PLEASE NOTE THAT THE GENERAL MANAGER SEARCH IS NOW CLOSED, AS WE HAVE CHOSEN A NEW GM!!
Save the Date!! Meet and Greet with New General Manager Ann Walsh
SUNDAY JUNE 24TH FROM 10-12 NOON AT THE COOP!!
The Leverett Coop Board has been operating in emergency mode in May and June, in order to respond to the retirement of Paul Rosenberg and the transition to a new General Manager. We have had two Board meetings in executive session in May (May 14 & 31). At these meetings we met together with the Search Committee to interview top candidates for the position. Five applicants were invited to interviews, and four accepted.
At the May 31 meeting after the interviews, the Board voted to offer the position to Ann Walsh, pending further negotiations, including Meet and Greet sessions with Coop staff. Ann Walsh is a long time resident of the Lake Wyola community in Shutesbury, and has worked as Store Manager in the Mill Valley Milk Co. Store Farm, as well as for a number of years as Marketing Team Leader at Whole Foods in Hadley. She has also been one of the organizers of the annual Jazz and Roots festival in Springfield and President of Connected Marketing, a consulting company involved in event management.
We are planning a Coffee and Pastry Meet and Greet with Ann Walsh and the Coop community, open to the general public. This will take place at the Leverett Coop on 180 Rattlesnake Gutter Rd., Leverett on Sunday, June 24 from 10-12 noon. We are excited to welcome Ann and her creative visions for improving the Coop, and hope many of you will attend!
Our next Board meeting will be on Thursday, June 21 at the Leverett Town Hall from 7-9 pm. We will post the agenda at the Coop, which will include reports from the new volunteer committees on events/fundraising/member outreach, strategic visions, and finances. Please feel free to join us!!!
Compiled by Ann Ferguson, President and Pat Fiero, Clerk
1. Process and Agreements: The Board had preliminary discussions on communication process rules and member agreements. They will be discussed and decided on in more detail at a subsequent meeting where we will also discuss the adoption of a Board manual.
2. Search Committee for New General Manager: The deadline for the search is now extended to July 15. Please spread the word and have any interested candidates send their resumes and cover letters to LVCoopboard@Leverettnet.net.
3. New Board Committees as of 5/14/18: We discussed the list of the committees people had volunteered for at the Special Member’s Meeting. After discussion, the following is the revised list of committees and members.
• Events, Fundraising, Membership and Community Outreach
Chair: Julio Mendez <jamendez@artandremedy.com>
Members: Ruth West, Peter d’Errico, Peggy Wolff, Jeff Lacy, Carole King, Cheryl Howland
• Finance Committee
Chair: Susan Mareneck <susan.mareneck@gmail.com>
Members: Ken Brownell, Apple Ahearn
• Strategic Vision and Marketing
Chair: Susan Lynton <slynton@att.net>
Members: Tom Wolff, Susan Mareneck, Hank Berry, Burt Ames, Pat Fiero, Jono Nieger
Special Member Meeting Agenda
Leverett Village Coop
May 2 5-7pm Leverett Town Hall
Welcome! Thank you for coming. 10mins
Communication Guidelines: 5mins
• Respectful Speaking, Stay concise,
• Attentive Listening, Please don’t interrupt others
• Raise Your hands to speak,
The Purpose of today’s meeting is 1. Adjust the bylaws to expand the BOD, and to clarify the wording referencing when the board can fill vacancies. 2. The current Board of Directors will vote additional members on to the BOD to fill vacancies until the next annual meeting when Co-op members will vote to approve the nominated board members to a full term. We currently have 6 applicants to the BOD. 2mins
Bylaw Change with Membership Vote: 20mins
• Section 1. The administration of the cooperative corporation shall be delegated to a Board of
Directors consisting of no more than seven members.
• Membership Vote:
Please raise your hand- 9 (count votes) 11 (count votes)
• Section 5. In case of vacancy other than expiration of a term when there are two or fewer months until the Annual Meeting, the remaining members of the Board of Directors may at their discretion fill the vacancy.
• Membership Vote:
The board proposes to change “when there are two or fewer months” to “when there are two or more months.”
Member Engagement: 15mins
• members tell us about their vision for the future of the Coop
Voting by Board of Directors: 30mins
Candidates come forward introduction & why they would like to join the Village Cooperative Board of Directors.
The Vote:
Board Applicants
Jono Neiger Paula Green
Pat Fiero Susan Mareneck
Apple Ahearn Ann Ferguson
Welcome on Board! There’s so much to do going forward. Thank you in advance for your time and willingness to bring your talents to help the Village Cooperative.
Board of Director Vote for executive board positions: 15mins
President:
Treasurer:
Secretary:
Hello Everyone! We wanted to give you another update on our progress as we seek candidates to fill the General Manager position at the Village Co-op. 4/17/18
Please Help us Spread the Word by directing people to Leverettma.net for more information. Thanks!
We have received 15 applications and we have finalized the interview questions for our potential applicants. We will be contacting 6 of our top chosen candidates shortly.
Please get involved by attending the April 29th (1-2:30pm) meeting at the Co-op, filling out an application to be considered to join the board, and voting for new board members at the special member meeting May 2nd (5-7pm Town hall).
Thanks for your continued support of the Village Cooperative as we Grow our Community Together!
Sincerely,
Jono Neiger, Apple Ahearn, Pat Fiero, Ruth West, Carol King, Raymond Bradley, Rich Nathhorst, Ken Brownell, Heather Hutchinson
We will be holding our monthly Board of Directors meeting on April 29th at the Village Co-op, from 1-2:30. We are working on expanding the board. Applications are available at the Co-op or contact Heather if you'd like to apply.
