Board Leadership Development Starts with Commitment to Good Governance
Monadnock Food Co-op staff with board president, Kathy Burke (dressed as a beet)The Monadnock Food Co-op in Keene, New Hampshire has only been open for two-and-a-half years, and as the board president Kathy Burke put [...]
Complaints and Operational Concerns: How Directors Can Respond Effectively
By Michael Healy 182 January-February 2016 As a director, you may notice or hear things about your co-op that may be cause for concern—or are at least worth asking about. How can you respond [...]
Membership Growth Strategies for Startups: Common Features of Success
By Ben Sandel 182 January-February 2016 Gaining members quickly and efficiently is a major hurdle for most startup co-ops. A co-op is selling a dream when it has no store, minimal (if any) staff, and, [...]
GM Success Profile
Increasingly intense and sustained competition in our market is shifting the landscape in which co-ops operate, putting a premium on certain key competencies and skills in management. At the same time, other factors are making [...]
Marketplace Overview and the ‘New Normal’
For the first time since chain natural food stores rose to prominence in the 1990s, natural food grocery stores have lost market share to conventional competition. The golden era of runaway growth for natural food [...]
Appreciating the Diversity of Member Needs and Motivations
By Marilyn Scholl 140 January - February - 2009 In my work with food co-op boards and staff over the past 30 years, one of the questions I have often encountered is this: How [...]
Analyzing Your Store’s Systems
By Mary Myers, Walden Swanson 042 September - October - 1992 This is the third in a series of articles based on Business Planning For Cooperatives, a manual published by Cooperative Development Services that provides [...]
Boycotts and Democracy – The Eden Foods Product Boycott as an Opportunity to Renew Co-op Participation and Democracy
By Todd Wallace In the summer of 2014, a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby led the CEO of Eden Foods, a prominent organic foods producer, to revive an earlier [...]
Operational Wisdom from General Managers
By Thane Joyal 181 Nov-Dec 2015 Successful cooperatives are guided by strong boards, and those boards rely on strong individuals to manage the cooperative’s business enterprise with excellence. The nature and quality of the board-general [...]
