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News at a Glanceby Nancy Ellegate Note: News at a Glance is a
summary of the
meetings of the HWFC Board of Directors. The HWFC Board of
Directors met on
Tuesday, August 22. YO! Youth Organics program A report on the YO!
Organics summer
program for youth was presented. The Coop had provided financial
support for
this program. Participants raised a garden, visited the Coop and local
farms,
and held a community dinner with the produce they had grown. Standing Rules The Standing Rules of the
Board were
reviewed. It is clear that some of these rules are inconsistent with
the bylaws
and that others do not reflect the current practices of the Board. Two
Board
members volunteered to begin work on revising these rules. The
Governance
committee will be asked to review proposed new rules to insure that
they are in
harmony with the Coop’s bylaws. Personnel The Personnel committee
has been
working on the employment manual and sought opinions from the board on
appeals
to the grievance procedure. When should an employee be able to appeal a
decision after a grievance and how should this appeal be handled?
Should such
cases go to outside arbitration? Unfortunately, this option can be very
expensive. It could be left to an employee to start legal proceedings
if s/he does
not accept a decision. There was considerable discussion of the issue.
It was noted
that it was important to have a fair grievance process with checks and
balances
and that there are a wide variety of kinds of hypothetical situations,
some
with gray areas and some very straightforward, where the grievance
process
might be used. Ulti- mately, no consensus was reached. The Personnel
Committee
will continue to work on the issue. Board/Governance
committee relations The ad hoc committee on
the
relationship between the Board and the Governance committee has now had
its
first meeting. The group has determined that three issues need formal
clarification. These are the process by which the Governance committee
is constituted;
the process by which the bylaws may be amended; and the definition of
an
ambiguous designation that appears in the bylaws, namely, “a committee
of the Board
and the membership.” Committee on Committees The Committee on
Committees has met and
come up with a plan for future action. This new committee is charged
with
building an effective committee structure. It was constituted in the
interest
of keeping all committees active and functioning efficiently. Evaluation of the
Collective
Management Team The annual evaluation of
the
Collective Management Team (CMT) will be conducted shortly. The Board
will
consider the CMT’s self-evaluation before meeting with them. There is general
discontent with the
evaluation instrument, but it is what is currently available. It was
suggested
that next year, the evaluation process could begin at a less busy time,
perhaps
in August. Board Member Resignation Dennis Mosley has
resigned from the
Board. Executive Session The Board met in
executive session
at the end of the meeting. Upcoming Meetings |
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