By Art Sherwood, Todd Wallace 175 November-December 2014 In 2013, the International Cooperative Alliance, in its “Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade,” identified the elevating of participation as a key component of its 2020 Vision for more and stronger cooperatives. The “Blueprint” states that, “Democratic member participation is the best-known feature of the co-operative way of doing business and a major part of what characterizes [...]
By Thane Joyal 175 November-December 2014 Within a consumer cooperative, the purpose of electing the board of directors from among the owners is to democratically control the co-op. All fiduciary responsibility for the cooperative rests with the board of directors. Consequently, everything that happens because of the cooperative happens because of the board of directors. How do we make our board elections meaningful in this [...]
The relationship between the board and general manager is of paramount importance to any cooperative because both parties provide a connection to the co-op’s main constituency: owners. The co-op owners trust that their elected representatives will provide good governance on their behalf, resulting in positive outcomes toward fulfilling the co-op’s goals. In turn, the board delegates responsibility to management to carry out operational strategies [...]
Joe Marks had been the board president at the startup Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene, NH for three years. Marks had been instrumental in leading the co-op from its founding to operational governance. He’s currently finishing his current board term with one year left, but not as an officer. His new role as an at-large board member is to act as a resource [...]
From September 2014 Our CBLD team recently updated our set of template policies (which you can find in “Sample Policies” section of the CBLD Library) to incorporate new learning and feedback from our client boards and managers. The new “Planning and Financial Budgeting” policy template was redesigned in order to help boards and managers focus attention on Ends accomplishment. Now, in the GM Report [...]
By Michael Healy When it comes to numbers and data, context matters. The context in which we place particular numbers helps us make meaning of those numbers, and this is particularly important when we are talking about financial data. Over many generations, managers and accountants have developed financial reporting tools that help them do their jobs. Balance sheets, income/expense (aka profit/loss) statements, and [...]
Along with the template Financial Conditions policy, in the CBLD Library you can find an easy to use monitoring report template that reflects the trends approach outlined in this article. When it comes to numbers and data, context matters. This is particularly important when we are talking about financial data; the context in which we place particular numbers helps us make meaning of [...]
Fostering Belonging Dale Woodbeck, General Manager Lakewinds Food Co-op Chanhassen, Minnetonka, and Richfield, Minnesota Dale Woodbeck shares the story of Lakewinds Food Co-op’s success fostering a sense of belonging among its stakeholders through the Lakewinds Organic Field Fund. The fund gives assistance to farmers producing organically and to farming organizations providing sustainable agricultural support. “This is something that resonates totally with our owners,” [...]
How will you make your next meeting the best meeting ever? Here is a useful tool for helping you run effective meetings and create common ground with groups. You’ll find tips for meeting process design, preparing for a meeting, creating meeting materials and the agenda, as well as insight into the stages of group development and meeting process. “In this [...]
