How CBLD Helps Boards Become Better Employers
Cooperation among cooperatives is more than just a golden principle that all strive to achieve, it’s actually an organizational imperative that makes good use of collective time and resources. Columinate’s Cooperative Board Leadership Development program (CBLD) is built precisely to offer co-op boards the tools to make informed decisions and gain efficiency.
Art Sherwood Reimagines the Strategic Planning Process
After seeing how the co-op world has shifted away from in-person events during the pandemic, Columinate consultant and leadership strategist Art Sherwood wants to leverage the lessons he learned over the last two years to help co-op general managers be more strategic about multi-year planning. Sherwood has recently launched the Cooperative Strategic Leadership (CSL) program, an annual subscription course that utilizes different modalities to help co-op leaders build practical plans that are meant to be put into action every day.
What to Know About Owner Capital Campaigns
Raising capital is especially important for cooperatives, which don’t have a typical ownership structure that banks or lenders are used to. Mobilizing the co-op’s membership to raise funds through an owner capital campaign can be an excellent strategy.
Meet Columinate Consultant Cassia Herron
Cassia is a dedicated activist, a skilled community development professional, and a proud Kentuckian who brings 20 years of experience to the Columinate network. She is deeply rooted in the Kentucky local food movement, having organized farmer’s markets, established the Louisville Food Policy Council, and co-founded Louisville Association for Community Economics, which is opening the city’s only cooperative grocery store.
Meet Vernon Oakes
Columinate is proud to welcome Vernon Oakes as a new consultant. Vernon is a passionate advocate of the cooperative business model and brings a lifetime of diverse experiences to the Columinate network.
The Gender Equity Project: One Year Later
In February 2021, Columinate launched its Gender Equity Project in response to findings that grocery co-op general managers (GMs) who identify as female are paid significantly less than their male counterparts. We talked with project lead and Columinate consultant Carolee Colter to learn how the Gender Equity Project is going, one year after its inception.
Financing a Start-up Grocery: A Conversation with Don Moffitt
Food access in low-wealth communities is a major problem that continues to grow. More and more, communities with food access difficulties are looking to the cooperative model to meet their needs. For a start-up cooperative, once the foundational questions of “why do we exist?” and “who do we exist to serve?” are answered, the next big question to address is “how do we pay for it?”
Staff Surveys Provide Valuable Feedback, Pandemic or Not
No matter how closely you work with your staff, there are some things that aren’t openly discussed. Regularly conducting employee surveys brings these issues — and satisfactions — to light. Taking the pulse of the co-op is perhaps more important than ever and prioritizing surveys pays off for all involved.
Spotlight on the General Manager Compensation and Evaluation Guides
Supervision and evaluation of a general manager (GM) are some of the most important tasks that a food co-op board can have. Columinate Board Development Consultant Molly Snell-Larch has developed two useful guides for navigating the sometimes complex processes of general manager evaluation and compensation.
Garland McQueen Reflects on His Role at Good Tern Natural Foods Co-op
Seasoned Interim General Manager Garland McQueen arrived at Good Tern during the height of its busy summer season and quickly took steps to bring stability back to the small coastal co-op. Good Tern now has a permanent general manager on board, and the co-op is on stable footing.