October Board Minutes

in

Regular Board Meeting Minutes

21 October 2025

 

Present: Kay Coburn, Cathy-Ann Glockner, James Hiebert, Paul Cowan, Kate Miers, Leannah Fidler, Kendal Benesh, Mike Morrison (on Zoom)

Staff Present: Ashley Elliott (HR Director, IGM), Sean Silverson (Finance Director, IGM), Amanda Verigin (Marketing Director)

Chair: Kay Coburn

Recorder: Sadie Yancey (Board Administrative Assistant)

 

Meeting brought to order at 5:00 pm in the Teaching Kitchen

 

Adoption of October Meeting Agenda:  M/Leannah S/Kendal,  no amendments. All in favour.

Declaration of Interests: As declared on the Statement of Agreement, Paul owns a business that supplies the Co-op, and Leannah is an employee.

Approval of September Meeting Minutes:  M/Paul S/Cathy-Ann, one change. All in favour.

Approval of consent agenda, including: 

  • Governance Committee minutes 
  • Board Development Committee minutes
  • Finance Committee minutes
  • Member Engagement Committee minutes

M/Cathy-Ann S/James

There were no questions. HR and Hiring did not meet this month. 

CARRIED. All in favour.

 

Business Arising

  1. The chair welcomed new directors to the board. 
  2. Officer Election 
    1. The directors currently filling officer roles are willing to continue, and no other directors expressed interest. 

 

MOTION To confirm the officers for the 2025-2026 board year: Kay Coburn – President, Cathy-Ann Glockner – VP, James Hiebert – Treasurer

M/Kendal S/Leannah

CARRIED 

 

  1. Hiring Committee.  It was recommended to disband the Hiring Committee and have their remaining duties covered by the HR Committee. The IGM role continues to be filled by Ashley and Sean while Amanda prepares to become the GM.

 

MOTION To disband Hiring Committee

M/Cathy-Ann S/Leannah

CARRIED

 

  1. Assign Committees. Governance circulated a proposed arrangement for committees. The chair reviewed the rationale for the arrangement.  
    1. Governance – Kay, Cathy-Ann, Mike
    2. Finance – James, Kate, Mike
    3. HR – Kay, Kendal, Paul
    4. Member Engagement – Cathy-Ann, James, Leannah
    5. Board Development – Leannah, Kate Kendal, Paul

 

MOTION To approve the committees for 2025-2026 board year, as circulated

M/Paul S/Leannah

CARRIED

 

  1. Board Buddies.  New directors are assigned a ‘board buddy’ – a director who they can go to with small questions and context. Paul will support Mike and James will support Kendal. 
  2. Confirm board contact information, as circulated.
  3. Intro to board calendar.  Sadie presented the board calendar.  Committees update this calendar as they review their TOR in November and the Board approves the calendar at the November meeting. 
  4. Review member feedback.  There was no member feedback this month.  The board reviewed the procedure around emails from members. 
  5. Board Article.  An article was circulated on the third goal of the strategic plan. 

 

MOTION To approve the board article, as circulated

M/Kate S/Paul

Directors provided feedback. 

CARRIED

 

  1. Organizational Structure.  Ashley reviewed the roles of the ~150 staff at the Co-op.  
  2. UCCC Toolbox.  Kay alerted directors to a new tool from UCCC, Governance and Board Development will consider further.
  3. Director training.  Kay noted that there are several courses and resources for new directors available through Columinate.  

 

IGM Report – Presented by Sean Silverson and Ashley Elliott

 

  1. Sean shared the highlights from the September financials, as circulated.  As with the last number of months, sales and net income continue to be strong, with September sales approximately 11% above the same month last year.
  2. Questions from member attendees – There are no non-board members in attendance.

 

Next Meetings:

November 18th – 5pm in person, followed by a meal. 

December 16th – 4:30pm on Zoom

There was general agreement that having half of meetings in person and half remote is appropriate. 

 

The meeting adjourned to in camera session at 5:51pm