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Meet Our New Board
Members!
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by Deborah Trupin
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In April, five Honest
Weight Food Coop members were elected to HWFC's Board of Directors.
They bring with them a wide range of skills, interests and experiences.
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Ned
DePew
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Ned
DePew joined in January 2009. As a member-worker, he first handled
various tasks and cashiering. He was hired as "permanent part-time
cashier" in March of this year, and now spends 10 to 20 hours a week at
the registers. Since January, Ned has also served on the Facilities
committee.
Ned has a long history of co-op involvement-- working with co-ops in
Pepperell (Mass.) and Brattleboro (Vt.) since 1968. He knew about HWFC
from the time he moved to the area in the early 1980s, and had several
friends who worked in the Quail Street store. He joined HWFC when his
work brought him to Albany more regularly. A firm believer in "the
value of the collective action of independent individuals to support
one another and strive for common goals," he felt that Honest Weight
was "something I'd be happy to contribute to."
His favorite aspect of HWFC is the sense of community and goodwill
among the members, which he says "spills over" onto our customers. "The
vast majority of us at the Co-op are doing what we enjoy and enjoying
what we do," Ned observed, which fosters "an atmosphere of civility,
mutual concern, thoughtfulness, satisfaction and fun that is hard to
find elsewhere--especially in the retail food industry."
Because he's spent much of his life in the construction trades, Ned
finds the new building project enormously exciting and challenging.
"Having built several houses myself, I am very familiar with the
obstacles that need to be overcome. I'm excited to be involved in a
process that's now well underway--bringing the Co-op to the next stage
in its evolution."
In addition to working on the practical aspects of the new building
project, Ned is a writer and journalist. He says that his experience in
listening to and synthesizing the opinions of many people should help
him to articulate and present members' varied points of view as HWFC
moves forward.
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Jessica
Allen-Hayek
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I
interviewed Jessica in the HWFC café, while she and her
11-month-old daughter Sadie were enjoying lunch from the deli. (Sadie
was not allowed to serve herself the beet salad!) Jessica joined HWFC
in June 2001 shortly after moving to Albany. She first came to the
store looking for some spices for recipes in a new cookbook. She worked
for a short time as a memberworker cashier, and then as a paid cashier.
In September 2001, Jessica was hired as HWFC's first Outreach
Coordinator, a position she held for almost eight years. Returning from
maternity leave, she resumed her memberworker role--helping Mariah
Dahl, our new Outreach Coordinator, and as a Shopper's Helper.
Jessica said she'd often thought about running for the Board. She chose
to act this year because she loves the Co-op and "missed being involved
on that level." She brings to the Board good insights into how the
store runs and what the employees need--and, from her work as Outreach
Coordinator, what the larger community needs from HWFC. While excited
to again be working on the new store, Jessica recognizes that the
building is a huge challenge. It will always be challenging for the
Coop to balance its values and mission with running a business, she
noted, but fulfilling the our mission will also help the business.
Jessica lives with her husband and daughter in Albany. The cooperative
ethic pervades her life--she's just started a childcare co-op! In
addition to her Co-op and family responsibilities, Jessica is a
mixed-media artist with a studio in Troy.
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Bill
Frye
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Bill
Frye has been a shopper at HWFC for about 30 years. But because he
believed in member-workers, he put off joining the Co-op until he had
the time to work here. After Bill retired two years ago, he promptly
joined HWFC and became a working member. While Bill is perhaps best
known around HWFC as the grill master for the demonstrations during the
warm months on the Big Green Egg® grill, he has also served on the
Governance Review Council.
Bill brings to the Board a wealth of skills and knowledge that can help
advance the new building project. He spent most of his career as a
builder and developer, an experience that's crucial to making the new
store a reality. (Bill also noted that he's arranged to buy a $25
Building Block each month via automatic withdrawal, and urged more
members to take this approach.)
Like Jessica, Bill also first came to HWFC in search of spices. He's
also worked as a professional chef, and enjoys cooking as a hobby.
Since he plans to continue as HWFC's grill master, be sure to watch for
him outside of Co-op this summer.
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Lexa
Juhre
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Lexa
Juhre grew up in Albany and remembers visiting HWFC when she was still
in high school. Drawn to the variety of people involved at Co-op, Lexa
joined when she returned from college in 1992. While she shares our
cooperative principles--and loves good food!--HWFC also seemed like a
good place to meet people.
After eight years as a memberworker, Lexa joined the HWFC staff in
2000. She began as an administrative assistant, and later coordinated
our cash register and inventory control systems. Her current position
of IT Coordinator evolved from that experience. A firm believer in
cooperative decision making, Lexa was a member of the store's
Collective Management Team from its inception until she joined the
Board in April.
Lexa decided to run for the Board due to her long affiliation with and
love for HWFC, as well as her more recent experience as a member of the
Facilities committee. She hopes that working on "process issues" will
help smooth some of the many changes required by the move to a new
store. Lexa is also tackling some nuts-and-bolts issues--improving
member orientations, for example, and how HWFC records and communicates
information.
In her non-HWFC life, Lexa is learning to sing and play electric
bass... so, look for her sometime soon at open mics around the area!
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Lynne
Lekakis
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Lynne
Lekakis returns to the Board after a 2-year hiatus, during which she
served on the Facilities committee and worked as a fundraiser (aka "The
Loan Ranger") for HWFC. She joined Honest Weight just as we moved to
484 Central Avenue--one of her first member-worker jobs was painting
the walls as we prepared to set up shop in our first "new store." First
drawn to HWFC as a good source for organic food, Lynne began her Co-op
shopping at the original Quail Street store. She was a member-worker
cashier before joining the Board in 2002.
What are her goals as she returns to the HWFC Board? In her first two
years as a director, Lynne played a key role in developing a Strategic
Plan for the Co-op that looked ahead 5 to 10 years. She hopes to see
through to completion some of the projects she helped launch--including
finally moving Honest Weight into its new store, a venture that grew
out of the earlier Strategic Plan. In addition to revisiting and
updating the Coop's long-term plans, Lynne plans to work toward better
documentation of HWFC decisions and policies, and to give members
easier access to this information.
Outside of HWFC, Lynne lives in Albany with her partner, Elisa, their
13-year-old daughter, and their 4-year-old dog. She freelances for
non-profits, primarily as a management consultant and event planner.
Lynne is an active community member-- volunteering for her church, her
neighborhood association and her daughter's school.
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Thanks
for your service!
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If
you see our new Board members (or those who are continuing their terms)
around Honest Weight, stop and thank them for serving the Coop. Or drop
them a note: names and contact information for all HWFC Board members
appear on page 2 of the Coop Scoop and the Board page of the HWFC website.
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