Starting a Buying Club
Jake Schlachter & Stuart Reid, Food Co-op Initiative With guest panelists: Laura Theis, Idaho's Bounty Laura Hanson, Stone's Throw Market Shannon Ousley, Frontier Co-op
Using EL monitoring reports as the basis of a strategic conversation
This process is a variation of the one described in the “Boards Acting on Ends Reports” Field Guide. Not all limitations monitoring reports will warrant this extra attention, but sometimes this approach can elevate the [...]
Effective Boards and Teams: Structure and Accountability
Please refer to the Startup Policy Template referenced in the video
Remarks from Kathleen Merrigan: The Opportunities of Cooperation
Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy-Secretary [bio] US Department of Agriculture Washington, DC Don't miss this brief talk on the opportunities that cooperatives have, especially right now, and the resources that the USDA has available to support cooperative [...]
What Cooperators Have to Say About Bill Gessner
Alysen Land, general manager, Ozark Natural Foods: “Bill has helped our cooperative grow and continually improve. Bill has helped me weather difficult times in my career, and has proven to me again and again that [...]
Who’s Watching Member Labor in Retail Food Cooperatives?
By Thane Joyal 158 January - February - 2012 When many retail food cooperatives were formed in the 1970s, the distinctions among worker cooperatives, consumer cooperatives and not-for-profit corporations were not considered to be barriers [...]
Do you have a structure problem?
Sometimes what appears to be a performance problem—employees not doing the job up to your expectations—is actually a problem with the organizational structure of your business. If tasks go undone because they are falling off [...]
Monitoring staff treatment using staff survey data
CBLD Policy Template and other resources (links to the CBLD Library) GM Report Support: Staff Treatment Related articles in Cooperative Grocer Colter, Carolee, and Mary Courteau. “Counting on Co-op Employees.” Cooperative Grocer #141, March-April 2009. Scholl, Marilyn. “The Board Role in the [...]
Great Idea: General Manager Reporting Templates
Reports from the general manager are one of the most important tools boards have for monitoring their co-op’s operation. But sometimes the reports, while very informative, don’t always deliver information in a way that is [...]