Video Field Guide: Membership Growth
Ben Sandel is a board leadership consultant and capital campaign expert working with startups and established co-ops helping them to reach their fundraising goals using best practices and clear planning gleaned from a multitude of [...]
Master the Fundamentals of Governance Leadership
Good leaders often ask this question: what would set us up for success? Most of the time the answer is simple. Master the fundamentals. By being good at the basics—like being committed to consistent governance [...]
Getting on the Train: Social media and co-op boards
By Holly Fearing 185 July-Aug 2016 Picture this: A person stands on the platform of a train station, and as a train passes through the station she flashes a bright message, hoping everyone on the [...]
Connecting the Dots: Strategic Board Leadership in Action
By Thane Joyal 185 July-Aug 2016 The future is unknowable. Or is it? Courageous leadership relies in large measure on wise choices. In his entertaining novels, Robert Parker often references the military strategist Clausewitz for [...]
Do You Know What Your Employees are Thinking?
No matter how closely you work with your staff, there are some things they may not tell you. There’s a power balance, even though we don’t like to admit it. Your staff may not [...]
POP Report: Hiring For Diversity and Creating an Inclusive Staff Culture
Key Insights The major takeaways from interviews with three co-ops on their initiatives to improve diversity in hiring and increase cultural awareness on their staff teams are make staff diversity and cultural awareness a priority [...]
So Our Co-ops are Mostly White, Now What?
In the more than 30 years I’ve been involved with co-ops—student housing co-ops, food co-ops, even a worker-owned collective—almost all of the participants have been white. The same has been true for most of the [...]
POP Report: Register Round Up
Key Insights Round up is an extremely successful, simple way of collecting donations for partner organizations. Making the ask mandatory is the best way to ensure cashier compliance and consistency. Incentivizing cashiers and making goal [...]
Employee surveys drive workplace improvements
As the competitive environment continues to heat up around us, there is increased competition for employees as well as food dollars. By creating a continuously improving workplace environment where all voices are heard and [...]
Committee Charters Field Guide
All board committees should have a charter – a description of the committee’s purpose and authority. One person, generally the board secretary, should have primary responsibility for drafting charters as directed by the board. This [...]