Location: Main branch of Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, 325 Michigan St., Toledo, OH 43604; Present: Shelly Boraby, Thomas Fine, Sándor Halász, Alyx Kendzierski, Anita Levin, Will Mellon (arrived later) Sean Nestor, Hermann von Grafenstein, Lisa Blake (General Manager, GM). Absent: Nichole Nauden. Resolutions are numbered R1–R4.
The meeting began at 5:45 pm.
- Approval of Minutes
The minutes of the 1/22/2014 board meeting were approved with modifications (R1, 6/0/1 for/against/abstention).
- Filling a Board Vacancy
Will Mellon was appointed to fill the Board seat vacated by David Bohon(R2, 7/0/0).
- General Manager’s Report
GM Lisa Blake presented her written General-Manager’s-report and mentioned meetings she was planning to attend:
- The March 10/11/12 meeting of The Great Lakes Consortium at Kalamazoo. The topic of this meeting would be to discuss how to improve co-operative stores. An audit of individual co-ops in this group was part of the agenda of these meetings. At the March meeting a review of the Oryana Co-op would be on the agenda.
- The Spring General Assembly of Designated Representatives (or general managers), which was to be held in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
- Finance-Committee Report
- Membership Model Committee Report
Sean Nestor summarized the recommendations of a meeting held on 2/19. The following recommendations had been made:
- Maintain the current equity model for full membership with voting rights.
- Add a separate option to become a non-voting member of a
discount club
.
- Identify a Point-of-Sales system that would allow keeping track of membership payments and discounts. At the January Board meeting the Square POS system had been mentioned. Lisa provided numbers that allowed a comparison of our current credit card fee schedule with fees that would be incurred if the Square POS system were adopted. Our current credit card transaction fee was 1.27% while the Square POS transaction fee would be 2.75%. With theSquare POS system in place, given 2013 sales, the Co-op would have paid an extra $348.86 per month in transaction fees or about an extra $4200 during 2013.Hermann mentioned that the Square POS system also allowed a fixed rate schedule [note added: this option has been discontinued as of Feb 2013] and suggested considering other cloud-based POS systems that might offer more favorable fee payment schemes.
- Outreach Committee report
- Will Mellon announced that the Outreach Committee would meet on Thursday 2/27 in the Kelly Room of the Toledo Main Library. He presented an agenda for the planned meeting.
- Lisa reported that she had attended the
Seed Swap
event at Woodward High School. There had been great interest in the Co-op and many attendees had heard for the first time about the existence of a Co-op in Toledo.
- Sean announced that in a recent poll by the Toledo City Paper, the Co-op received first place in the category
Greenest Business
for the second time in a row. He encouraged Board members to help fund a table so staff, the GM and board members can attend the award ceremony.
- Discussion of Rent Payments
A discussion was held about the retention of rent payments in order to pay for urgent repairs of the canopy over the co-op’s entrance from the parking lot.
Tom reported that he has had conversations with the Landlord about urgent repairs as a condition for renewal of the lease. Tom was authorized to begin negotiations with the Landlord over renewal of the lease and repairs (R3, 7/0/1). Tom stated that the most likely outcome of these negotiations would be a rent abatement to release money for urgent repairs.
- Evaluation of the General Manager
The Board went into executive session to discuss the evaluation of the performance of the General Manager. Attendant members, staff, and the GM were asked to leave.
- Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at ~7:50 pm (R4 8/0/0).
Date of next meeting: Wed March 26 if not decided otherwise.