Your Board of Directors is democratically elected by the member-owners and as such is considered to be a reflection of the membership as a whole. Since we as a Board are here to represent you and act on your behalf, we wish to ensure that we are working with your values in mind!
Soon the Board will undertake the modification of our Ends policies, which define in a very general way what the goals of the Co-op should be in the long and/or short term. Ends policies can be related to such things as:
- Environmental considerations—minimizing pounds of waste created per plate of food or gallons of water used per gallon of beer produced, etc.
- The Co-op’s impact on the community—how would we like to make a positive change in the area?
- Our job as a role model to other cooperatives and as a fully-participatory member of the cooperative community
- Member-owner education about cooperative principles and values
- Support for the local economy; providing good jobs for members of the community
Simply put, what do we want to have as a result of all that we do? This question was brought up recently at the Wheatsville Food Co-op’s yearly Board retreat, which I attended as a representative of Black Star (thanks again Wheastville!). While thinking about this question, I decided that this would be an excellent topic to bring up to the membership in an informal way before we tackle the issue in future board meetings.
So, what do you feel passionate about? What do you want the Co-op to pursue? We’d love to hear from you! The comment board is open.