I’m pleased to report that the Co-op is making clear progress in finding candidates for the General Manager (GM) position. Mary Mullally has been serving as Interim General Manager (while continuing as Facilities Manager) and we are eager to hire a new, permanent GM with just that one job.  

The nine-member GM Search Committee has met a couple times. There are now regularly scheduled meetings on Wednesdays at 4 pm. The meetings are in the Community Room and are open to the members; they’re on Zoom, as well. You can find information on the committee’s work and meetings on the Co-op’s Governance page. At the January 31 meeting, they unanimously chose Paul Ohlson as committee chair and Charlotte Domino as vice-chair. Paul has been a member of the Co-op for 50 years and helped design the current building. Charlotte has worked at the Co-op for four years; she has also served as membership and outreach coordinator at Plainfield Co-op, and she is president of the staff union at the Co-op. Thanks to both for stepping up! 

Meanwhile, Gallagher Flynn, a recruiting firm hired by the Council to support our search, is preparing a questionnaire to get a sense from the committee, the Council, the staff, and the member community of what qualities we’re looking for in a General Manager.  

The Council is now once more at its full strength of 10 members (including the non-voting staff representative), after appointing member Dvora Jonas to fill a vacancy until the Council elections in November. Dvora brings to the Council experience (among other things) as the president/chair of Friends of the Somerville (MA) Public Library; she was active with Harvest Co-op (Boston, MA); and she was involved in a cooperatively run business start-up that made and introduced futons to the non-Japanese public (The Golden Nagas). Welcome, Dvora! And thanks to both candidates who volunteered to serve.

—Carl Etnier, Council President