General Managers' Report                                                                       4/24/08

●      We have the opportunity to be able to participate in the monthly Main Street Farmer's Market, here in Belfast.  We are planning to use the Market as a retail and outreach forum to promote local foods and strengthen the idea that local eating builds community relationships.  Once a month, we will be bringing prepared foods to the market for sale, along with handouts about the benefits of eating local.  We're looking forward to having the opportunity to get market-goers to think of us as an ally in the local foods movement.

●      We are in the midst of re-writing the Personnel Manual, which will be submitted to our lawyer for review once we have incorporated the changes.  We will be sure to update you on the changes that we have made once we have a chance to discuss the changes with our staff.

●      We'll be holding an All-Staff meeting on May 7^th to get ready for the coming summer, and hopefully busy, season, and to give the staff a chance to sound off on anything they would like; so far, we have no agenda items that have been brought forth by the staff.  Maybe it will be a short meeting!

●      The new cases continue to be a huge hit with customers!  They love their accessibility, their professional looking appearance, and the expanded offerings that they allow us to provide. There has also been lots of interest generated in the various other projects we have going on in the store:  I haven't heard a peep about the loss of the castle, and folks are looking forward to the new general merchandise area.  The changes help to make everything look more spacious!

●      We continue to plug away at our Department Manager Training program.  Since our last meeting, all Department Heads that supervise staff have completed trainings on building systems for effective and co-operative communication, as well as the interviewing process and techniques for effective training.  Coming up next month: setting standards for accountability, developing the leadership skills of your staff, and evaluating staff performance.

●      You may notice that we have been able to reduce our labor burden a small amount, in spite of the huge staffing effort it took to complete our 6 month inventory.  The staff has been making the effort to be more efficient, as well as volunteering to take off early when they have completed the day's tasks.  Overtime has been reduced since last month.  The number of hours that we will be adding into a temporary summer schedule totals 16, and will be temporary from June 1-October 1.

●      The GMT had a chance to attend a workshop recently on implementing a pay-for-performance system of wage increases that was beneficial for us all.  We have been using a hybrid merit-increase/cost of living system for giving pay raises and we are considering making some changes to our current system in order to make it more cost-effective as well as provide more incentive for work performance excellence.  Stay tuned!

●      Patronage Dividend update:  During the month of March, a total of $1,321.10 was donated from Patronage Dividends to our Equity Assistance and Capital Improvements funds.  The March balance is $1,332.59 for Equity Assistance, and $626.44 for Capital Improvements.  There was about $600 left in the Equity Assistance Fund from last year before the new donations came in.