On October 3, forty-nine Honest Weight Food Coop members attended a membership meeting at Sage College of Albany to hear updates and discuss strategic planning for HWFC. Board president Lynne Lekakis called the meeting to order and explained that the strategic planning committees would present updates of their work, to be followed by questions. As required by the Bylaws, a 15-minute period at the end of the meeting was allotted for general discussion.

Susan Weinrich presented the work of the Documentation/Visioning committee. She distributed the HWFC Strategic Plan draft, noting that the committee has been working on this for nearly a year, trying to document all of the ideas discussed in the various strategic planning sessions held during the summer and fall of 2003. The draft includes the HWFC Mission Vision Statement (approved in 2003), the HWFC Statements of Conscience (approved 2003), the Co-operative Principles (international statement of principles for coops), and a draft plan. The plan covers five areas: infrastructure, physical space/plant, product line, site issues, and community building and education. Within each area, broad goals are listed, which are then broken out into more specific goals. Once there is consensus on this draft, the goals will be developed into a work plan.

Susan and Lynne added a few more specifics than had been included in the draft. Lynne noted that the Board and the Collective Management Team (CMT) were having "boundary" conversations, about who is doing what — what should be done by the Board, by the CMT, by the staff, by committees, and what members should vote on. The goals of these discussions are to determine who is doing what and to develop a timeline and accountability for achieving goals. Susan reported that in the course of discussions, the committee had determined that HWFC’s space needs were 20–25,000 square feet, which would include shopping, storage, office, and meeting space, with the option of co-businesses within that space.

The discussion of space needs elicited a question about whether anyone was looking at alternatives to physical space growth, such as mail- or internet-ordering, or delivery services. Board member Howard Brent responded that since one of our goals was to build a community, we would still need space to accommodate people wanting to be part of that community.

Someone else asked for how long we can stay in the current building. The lease lets us stay until 2011. The Family Dollar lease runs to 2008, which precludes HWFC from expanding into that space.

Kristi Wiedemann presented the Food and Product Manual draft, which has been developed by the Food and Product Policy committee working with the Nutrition committee. She noted that the Bylaws require this policy and that it explain why buyers purchase what they do and why certain products are not purchased. The draft includes a history of the manual, excerpts from the Bylaws that pertain to the manual, and sections on: how buying decisions are made, what we promote and why, what we try to avoid, what we do not knowingly stock and issues of concern.

In the discussion following Kristi’s presentation, the question of HWFC selling fish and meat was brought up. Kristi noted that a majority of the respondents (both members and shoppers) to the 2003 survey had said that they would like to purchase fish and meat at the Coop. She also noted that there would be referenda on these issues, with a referendum on fish being developed first. She said the committee recognizes that this will be controversial and that the information accompanying the referendum will address some of the issues, including keeping fish separate (for those who want no contact with fish or meat), humane sourcing, and environmental sustainability.

Kristi noted that the next steps are to meet with the CMT, which is reviewing the draft. Eventually, the Food and Product Manual will be approved by the Board and then by members.

Ginny McEwen presented, for accounting assistant Duke Bouchard, the work of the finance team. She reported that HWFC has contracted with Rick Proctor, assistant professor of finance at Siena College, to do a financial analysis and prepare a forecast of future performance. Ginny noted that Proctor had given HWFC a reduced price for his services because he plans to incorporate this work into case studies for his students, noting that there are very few coop case studies in business school. The main purpose of this analysis is to help the Coop plan to manage its growth, and specifically to aid in planning for the expansion of the Coop.

Proctor will study how efficiently the Coop is using its assets, such as inventory and physical assets, and how profitable HWFC is (recognizing that the Coop does not strive to maximize profits, but noting that profits will provide a primary source of money to pay for the proposed expansion). Once the current financial situation is understood, Proctor will work with Duke on forecasting for the future. The goal of this work will be to help HWFC understand the financial implications and needs of an expansion. He and Duke will conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. This will identify issues that need to be incorporated into the forecasts. Based on the SWOT analysis, Proctor will prepare a 5-year forecast based on various expansion options. This forecast will include sensitivity (or "what-if") analysis to determine, for example, the impact of different sales growth rates.

Jack Allison presented the work of the Alternative Supply committee. This committee was formed in response to discussions at the Annual Meeting in April about the consolidation of natural foods distributors. The committee has interviewed HWFC managers to learn about their suppliers and what options they may have considered or be considering. Committee members are also contacting other natural foods stores in the area and discussing the possibilities of working together to find alternative distributors.

Lynne Lekakis presented the work of the Site Selection committee. The committee has evaluated HWFC’s current building. Lynne reported that because of its drawbacks — especially the configuration of the parking lot, which makes it very difficult for delivery trucks — the committee has decided that the current building is not a long-term option for the Coop, even though people are attached to it. She reviewed the ideal vision for a new HWFC space: that it be in the Central Avenue corridor, accessible by both highway and bus, have sufficient parking (100 spaces) and loading facilities, and be in a neighborhood. The amount of space needed is 20–25,000 square feet (compared to the 11,800 sq. ft. HWFC now leases).The additional space would permit about 12–19,000 square feet of retail space, but Lynne noted that not all of the additional retail space would be devoted to groceries. For example, she noted that the deli and HaBA (health and beauty aids) departments could be expanded.

Lynne noted that the Site Selection committee is working with a realtor, Peter McKay, and have met with a representative of the City of Albany to see if the city can help with our search. Lynne reviewed the details of some of the properties the committee has considered. She summed up by saying that none of the properties is close to meeting the Coop’s needs; they are typically either too small or three times too big. The committee has also begun to look at lots, for the possibility of building a building.

Following Lynne’s presentation, those assembled agreed to continue the meeting until 8:15 pm (it had been scheduled to last until 8), forgoing general discussion, to concentrate instead on questions and ideas raised by the committee presentations. Most of the discussion focused on the possibility of splitting the business (i.e., running satellite stores) and about the options for acting as a distributor. In response to these ideas, it was noted that the option of a satellite had been explored last year, and rejected, because HWFC did not have the infrastructure to support a satellite operation. Lynne wondered about reviewing this decision, and added that she did not feel the time was right to do so. Others noted that HWFC is a retail grocery store and that that business is very different from being a distributor, so there would be a long learning curve.

As with any process or event at Honest Weight, the success of strategic planning, decision making, and implementing a plan rests with member participation. If you are interested in getting more information or helping with the process, contact Susan Weinrich (weinrich@localnet.com) for the Visioning/Documentation committee; Kristi Wiedemann (kristiwiedemann@yahoo.com) or Ginny McEwen (mginny1@nycapp.rr.com) for the Food and Product Manual committee; Duke Bouchard (Alfred@HWFC.com) for financial analysis and forecasting; Jared King (nwfg@earthlink.net) for the Alternative Supply committee; and Lynne Lekakis (kandl@capital.net) for the Site Selection committee.