The Board of Directors will be expanding to 9 or 11 members at the General Membership meeting scheduled on May 2, 2018 from 5-7 pm at the Leverett Town Hall.
We will be voting to change the Bylaws, and fill Board seats.
The expanded Board of Directors will elect new Executive Officers - President, Treasurer, Clerk (Secretary) - at this meeting. Heather, Richard and Ken will remain Board Members but will not continue to serve as Executive Board Officers.
If you are a Co-op member and would like to join the Board, please attend the April 29, 2018 Board of Directors public meeting from 1pm - 2:30 pm at the Village Co-op and submit an application for Board Membership. An application can be found on the Leverett Village Co-op website: www.leverettma.net. Any member who has previously attended a Board of Directors public meeting and already submitted an application need not reapply.
Hello Everyone! We wanted to give you an update on our progress as we seek candidates to fill the General Manager position at the Co-op.
Please Help us Spread the Word by directing people to Leverettma.net for more information. Thanks!
We have listed our announcement on Leverettma.net, Cooperative Grocer Network, Western MA Craigslist and fliers have been posted locally. We are placing ads in the Recorder, Hampshire Gazette and the Montague Reporter this week and will continue to update the listing on Craigslist bi-weekly. We will consider other listing platforms early April.
We have received one application and are working on drafting interview questions for our potential applicants.
We look forward to having the community engaged in the process as we build a pool of potential candidates for you to meet. Thanks for your continued support of the Village Cooperative as we Grow our Community Together!
Sincerely,
Jono Neiger, Apple Ahearn, Pat Fiero, Ruth West, Carol King, Raymond Bradley, Rich Nathhorst, Ken Brownell, Heather Hutchinson
Village Cooperative Corporation: Start-up Once Again!
A Start-up you may ask? Yes! Even though we have been around for over 30 years, in order for us to prepare for the future, we must address a number of things today. After all, a start-up requires effort and collaboration, membership investment and capitalization, development of the Board of Directors policies and governance, seeking a General Manager, investment in the facility, systems and necessary equipment, membership drives and matching the needs of today’s community with those services that the Co-op can provide. Exciting!
WE are looking future-forward to position the Village Co-op for new days ahead. WE will still be challenged by economic realities and our rural location, but we will be doing so with a stronger sense of collaboration, an improved infrastructure and a vision to increase our membership, sales and innovation. We are pursuing hiring a General Manager with the help of community members, and we will continue our efforts to build a stronger organization and sense of common ownership in this invaluable community resource- TOGETHER we can Grow The Village Cooperative Corporation.
The Co-op is deeply rooted in our rich community spirit, where people come together to work on common goals, share a common vision and develop a common purpose. Today we’re calling on the community to come forward to actively create new goals, a new vision and a new purpose in the Village Cooperative. After all, the true meaning of cooperative is in the action, the creation and in the doing. When we act we Co-op; when we shop, we Co-op; when we volunteer we Co-op. Let’s Co-op Together!
We’ll look at all that was created on behalf of the communities the Co-op supports:
• The finances that keep the doors open
• The infrastructure
• Its bylaws
• Its organizational structure
• Its ability to engage its membership, its customers, its staff
• Its potential for raising capital from the community
• Its place in the broader economic market
• Its ability to keep providing services to the surrounding community
There’s a lot of work to be done!
Specifically:
• We are in the process of finding our next General Manager, and in the meantime, an interim manager.
o Paul Rosenberg, our long standing GM of over 18 years informed the board that he’d like to resign from this position this spring. Our goals are to find the most competent replacement possible, to allow for sufficient time for the search, and time for the community to share feedback about potential candidates. Therefore, we are also searching for an interim manager simultaneously.
o A search committee was formed by reaching out to previous board members, town officials, and Co-op members who have skills in committees, business, and cooperatives.
• We are exploring lowering our energy costs by utilizing an energy audit
• We are seeking community feedback through our survey, community meeting, E-newsletter and Facebook page
• We are looking at the organizational structure with the goal of developing systems that support transparency, minimize “silos” of knowledge, promote the exchange of ideas and feedback within and from outside of the organization, and to maximize our ability to innovate with the times while maintain a historical context to guide our efforts.
We’d like to explore an IDEA with YOU!
Small businesses like the Village Co-op that raise less than 1 million in sales per year face significant challenges to keep their doors open to those they serve. In isolation, a store like ours, in the middle of “nowhere”, with a relatively small selection like we have, is buffeted by big factors occurring out on an economic playing field that is tilted to the big guys. We believe we have something unique here though, and we believe with a bit of effort, networking and creativity we can turn isolation into a vibrant ECOSYSTEM. An ecosystem is integrated, efficient, networked, supportive of diversity, and full of independent players that operate in connection.
The Leverett Village Electrical Power Goes 100% Green!
The Leverett Village Coop Inc. Board of Directors is pleased to announce that an agreement to Purchase the coop's (considerable) electrical power needs from Mint Energy. https://mintenergy.net We have signed a one year agreement to buy our 100% green renewable energy from Mint energy at a very attractive rate with the help of the Leverett Town Energy Committee.
We have also contracted with an energy consultant to address the very high level of electrical usage at the coop. The coop is only in the 7% percentile as compared to our peer institution and desperately needs to make infrastructure changes to bring our energy usage and bills under control. Our first efforts will be replacing the most egregiously inefficient unit in the coop the dairy case and replace the outmoded coop fluorescent and incandescent lighting with LED lighting.
These are just the first steps to bring the Leverett Village Cooperative into a new era of carbon energy free operations!
Watch this site for further news!
- Fri, Mar 16, 2018, 11:17 A
