Minutes of the 4-20-2009 Board Meeting

MEDFORD FOOD CO-OP
Minutes of April 20, 2009 Board Meeting
225 W. Main St., Medford

Present:  Jim Sims, John Miele, John Statler, Louise Dix and Steve Kraft.  Tommy Lawson arrived at 6:13 and Polly Williams arrived at 6:30pm.

The minutes of the April 6th board meeting were approved unanimously.

Board and Officer Elections:

The board ratified a vote taken at the April 6th 2009 meeting where it was moved and seconded that Diana Fairbanks be appointed Chief Financial Officer.  Vote passed.

A motion was made and seconded that Polly Williams be appointed by the board to replace Erika Robinson as a board member and to finish Erika’s term (through December, 2009).  Vote passed.

A motion was made and seconded that Polly Williams be appointed as Secretary to the Board, and as the third signatory on all accounts of the corporation at Umpqua Bank and Rogue Federal Credit Union, along with current signers Louise Dix and Jim Sims.  Vote passed.

A motion was made and seconded that Louise Dix be appointed as Board Treasurer (in addition to the Vice President position she currently holds), replacing Erika Robinson.  Vote passed.

Committee Reports:

A motion was made and seconded to change the name of the Fundraising Committee to the Membership Development Committee.  Vote passed.  Louise reported that the committee had met on April 16th and decided to move forward with a booth at the Farmers’ Market.  They also recommend setting an owners’ general meeting in May to kick off a membership development drive designed to organize home socials, special events, and membership communications.

John Statler requested that we obtain a cash box for use at Co-op events.  Steve K. agreed to look into that, as well as a receipt book.

A motion was made to secure a credit card and a debit card account system, not to exceed 3% in fees and not to exceed a $100 set-up charge.  Vote passed.

There was a discussion around website names and domains.  A motion was made and seconded to get medfordfoodcoop.com if it is available, recognizing that the name could change in the future.  Vote passed.

Site Reviews:

Steve K., John M. and Tommy L. met to look at available properties/locations and to develop criteria for ranking the various sites.  These criteria will be used to determine the best overall location for the Co-op.
1.  Distance within one square mile of Riverside/Main intersection.
2.  50 off-street parking spaces
3.  Building size 7,000 – 12,000 square feet
4.  Willingness of owner to negotiate and discuss issues
5.  Technical aspects of property – renovations needed, liens, purchase ability, etc.

The Site Review Committee will continue to meet monthly at 6:00 pm on the second Monday of each month at the CNLS office.  They hope to determine a “final” site by mid-June.

Other Reports/Business

A motion was made and seconded to appoint Polly W. to the Corporation Organization Committee.  Vote passed.

Finance Committee members John S., John M., and Jim S. met with representatives from the Ashland Food Co-op to get input and ideas on starting a food co-op.  In addition, Steve K., Louise D., and Jim S. attended the NCGA West Corridor Regional Seminar in Portland last week, and brought back some valuable materials.  Polly agreed to copy the materials for the rest of the board members, and the board agreed to spend at least 10 minutes each meeting educating themselves on co-op issues.

It is time to do the 2008 tax returns.  Jim S. offered to do them if provided the 2007 copies to work from.

Board members agreed that it is time to set up a message telephone line for the co-op, as it is important to be able to be in closer contact with members.

There was more discussion about the next special owners meeting, and what could be accomplished then.  It was decided to create a Special Events Committee and to get members present at that meeting to sign up to be on one or more committees.  It was also decided that as much as we can move to email versus USPS, the better (and cheaper) it will be.  A motion was made and seconded to send all member notices by email if we have an address, and to only send postcards/mail to those who have not listed an email address.  Vote passed.

There is a new farmers market starting at Roxy Ann Winery where we can set up a table with information, but they want to charge us for that.  Polly W. will call Michael Donovan to see if they will waive the fee for us.

The next meeting will be an Owners Meeting and Potluck to be held on May 18th.  Louise D. will secure a location for the meeting.

Meeting was concluded at 8:55pm.