CGIN

A. CONVENE AND PRELIMINARIES

The meeting was called to order at 3:40 p.m. by Dan Foley in Eureka. Dan introduced himself and the members of the CGIN board present and welcomed everyone to the meeting.

B. MEETING PRELIMINARIES

1. The agenda was approved as presented.
2. Minutes from the meeting of 9 June 2001 were presented.
   M/S: George Huntington/Sharon Murphy — to approve the minutes from the 2001 CGIN annual meeting as presented. Approved with no dissenting votes.
3. Final call for ballots.

C. REPORT AND DISCUSSION ON STATUS OF CGIN

Dan turned the meeting over to Patrice Jennings and Karen Zimbelman who presented special certificates of thanks to CGIN’s major contributors (groups that have contributed at least 5 items thus far this year or made a donation to our scholarship fund): Hanover Consumer Co-op Society, John Hatton, Brattleboro Food Co-op, Blooming Foods Co-op Grocery, Lakewinds Natural Foods, Davis Food Co-op, Hunger Mountain Co-op, Ashland Community Food Store, Good Foods Co-op, GreenStar Co-op, Outpost Natural Foods, Hendersonville Community Co-op, Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops, Allen Seidner, and the Wedge Community Co-op.

Dan then made a brief board report. He noted that CGIN now has 110 retail co-op members, items from 69 co-ops or groups on our site, and a good financial foundation. The CGIN board, with some of the board candidates, just met for an in-person strategic planning session. The board discussed ways to improve our website and the quality of material we can make available for members to share. The board also discussed and approved a charter for a new “content advisory committee” that will be set up to provide input on how CGIN works and on materials on the site to KZ. In addition, we will be working on ways to expand CGIN staff to provide support for some of the administrative functions (e.g. membership renewal, password changes) and researching ways that we can use CGIN’s tax-exempt status to support co-op development. Dan noted that the CGIN board does not use policy governance but instead operates under the “ends justifies the means” model!

Finally, Dan announced that the CGIN board is very sorry that John Mullé is leaving the board. John was elected to the CGIN board at our first annual meeting in 1998. He has been a conscientious, thoughtful, and responsive board member for the past four years. He has always taken great care to thoroughly consider all sides of issues and has been instrumental in guiding CGIN’s progress. The board presented John with a certificate in appreciation of his service and involvement with CGIN. THANKS, John! Dan then turned the floor over to KZ to present an operations report.

The operations report summarized where things stand for CGIN at this point and accomplish ments in the past year:

1. listserve — was overhauled last summer and then we did a survey of members in January about the listserve. KZ summarized the results of the listserve survey; at this point, no changes are planned. We will need to move our archives to a new service sometime this year. Michael from First Alternative offered to send in instructions on how to search the archives.
2. services and website development
3. members only section — continues with four main sections. Now have 461 items (up from 351 last year) in our main library, 197 deli recipes, and several photo exhibits.
4. publicly accessible resources — our publication on “How to Start a Food Co-op” is now online in both HTML and PDF formats thanks to grants from the Bowers Fund, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation, The Cooperative Foundation and Cooperative Grocer magazine.
5. site usage — the increases are not as strong in the past year as from 2000 to 2001, but usage continues to be good considering the size of our audience.
6. membership — now stands at 110 retails; most new members rely on our scholarship program to defray the costs of joining

In terms of projects and challenges for the future:

1. continuing to get members to contribute items remains a challenge. We will look at adding the posted date on all items on the site as well as encouraging members to submit revised items after editing or making changes.
2. we will be adding a new service — a “virtual trade show” to allow manufacturers and vendors an opportunity to highlight featured products or items to co-op purchasers. KZ welcomes members’ suggestions on how to set up such a show to make it most useful.
3. CGIN has agreed to take on a national project to develop a model livable wage program — a formula that can be used to calculate livable wages in any geographic area, as well as develop materials that can help co-ops better understand this area and how they can responsibly respond to campaigns for livable wages in their areas. Carolee Colter will be the project coordinator and provided a brief overview of the project and funding needs.

Finally, KZ reminded members that they will need to change their passwords in July.

D. ELECTION RESULTS

Dan thanked Rochelle Prunty and Gail Graham for serving on the Nominating Committee this past year. Gail announced that we received a total of 46 ballots and that the results are that Pam Mehnert was re-elected to the board and Anne Hopkins will join the board as a new director. Gail thanked George and Michelle for their willingness to serve on the board and thanked all members for voting.

E. OTHER BUSINESS

An “honor roll” of co-ops that have contributed at least 10 items to CGIN were thanked: BriarPatch Co-op Market, Davis Food Co-op, First Alternative, GreenStar Co-op Market, Hanover Consumers Co-op, Linden Hills Co-op, Mississippi Market, Oryana Natural Foods, Outpost Natural Foods, Puget Consumers Co-op, People’s Food Co-op (Ann Arbor), Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, Sevananda Natural Foods, Seward Co-op, Twin Cities Natural Foods Co-ops, Urban Cooperative Initiative, Weavers Way, the Wedge Community Co-op, and Willy Street Co-op Grocery. Outpost has contributed 26 items; Hanover 29, and the Wedge takes highest honors for its contribution of 30 separate items to the main library.

Members were given a chance to “pledge” to contribute items or to the scholarship fund for three of the new CGIN mousepads. Twenty-three members offered to contribute at least 5 items, 10 deli recipes, or one photo gallery exhibit, or to donate $25 to CGIN’s scholarship fund by the end of the year. KZ will follow up with pledgers. Next, members brainstormed items that they would like to have available on the site or that they might offer (see attached list).

Dan Foley reminded members that the next CGIN annual meeting will be held in conjunction with next year’s CCMA conference at a time and location to be announced.

Motion: Scott McMullen — to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.

Minutes by Karen Zimbelman