Ozark Natural Foods Fayetteville, Arkansas Year founded: 1971 Member investment: $140 Number of members: 9,300 Number of staff: 97 Retail square feet: 9,000 Ozark Natural Foods had a legacy of internal conflict and high board turnover. Historically, people didn’t necessarily run for the board because they wanted to serve the membership, but wanted to use the board as a platform for promoting their own [...]
By Michael Healy 189 March-April 2017 Boards of directors regularly struggle with the concept of “speaking with one voice”— primarily because the concept has a dual meaning. Within the context of Policy Governance, which many food co-op boards use, the principle of board holism is sometimes described as “speaking with one voice.” However, the same term is also used to describe or prescribe how [...]
How is your board spending its time? It’s easy to get caught up in the delegation and accountability portion of a board’s job. Yet there’s a whole other side to the work that is equally important, and the ultimate endeavor of the board: spending time thinking about the co-op’s desired outcomes, members and member needs. A board is accountable for results produced, but ends [...]
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 the proposition that you should “plan not for what you think your enemy will do, but rather for what your enemy can do.” Wise leadership, in other words, requires [...]
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 co-op conferences, meetings, and trainings I’ve attended. Currently I work with food co-ops across the country in which the overwhelming majority of the directors, staff and customers are white. [...]
An effective orientation for new directors can help your board quickly integrate and benefit from the contributions of its newest members – shortening and decreasing the intensity of the naturally occurring “storming” phase that occurs when integrating new members into your team. While there will still be plenty of “on the job” learning during the first several board meetings, a good orientation process can [...]
By Thane Joyal, Jeanie Wells 178 May-June 2015 Whether or not your cooperative expects to hire a general manager (GM) in the next year, your board should have an awareness of the skills and resources that would be needed to accomplish this essential task. Even if your GM is doing great and has no expressed plans for retirement or other career changes, your board [...]
The nominations committee of the Friendly City Food Co-op in Harrisonburg, Va. has been meeting since January to get a head start on the board nominations process. In addition to finding excellent candidates and improving the voting process, the co-op also wants to ensure it has contested elections. “Each year we are trying to be more proactive,” said Laura Toni-Holsinger, the board president. “I [...]
By Marilyn Scholl, Art Sherwood 170 January - February 2014 Great leaders demonstrate how to be a force for good in local communities and beyond. Our cooperative heroes—the Rochdale Pioneers—were striking weavers who opened a grocery co-op in 1844 in Rochdale, England, to help themselves and others get free from indebtedness to the company store. The Pioneers asked and answered some compelling questions: Shouldn’t [...]
By Thane Joyal 166 May-June 2013 Why is it that some of our retail food cooperative boards really make a powerful difference in their communities, while others flounder? What can we learn from strong boards, and what can we learn from those that are struggling? This article focuses on two key and interrelated practices: self-awareness, and self-discipline. These operate at two levels: at the [...]
