By Mark Goehring, Carolee Colter 143 July - August - 2009 A board evaluating the general manager (GM) of a food co-op…now there’s a process that directors should be able to describe, defend, celebrate and appreciate with little or no ambiguity or hesitation. In a recent online recorded workshop on GM evaluation, Thane Joyal and Carolee Colter laid out these four learning objectives [...]
By Carolee Colter 130 May - June - 2007By now, probably most co-op boards of directors have a policy on conflicts of interest. For example, when a board member has a financial stake in a company that potentially or actually competes or does business with the co-op, this information is revealed to the board, and the affected board member may be barred from [...]
By Marilyn Scholl 130 May - June - 2007 Boards of directors are the critical link between owners and management in the accountability chain for a cooperative. If boards don’t have a good understanding of how accountability works or don’t have good systems for accomplishing it, the job can be frustrating. Accountability mirrors empowerment To begin, we must recognize that accountability and empowerment go [...]
By Mark Goehring 123 March - April - 2006 There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is commonly known to directors and managers. It is a dimension open to interpretation—potentially as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between too much and too little, between knowing and doing, and it lies between the pit of a director’s [...]
By Bill Gessner 120 September - October - 2005 More than half of our food co-ops have engaged in planning and implementing an expansion project during the past three years. As demanding as these projects can be, the real challenge begins when the co-op opens its doors in the expanded store. An earlier article by Carolee Colter (CG #116, Jan.–Feb. 2005) described the challenges [...]
By Marilyn Scholl 084 September - October - 1999 The relationship between the board and the general manager is probably the most important relationship in a co-op. To be successful, a cooperative needs a strong manager AND a strong board AND a strong, effective relationship between the two. In 22 years of working for and with food co-ops, I have seen too many examples [...]
