Tacoma Food Co-op Blog
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Feb. 25, 2010 at 1:44pm
Feb. 24, 2010 Board Meeting
We rescheduled our February 17th Board meeting for February 24th and below are the minutes/notes from last night's meeting. The next Board meeting will be held on Monday, March 1st from 6 to 8pm at The Greener Bean in Fircrest. As a reminder, all members are welcome to attend the Board meetings - they are open meetings.
TFC Minutes February 24, 2010
Goals and roles
How do we involve our members now, before having storefront?
Old Business:
Survey is ready to go; we just need the link from Sean. Hopefully this will be ready by the end of the week (John).
Letter of intent: Anything missing? Concerns?
Michelle: we need a timeframe
18% figure is non-negotiable
We are allowed to put up an exterior sign (we should have wording to this effect)
Water bottles are ready to be made as soon as colors are chosen. Discussed logo and colors.
John will order them next week and they should be here in 3 weeks. Should cost $700-ish.
Tacomanopoly: nobody at GoLocal wanted to take this project on at this point but we should consider doing it next year.
Food on Film Events:
Food and Film: Last film went great…about 60 people attended.
Next film is March 10. Michelle will not be able to be there.
The people who created the Fresh movie have lots of info to hand out. Public Library is screening the same film, 5 days later, so we discussed the idea of helping to publicize each others’ events.
April 7 film will be Ingredients.
Financial Report:
Handed out balance sheet for TFC for us to view.
Membership money has appeared as income in the past, but these actually represent individual member ownership of the co-op; therefore, this will be listed differently from this point on. We are a corporation in terms of IRS rules.
Membership fees are refundable.
Amber: how do we deal with the issue of board members’ liability, financially speaking?
Molly: this needs to be more clear, in any case. Suggests sending out information with membership confirmation, saying that membership funds are refundable to the extent that the money exists. We agree that we need a pamphlet to go along with the membership form, explaining in better detail how the co-op funding works.
Confession: we did not pay our taxes on time last year. We filed for an extension, but then the new due date came and went.
Proposal: we choose a June 30 year-end, given that we have the option to do so.
We voted unanimously to adopt Molly’s idea of a June 30 year-end.
Molly has the name of Central Co-op’s accountant. She is going to try to find and hire an accountant to advise us/review the tax return she prepares. She wants to find someone who is familiar with co-ops specifically.
She would like to have a statement like this for us to view every month.
Michelle would like David to quit eating and just sit down and take notes. :)
Amber would like for everyone to know that we are NOT a nonprofit.
We need for potential contributors to realize that money given to TFC is not tax deductible.
Goals for 2010 and Roles:
We need to break down the bigger projects and sort things at this point.
Goals A and B: opening of the store and membership
Hiring a manager: Corinne and Michelle
Corinne did an action plan with the steps toward hiring a GM
This has not yet been posted to Google Groups because we don’t have dates
We need to make sure we are in a good financial position before we go too far with this. We need to be able to pay the GM for two months before we can hire.
Corinne and Michelle will be meeting soon to work out details for job description.
Some co-ops hire based on an understanding of what they will pay in the future.
Molly spoke with Grace Pleasants and got lots of good information.
We need a date from which to work backwards (for GM hiring). May 1?
Can we get a member loan program going? This would pay GM salary for a year, for example.
Future meeting should discuss GM salaries and logistics of member loans. Molly, Corrinne and Michelle are going to research this before Monday’s meeting.
Business plan: can we get some sort of shell/template so we have an idea of what needs to be done, and how we can divide up responsibilities?
Amber: April 10 meeting should be devoted entirely to business plan.
Ariel is ill, so her help with our marketing plan will be delayed.
Could she be recruited to fill Libby’s spot on the board?
We have a process in the bylaws for replacing a board member.
Website is launched.
Member communication: Currently, Casandra has been doing this via Constant Contact. We need a better system of e-mailing/keeping in touch with people who contact us. We are getting info from many places and are very fragmented in our approach. Corinne and David need to develop this. We get a lot of queries from members that need to be responded to. An auto-responder would be a good start!
Members often inquire about volunteer opportunities. We need to have a few volunteer-friendly jobs that people could easily do. Here are some ideas:
· Food on Film events
· Farmers markets—tabling. Proctor market folks want us to commit to specific dates. We should commit to as many as possible. John will talk to people from 6th Ave and Broadway markets as well.
· Literature distribution and collection: Once Ariel completes pamphlets for vendors and partners; we need members to actually send these out. This is easy busywork.
· Annual meeting and benefit: it has been difficult to recruit people for this.
Malorie, a senior at UPS, is here at today’s meeting and would like to volunteer.
Amber: we need to re-think the annual benefit. Last year, we got new memberships, but there was far less energy/activity at the event as a whole. Should we combine the annual meeting with some sort of benefit event?
Once we have one person on payroll, we can get a work-study student.
We would like to hire a GM by May 1 if possible, with the goal of a September grand opening.
Agenda items for next meeting:
· Member loans
· Salaries/GM
· P.O. box and phone number
· Storage space available 24/7 for our supplies
Goals C and D are board-level tasks that just need deadlines set and accomplished, primarily by Molly and John.
What is a realistic goal? Bylaws: need a few more board meetings. Risk Assessment: Molly wants to come to next meeting with a timeline for figuring these things out.
March 26: budget, marketing plan, vendors
April 10: business plan
John handed out info regarding grant writer Lauren Rodriguez. Molly reminds us that many grants are earmarked only for nonprofits.
Casandra volunteered to be our “whip.”
Next meeting will be at The Greener Bean in Fircrest. Monday, March 1.
posted by Michelle under board meeting, minutes
Comments [2]
on 2/26/2010 @ 5:02pm
on 3/1/2010 @ 9:37pm