By Council President Scott Hess

Greetings from the Co-op Council. Our new team formed in December after our Annual Meeting and we have been developing a goal-based work plan for the coming year. Here are our priorities for 2020: 

Goal 1:  Define the Co-op strategic priorities with a particular focus on increasing sales growth and maintaining profitability. Our Co-op has matured and we are no longer growing in terms of sales volume. The Council has been learning about changes in the community to better understand what new initiatives we may want to pursue.

Goal 2:  Advance diversity, equity and inclusion in our co-op community. We want everyone to feel welcome at our Co-op. We plan to increase awareness and develop skills for addressing diversity issues among the council, staff, management, members, and the community-at-large.

Goal 3:  Propose revisions to the Co-op’s bylaws. A committee has been working for the past 18 months on changes to clarify and improve our bylaws. We plan to bring our proposals to a vote of the members at a special meeting this spring.

Goal 4:  Improve council communications and develop better governing skills. Like any team, we have strengths to build on and opportunities for improvement. Our plan has us focusing on diversity topics, financial knowledge, improving the effectiveness of our meetings and more.

The council will further discuss how to implement these goals at our regular meetings throughout the year. We usually meet the first Monday of each month in the Co-op’s community room, and all members are encouraged to attend and participate. Meeting agendas and minutes are posted in the store near the cash registers and on the Co-op’s website. As always, you are welcome to contact any of us with questions and ideas and thank you for supporting our co-op.