By Marilyn Scholl 136 may - june - 2008 Interest in food cooperatives is growing, due both to increased interest in local, natural, and organic foods and to increased awareness of our economic vulnerability. More and more communities want the stability and accountability that a cooperative can offer. Cooperative ownership is an economic model that can create great benefits for our communities and member-owners. [...]
By Michael Healy 135 March - April - 2008 The board of directors fulfills an essential governing role in a cooperatively owned, democratically controlled business. Few assets are more valuable to a cooperative than a board that functions well, learns what it needs to do its job expertly, and provides excellent leadership. Providing that excellent leadership requires expertise, and developing expertise requires investment. In [...]
By Carolee Colter, Mark Goehring 134 Jan - Feb - 2008 What are some words that come to mind when you think of general manager compensation? Uncomfortable. Problematic. Crazy. Or: Exciting. Challenging. Strategic. Even though everyone might say that general manager (GM) compensation is important, it doesn’t always get handled that way. In order to help your board and GM approach this topic in [...]
By Bill Gessner 134 Jan - Feb - 2008 Food co-ops expanding from one to two stores must navigate a challenging and perilous course. This article will explore those challenges and obstacles and suggest a course of planning and implementation that increases the likelihood of success. Food co-ops historically have had limited (but increasing) success operating multiple stores. In 1997 there were just six [...]
By Patricia Cumbie 133 November - December - 2007 The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op (SacNat) location in Elk Grove, Calif., was a long anticipated state-of-the-art second store that opened with high expectations in June of 2005, but closed in January of 2007. SacNat seemed to have it all: experienced management, a good board of directors, and a profitable, established location to cushion the second [...]
By Mark Goehring 132 September - October - 2007 Our cooperatives aim to provide value on behalf of member owners and often take a wide-ranging approach on how to express and demonstrate that organizational accomplishment. When it comes to managing and reporting financial performance and condition, traditional financial statements do quite nicely. Financial statements are not good places in which to exercise “local control” [...]
By Carolee Colter 130 May - June - 2007 By 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 Bill Gessner 129 march - april - 2007 Where we gonna get the grubstake? The 300 food co-op stores in the United States, owned by more than 400,000 consumers, face the continuing challenge of building capital if they are going to continue to grow and develop to serve their members and communities. As much as we might want to ignore this challenge, co-ops [...]
By Mel Braverman 126 September - October - 2006 Many cooperatives struggle to find appropriate operational benchmarks and to set challenging yet attainable goals. Without the use of external data to help them understand how the industry may be changing, they are left with their own historical performance data (if available) as the sole source from which to base their benchmarks and goals. While [...]
