Present: Kristie Dubois, Eileen Henry, Dini Schut, Helen Elden, Theresa Gragg, Julie Pearson, Hal Hamer.
Kristie chaired the meeting.The agenda for tonight is location, business plan, newsletter frequency, monthly meetings, fundraisers, educational committee, elections of board members,calendar.
Location and buying club. We have a target date of one year from now as the opening of the store. Eileen expressed the need to offer services now. We may start by joining an existing buying club. If we buy more than $3000 monthly FORC will start paying us. Can we accept food stamps$ Will we charge a food surcharge to cover the cost of renting the facility and paying for any ordering costs?Anita will present our proposal to the buying club to see if we can join them. We could start buying and hope the items will be purchased. There are 2 possible locations downtown. One is on Huron, it has 6000 square feet, minimal parking in front, there is a parking lot down the street at The Center for Choice, the rent is $240 per month. The other site is on St. Clair, 2000 sq. feet per single store front, it's a double front. the rent is not known,but $250 monthly could be a possibility, there is a more parking and it is more finished inside, parking is more secure.Eileen will help with location, she will check with the city if they own any sites, and she will check out the Farmer Jacks area.
Business plan. This will take about 6 months to put together. Julie will write it. She will check to see if there is any grant money available from her organization to have an expert from Wisconsin write it [with her help?].
Newsletter. Frequency: every 1 to 1 1/2 months. Julie will write an article explaining what a business plan is in the next newsletter. We can include requests for items, eg. scales, shelves.We need to include the nominations for Board members, including a profile.
Nominations. Julie will chair the nominations committee. Kristie will supply Julie with our mailing list, underlining possible candidates. We need to call the mailing list, and ask for any suggestions for board member nominations.Theresa will help to organize the nomination committee. Nominations should be solicited in writing.Paula and Skip might consider becoming Board members. ELECTIONS WILL BE JAN 20, 91
Membership. So far we have about 50 members.Julie indicated that we need more. We need to call our mailing list and ask for downpayment from those who want to be a member. And ask people if they want to remain on the mailing list.
Fundraisers. Skip's idea: to rent a performance of the Village Players for $350, and to sell 150 tickets at $20 each. Eileen suggested to buy a special product from FORC or another supplier, and sell it. E.g. Almonds, noodles, maple syrup.
Other business. Terry has condensed our articles. We will be present at the NOW meeting on Nov 15th. Theresa will check to see if any co-ops are getting any money from NEEDLE which has a small fund. Brady Bancroft will be in town and will check our possible sites for cost-effective energy savers.
Next meetings:
Interim board Nov 12 7:00 p.m. We will go over the minutes for our revised by-laws, and make a calendar for the next year.
Business plan meeting with Julie and Eileen Monday the 26th at 6:30 subject to conformation.