General Managers' Report 10/25/07
● Erica, GM, and Kimalee, HR, are currently in San Francisco attending the co-operatively focused Rising Stars seminar. We are hoping to learn more about all aspects of Co-op management and administration, from margins and marketing to managing and developing employees. Look for an exciting report in November.
● We implemented our new return policy on October 1st. The new paper trail of in-store credits and return memos has been more difficult to administer than anticipated and generated a lot of questions and confusions on the part of the staff. We are still working some of the internal kinks out, but the customers seem satisfied. I haven't heard any complaints about the changes.
● We have scheduled an All-Staff meeting for Wednesday, Nov. 7th. The agenda is yet to be determined, but I think the return policy will be one item for discussion. We are going to try something new this time around by not requiring mandatory attendance, in an attempt to continue to try and develop a work culture that inspires people to participate in these events because they want to participate more in the life of the co-op and because they feel like they have something to contribute. We aren't quite sure what kind of turnout to expect.
● The scheduling woes associated with our summer turnover are finally beginning to subside, with all empty shifts finally being filled in time for the winter! We are still in need of one or two other floor managers as we currently don't have anyone to call for “back-up” in case of sickness or time off needs.
● We are still waiting to hear back from Laddie Lushin, co-op labor lawyer, about our worker-member proposal that was submitted for his review.
● In case you were not aware, we are in the midst of celebrating National Co-op Month. Our Co-op is participating in some of the festivities by donating 1% of our sales from Saturday, October 27th, to the Howard Bower's Fund. This fund is administered by the Co-operative Development Foundation, and is used to provide grants to new and existing co-operatives in order to to promote and develop consumer-owned food cooperatives and consumer cooperative education, to encourage and train people to pursue careers in the management of consumer-owned food cooperatives, and to provide education programs for staff, board, and managers of consumer cooperatives. You can participate in this opportunity by doing your co-operative shopping on the 27th.
● Board members are especially encouraged to participate in the upcoming Maine Feeds Maine discussion forum to take place over the next two months. We have already pre-registered 3 Co-op reps for the Dec. 11th session in Bucksport. 2 other staff members and myself have jumped on board to take part, but there are many other opportunities for your participation. It would be great to get the voice of the Board involved in this opportunity to brainstorm about how we can make it easier to get more local products to market.
● You can also participate in supporting local producers by participating in our Eating Local Challenge during the month of November. Participants will make 1 or more meals from 100% Mainely produced local ingredients. We will then host a harvest celebration dance and potluck dinner at the UU Church on Dec. 5th, with participants and producers invited to join us. Look for more information about the challenge both on the website, in the newsletter, and throughout the store.
● We were contacted by the Waldo Independent about the possibility of writing a regular opinion piece about the Co-op, to include both current events as well as educational articles. This is a great outreach opportunity for us, as well as a unique opportunity to publicize our co-operative advantage. We will be writing a bi-weekly column, to be generated by a rotating mix of authors. All staff, board, and members are encouraged to think about submitting material.
● Membership update: our year-end membership total rounds out at 2,452. This number takes into account the 100 members who are not in good standing (not included in previous reports of membership numbers), and the 6 members who asked for their equity to be refunded during the 2006-2007 fiscal year. Over the course of the last fiscal year, we gained 319 new members.