On January 23^rd, your board of directors had their yearly retreat at McKinney Falls State Park.  The eight-hour occasion included our regular monthly board meeting in which we seated new director Jessica Cassidy, as well as discussions on a number of other items of importance to the co-op, such as the evolving role of our board and where we want the co-op to be in five or more years.  The retreat also had an educational aspect to it: we had presentations on policy governance, legal matters related to being a director, and a tutorial on the reading of our financial statements which were given by Johnny Livesay, Steven Yarak, and Steve Randall, respectively.

We didn’t just work the whole time, though; for lunch we had a potluck which included barbeque, bratwurst, venison sausage chili, vegan and non-vegan gumbo, Asian slaw, some other stuff I’m sure I forgot (sorry!) and, of course beer.  It was all very tasty.

After a huge lunch we went on a hike to the falls:

Thanks again to our presenters and a special thanks to our chair of the leadership development committee, Colin Clark, for organizing such a successful retreat.  It was a great opportunity for us to learn more about being a director as well as an opportunity to better get to know one-another on a personal level.

One more thing: I’m interested in getting some suggestions for what the membership would like the co-op to look like in say, five or ten years.  At the retreat we discussed ways that we can maximize the number of non-drivers that visit the co-op, close monitoring of resource consumption to ensure we’re being environmentally responsible, strong support for other co-ops, etc.  What do you consider to be a high-priority for the co-op when we are fully functional?  Comments are welcome.