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Coop'ers OK budget at year's first membership meetingby Deborah Trupin
At the first membership meeting of the new year, the Honest Weight Food Coop's 2005 budget was discussed and approved by 70 Coop members. The January 23rd gathering was held at the Sage College Campus Center in Albany. The budget, with explanatory text, had been sent to all members with the notification of the meeting.
Board member Dave Seaman introduced the other Board members and offered kudos to Cindee Lolik, HWFC's operations and administrative coordinator, for her work in pulling together the budget and the budget explanation letter. (Author's note: The text explaining the budget was the clearest and most readable such presentation that I have ever seen.)
Cindee began the budget section of the meeting by opening the floor to questions on the budget. Most of the questions were requests for further information and clarification, including questions about the capital expenditures for the year. (The capital expenditures explanation had been mailed with the rest of the budget information, but was inadvertently left out of the packets distributed at the meeting.) A full list of the questions and answers can be found in the meeting minutes, available at the Coop. After about an hour of questions and answers, a vote was called. The budget was accepted unanimously, with no abstentions.
In Recognition…
Board member Ginny McEwen then introduced an item that had not been on the agenda: HWFC has been trying to recognize long-term employees and, more recently, long-term member-workers. She reminded members that the staff and Board had less-than-perfect records for calculating the member-worker recognitions, and urged anyone who thought they should have been recognized as a long-term (five years and more) member-worker to get in touch with her. Ginny then noted that there was someone else who should have been recognized for all the work she has done, and continues to do, for the Coop: Board president Lynne Lekakis. Ginny read the text of a certificate written by the Collective Management Team (CMT) honoring Lynne (see below).
Ginny reported that CMT had proposed, the Board had then discussed, giving Lynne a set of HWFC coupons in recognition of her work "over and above" the time commitment expected of a Board member. The CMT and Board had approved this proposal. But since this item had not been on the published agenda, there could not, under the HWFC bylaws, be a binding vote on it. Thus, the CMT and Board had decided to seek a straw poll from those in attendance to approve the recognition for Lynne. Board member David Seaman led the discussion of this proposal. Many members at the meeting spoke out in support of honoring and recognizing Lynne, and acknowledged the work she has done for the Coop, the spirit she has brought to this work (and hence to the Coop), and the sacrifices she has made to do this work. On the other hand, other members noted that the Board's offering financial recognition to one of its members raised conflict-of-interest and ethical issues. These members believed that this should have been on the published agenda for a vote at the meeting. In the end, a straw poll vote showed support for recognition of Lynne, and a petition was circulated to propose this as an agenda item at the next meeting. Thirty-five people signed the petition - so the membership will be able to vote to approve issuing coupons to Lynne in recognition of her work. In the course of the discussions, a member proposed that the Governance committee begin drafting an amendment to the bylaws to clarify policy on conflicts of interest and Board compensation. Later in the meeting a member commented that the staff should have presented this (with the Board's approval) to the membership, but that the Board members should have recused themselves from the discussion to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest.
Building Search Continues
Board president Lynne Lekakis reported on the status of the search for a new building for HWFC. She noted that the Site Selection committee comprised of six or seven HWFC members is working with a realtor, but havs not yet had 100% success. They are still waiting for the final report from Rick Proctor, whose initial report said that we are in a great position to take on a long-term loan if we continue to be as frugal as we have been. He will be doing cash projections, which are really needed to make any building decisions.
The Site Selection committee is currently looking at three buildings - 45 Interstate Avenue (behind Channel 9 News); 15 Warren Street in the South End/Mansion neighborhood; and a building in the 800 block of Central Avenue that has just become available for lease. (The other two buildings are for sale). Each building has plusses and minuses and different committee members have different favorites. The January Coop Scoop featured an article by Lynne with more information about the first two buildings.
Members raised questions about the planning process, sustainable energy use and financing. Lynne noted that space-use needs have been determined, that HWFC is committed to using sustainable energy as much as possible and that, while not much has been done about financing yet, the Board envisions a mix of bank and member loans. She emphasized that the Site Selection committee will keep doing research and will bring buildings alternatives and plans to the membership for approval. A short general discussion period concluded the meeting.
Honest Weight Food Cooperative
Presented to
Lynne A. Lekakis
For Extraordinary Service by a Member
January 23, 2005
On behalf of the membership, we thank you for your leadership; your attention to open, democratic discussion; your support of our cooperative principles and goals; and your unstinting commitment of time and energy.
Collective Management Team Board of Directors
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