of the reset? It appears that some work has begun. Will the reset occur regardless of vote?" No. As it was getting late, Janice called for a vote on whether people were ready to vote on the reset. People were ready. The vote was: NO - 69; YES -22; Not voting but putting in ballot - 2. Finally, there was a short period of open discussion. The discussion focused on questions of respect for staff members and member workers. In response to these comments and to some difficult moments in the meeting, a member spoke about how in any organization there are periods of contention, that for the Coop these periods seem to come at times of growth. He urged Coop members to let go of the anger, to return to the Coop's roots and accept differences of opinion among members. He received applause from attending members, and the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m. |
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