After our intense work on the nationwide search that led to hiring Mary Mullally as General Manager (GM) last week, the council is heading towards its summertime off. We’ll have our regular July meeting on July 9 and a special meeting to interview candidates for the vacant council position and make the appointment. The special meeting starts July 10 and continues July 16. In August, we take a break from our regular monthly meetings, which resume September 10. The Executive Committee will continue to meet during this time. 

In case you missed it, here is the announcement to members of the new GM. Two weeks after the decision, we on the council are still thrilled to have hired Mary. (And we’re glad to have the 10-month hiring process behind us!) 

At the next two regular meetings, the council is doing an experiment with an outside facilitator. Nathan Suter, who helped plan and facilitate the 2023 Annual Meeting, has been working with the Executive Committee to plan the July meeting and will be facilitating it. He will do the same for the September meeting. After that, the council will evaluate the experiment and determine how we want to handle facilitation going forward. I’ve been chairing our meetings since being elected president, and I’m looking forward to finding out what it’s like to be able to participate in the meetings without being responsible for keeping a lot of the meeting mechanics in my head.  

With a new GM in place, the council can return its energies to some of its core functions. One task, put on hold by all the extra issues that Covid-19 raised, is to work with the GM to update our ten-year vision plan, or create something else in its place. The previous plan came out in 2012 and envisioned where we wanted the Co-op to be by 2022. When the council returns to the topic, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, if you want to harken back to 2012 and read the vision that emerged in 2012. The vision was created by a committee of Member-Owners and staff, with the input at multiple forums of Member-Owners, farmers, vendors, staff, neighbors, local nonprofits, and thought leaders.  

I guess, with the Montpelier celebrations on July 3 and the official holiday on Thursday, it’s still unofficially Independence Day weekend—enjoy the big summer holiday!  

—Carl Etnier, Council President

Do you have any questions or comments about the council? Do you know any jokes about cooperators? Please email them to me!