UKIAH NATURAL FOODS
(A.K.A. THE HOMESTEAD EXCHANGE)
MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The regular meeting of the Ukiah Natural Foods Board of Directors was
convened on Monday, March 10, 2008, 6 PM, at the NCO Meeting Room, 413
N. State St., Ukiah, CA.
Call to Order
President Terry Nieves called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm.
Board Members
Nehemiah Bear
Adam Gaska, (absent)
George Gibbs, Treasurer
Dan Hamburg, Vice President, (absent)
Jacquie Lee
MaryLou Leonard
Terry Nieves, President
Don Sanderson
Joe Wildman, Secretary
Staff
Lori Rosenberg, Libee Uhuru, Susan Grelock, Babs Verenis
Member-Owners
None.
INTRODUCTIONS
None.
MEMBER COMMENTS
None.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND MINUTES
Agenda Approval
M/S/C (Lee, Sanderson) to approve the 3/10/08 agenda.
Approval of 2/11/08 Minutes
M/S/C (Gibbs, Sanderson) to approve the minutes from the February board
meeting; MaryLou and Nehemiah abstain.
SECRETARY’S ANNOUNCEMENTS
Joe recommends the following task be added to the Secretary’s job
duties:
• The secretary must ensure that every board member is provided
copies of all relevant board-related information if that board member
does not have access to email.
GENERAL MANAGER’S REPORT
Lori sent out her report electronically. The following topics were discussed:
• Lori explained the new format for “choose your own”
member appreciation days to newly seated board member Nehemiah.
• Feedback for the new MA day’s format has been really positive.
• Don is wondering whether the stated 2007 sales growth is valid
considering the increases in fuel and shipping costs, goods, raw materials,
etc. Is the store actually selling more goods or have higher grocery costs
made the sales growth appear higher than it actually is?
• Management will supply the board with some information providing
a clearer picture of actual sales growth. Either a few items will be tracked
from 2006 to 2007, or sales reports and/or movement reports will be used
to provide a closer examination of growth.
• Harvest Market in Ft. Bragg is now charging customers for paper
bags. If the Co-op were to follow suit, it was recommended that the cost
of reusable canvas bags in the store be greatly lowered.
• Lori noted that the NCGA regional group was going in on a low-cost,
branded reusable bag that would retail for about ninety-nine cents.
• Joe pointed out that there may be a city and/or state ordinance
coming up to ban plastic bags; if so, the Co-op could write a letter of
support and take a political stance in favor of such an ordinance.
ACTION ITEMS
Merchandising policy with proposed changes
Lori went through the dozen or so changes to the Merchandising Policy
being proposed;
• The majority of changes involve slight changes to the verbiage.
• The definition of “local” would be changed to items
produced within 200 miles of Ukiah.
• Verbiage would be changed to accommodate the addition of Renegade
produce.
• The method by which members are informed of changes to the policy
would be through a posting on the website.
• It was recommended that any changes to the Merchandising Policy
be noticed not only on the website, but also on the bulletin board and
in the newsletter.
M/S/C (Wildman, Leonard) to adopt the proposed changes to the Merchandising
Policy with the amendment of additional notices to the membership when
changes to the policy are made.
BOARD COMMITTEE REPORTS
Board Education/Outreach & Membership
The committee met and discussed the following:
• The next Member Gathering is being planned; the committee discussed
what food the Co-op would be providing, probably a lamb and a vegetarian
skewer, and drinks. Members will be asked to bring bread or salad ingredients.
• The date for the event is May 29th at the Saturday Afternoon Club.
Donations & Grants
The committee met and reported the following:
• The committee will be having a meeting at Mendocino College next
week to look over the 31 applications for the John Milder Scholarship.
• There is an additional $8800 in the grants fund this year; the
committee would also like more input from the board during the grant selection
process.
• Jacquie has contacted all of the 2007 Grant recipients to request
a progress report; so far only a few have responded.
• The committee could make a stipulation that if grant recipients
do not provide progress reports, they are ineligible to apply for a grant
the following year.
• A notice of the 2008 Grant Program will be placed in the Ukiah
Daily Journal.
Elections & Nominations
None.
Finance
The committee reported the following:
• Minutes were sent out by email.
• The committee went over the preliminary year-end data from 2007;
growth was budgeted at 12% but came in at 11.4%. However, the overall
net was still higher than what was budgeted for.
• In 2007, an additional $8800 was added to the donations budget
as a tax break.
Governance
• The committee hasn’t met. Joe would like the other committees,
particularly Finance and Outreach, to discuss the implications of switching
to a year-end patronage system. He would like input from all the committees
before bringing this issue to the board sometime in the next few months
for serious consideration.
Human Resources
None.
Local Food Security
The committee did not meet; Don reported on the following:
• Don attended an event in Willits called “Steps to a Local
Food Economy”. This meeting brought together farmers and buyers
in an attempt to encourage the growing localization movement. The group
will be having follow-up meetings to work on specific issues.
NEW BUSINESS
Proposal to ask Lori to schedule a two day board retreat
• Don sent a proposal to the board of a possible “story”
for the store to follow. Don does not feel comfortable with the current
direction of the store as a traditional grocery store; he envisions an
organization with a more participatory, democratic orientation with an
emphasis on localization issues. The Co-op must be ready for the potential
of upcoming economic and environmental crash.
• It was suggested that this topic be discussed in a focused setting
for a specific amount of time instead of revisiting it at each board meeting.
• This subject will be discussed as an Action Item at the April
Board Meeting; there will be an agendized discussion for a finite amount
of time as to how the Co-op fits in to the larger picture of peak oil,
global warming, local food production, etc.; this focused discussion will
occur during the planned two day retreat.
Expansion/Remodel Discussion
• After receiving an email from Don in which he stated he could
not support an expansion or remodel at this time, Lori would like clarification
from the rest of the board as to how they feel about expansion.
• The majority of the board and staff present are strongly in support
of the expansion/remodel project. The store is outdated and needs a fresh
look, the staff and customers need more space, and the store has money
in the bank.
• Because of the weak dollar, the sooner the money is used for the
project the better.
• Lori will be bringing more plans to the board for approval as
quickly as she can.
DIRECTOR COMMUNICATIONS
Director Reports
None.
Board Agenda
There will be an Action Item discussion about how much time to devote
at the retreat to the issues raised by Don.
MEMBER COMMENTS
None.
ADJOURNMENT
The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be April 14, 2008, at
6 p.m. at the NCO meeting room.
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