March Board Update

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written by Maggie Jones, Board Member

Thank you for reading our Board Update, a synopsis of our most recent board meeting and other board-related information.

Your board is responsible for overseeing our General Manager (GM), ensuring financial viability, providing governance that is in line with the BC Coops Act and making strategic decisions that benefit our Co-op. We have five board committees that meet monthly and then share reports and recommendations to the board as a whole. These committees are: HR/Hiring, Governance, Finance, Member Engagement, and Nominations. We also hear reports monthly from our GM and one department manager.

March 2023

Your board met March 17, 2023.

We heard and discussed reports from board committees:

  •  Our Member Engagement Committee presented their recommendations for the monthly board blog and received approval for format and content.
  • Our Board approved the date for the 2023 AGM as Wednesday, September 27th. Nominations for the 2023 elections will run from April 12th until June 12th and the election will take place between August 16th and September 16th. The board application package is being updated.
  • The Finance Committee reports that they continue to work on their terms of reference, policy and work plan. They are also working strategically to ensure the best use of any held revenues.

Our IGMs made their report to the board:

  • Our IGMs reported on a series of “Tiny Town Halls” that managers held for staff over the past month. These meetings were held in smaller groups to provide a better connection, conversation and to allow the store to run smoothly. The IGMs reported that Managers felt it was time well spent as the meeting format allowed for staff engagement. Many important Co-op topics were covered and the sessions generated many excellent questions.
  • Our IGMs shared that March 27th is the date that our new store manager, Dirk Gibbs, joins the team.
  • The elections for our Employee Director are underway. In addition to our six member-elected directors, our board has one director elected by the staff – the Employee Director – who has many of the same responsibilities as other directors.
  • Our IGMs reported that our Co-op has been nominated for an Excellence Award by the Chamber of Commerce. The winners will be announced on March 30th.

Our department of the month was Front End and we received a comprehensive overview of this busy department:

  • Manager, Vale Perez, shared that her current focus is to improve the procedures and training manuals for the front end. There are often staffing transitions that happen in May and this will allow for better training.
  • Vale is working to simplify things for new cashiers. Front end training is very lengthy, usually 2 days on procedure and 2 days on the till. (They have to know the difference between every single type of apple that we sell!)
  • Challenges in this department include hiring staff who are comfortable interacting with hundreds of members every day. (No small feat!)
  • She also reported that having a full time loss prevention person in the store has been a great help to the front end.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!