Board News | Winter Quarterly 2020
Third Quarter Board Meeting Recaps
October, November, December board meetings
The last three months on the North Coast have been pretty wild, to say the least. We’ve had numerous power outages, transition among leadership (both board & staff), and through it all the Co-op has continued to be a beacon of community resilience and cooperative principals.
Annual Membership Meeting
In October we hosted our Annual Membership Meeting, filling up the Bayside Grange. I love the Annual Membership Meeting as it’s one of the few times we, the board, really get to interact with a lot of members, at one time. We had a robust member comment period, with lots of great feedback. The issue that was first and foremost on everyone’s minds were the very recent Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events that swept through Humboldt County. Next year I look forward to shaking up what we do at the Annual Membership meeting — stay posted and come prepared to learn new things about our Co-op and discover new ways to flex your membership muscles.
Public Safety Power Shutoff Events
In October and November, the Co-op faced two planned power shutoff events. The first was incredibly difficult to plan for, with less than 48 hours’ notice — we lost a lot of product. Staff had to throw out food that farmers and producers poured their hearts and souls into, and while not a devastating event financially (our insurance covered the bulk of product loss), it hurt in other ways. The Co-op strives to be a triple bottom line business, not just focused on profits, but the people and planet as well. Events like the PSPS forced grocery stores across Northern California to lose atrocious amounts of products — due to lack of refrigeration and proper storage conditions. With the second set of planned power outages staff made it a goal to not lose any product. They pulled it off and managed to save nearly everything. Hats off to an amazing staff who worked around the clock to not only save product, but to serve our community in a time of need.
New General Manager
The Board of Directors hired Sean Nolan as our new General Manager. He comes to us from Central Co-op in Washington and started the second week of November. Melanie Bettenhausen saw the Co-op through some trying times, I’m grateful for her time with the Co-op. I am curious to see how we grow / change / evolve under Sean’s leadership. Sean’s quickly grabbing hold of the reins — attended his first Board Meeting in December and has been attending lots of committee meetings. Welcome aboard Sean — we’re lucky to have you!
Q2 Financials
Quarter 2 Financials were presented at the November Finance Committee Meeting, and at the December Board meeting. For folks who haven’t had a chance to review them — Q2 showed a slight loss of $9,222. That’s following positive incomes in the prior 3 quarters. Year to date we are still showing a positive net income right around $55,000. Cash has held steady, even with the large C share repurchases that we have been carrying out since last fall. Staff is doing an impressive job maintaining / spending down inventory, as well as keeping expenses within our means. I look forward to seeing how the stores did over the holidays as Q3 is usually our
strongest quarter.
New Board Members & Officers
Our new Board members are Roger and Laura Wright serving as General Member Directors, and Kirsten Lindquist serving as an Employee Director. Roger shared that he wants to continue prioritizing the removal of plastics from our stores, he would like to see more worker participation, and help the Co-op find its footing in these uncertain times of power shut offs. Laura has a strong background in sales and is passionate about good food, cares deeply about the ethics of food sourcing and in finding ways to support our local community. Kirsten has been deeply involved in our Co-op, attending most (if not all) of the board meetings over the past year. Kirsten has worked with many other Co-ops and brings with her a level of care and responsibility that will help guide this board to make decisions best for the members.
And finally – the Board did shake up the Officer slate a bit. The current officers are as follows:
James Kloor — President & Treasurer
Colin Fiske — Vice President
Laura Wright — Secretary
Kirsten Lindquist —Nominating Committee Chair
Roger — Earth Action Committee Chair
Cheri Strong — Earth Action
Committee Chair
Upcoming Meetings
Check out the Co-op calendar here to discover how you can get involved. We have Member Action Committee, Earth Action Committee, Nominating Committee, and Policies & Procedures meetings that may pique your interest in the next few months.
Thank you for your commitment to our Co-op, and for being a part of our North Coast community. ■
