Manager of Columinate, Cooperative governance,...
markgoehring@columinate.coop
802-380-3824
Policy Governance is an operating system for boards of directors. As with operating systems for computers, the system itself is not the point of the board’s work; the system simply provides an underlying framework on which boards can build further agreements and activities. Policy Governance does not mandate specific decisions, but does highlight the kinds of decisions a board should make. These decisions include [...]
It’s Time to Enroll in CBLD 2024! Early Bird Enrollment Now Open Our Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) team is looking ahead to another great year of supporting your organization’s success through our award-winning CBLD program. Now in its 20th year, CBLD provides an annual program of board support that includes monthly consulting, facilitated board retreats, a wealth of online webinars [...]
Many cooperatives, social justice organizations, and businesses have begun to directly confront their own role in the social systems that perpetuate racism and inequity. Boards of directors who use Policy Governance® should feel empowered to use their policy document to clarify their expectations around the work of dismantling systems of racism and oppression.
Michael Healy and Mark Goehring are shooting the breeze in this casual (and short) video recording featuring some great pointers for boards and meeting facilitators to help get you through your meeting agendas on target and on time.
Where we are headed matters. If we don’t know where we are going any road will do. A primary responsibility of a board is to define the reason for the organization’s existence. What are we here for? What should be different because we exist? For whom? For a board that uses Policy Governance®, Ends are written policies which define a) results, outcomes or benefits [...]
There is an entire genre of films and TV shows dedicated to pointing out the soullessness and drone of American workplaces, with 1999’s Office Space perhaps the most famous example. Columinate consultant Mark Mulcahy has the prescription for both the workers at Office Space’s fictional Initech, and for the real workers at co-ops and independent grocers across the country. “I’m working on bringing joy and balance back to the workplace. That’s gotten lost. That’s what makes people want to come to work: to find joy and purpose in their work. Everyone carries the same products and margin pressures will continue. Businesses who build a culture of doing real work through joy will thrive.”
Independent grocers and co-ops face formidable challenges to survival, from WalMart to dollar stores, while often lacking the resources they need. Columinate's Jeanie Wells is providing these retail operations with essential skills and tools. At the June 2023 CCMA conference, Wells' Mighty Community Markets (MCM) training program was held up to its national audience as an outstanding example of cooperative innovation and achievement. (Go [...]
Consultants bring innovation, passion to the groundbreaking project (from Left) Corrine Saunders, Kenya Baker, Lela Klein, Wynston Estis and Amaha Sellassie participate in the Gem City Market ceremonial groundbreaking. Dayton, OH September 30, 2019: A groundbreaking engagement is underway between Columinate consultants and Gem City Market in Dayton, OH. The consulting cooperative is providing managers-on-contract to support a 2020 store [...]
I enjoyed interviewing Vernon Oakes and asked him a few questions about his remarkable career. Vernon, tell us a few things to help Columinate readers know you better: people and places that are most important to you. My parents, Odell Oakes Sr. and Florrie Smith Oakes, met while serving in the US Army during World War II and married in New York City, where I was born. We later moved to Bluefield, West Virginia. I attended public schools, and due to a speech impediment, I was put in a “special ed” class in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. Words and reading didn't come naturally to me, and reading still isn’t my favorite thing. But math made sense and would later help me to make sense of life and the business pursuits I had. School was tough due to the added factor of racism and integration in 1955, when I was entering the 3rd grade.
