Council Approves New Policy Governance-Style Policies; Seeks Election Candidates

Last Updated on Sunday, 05 February 2012 00:12 Saturday, 04 February 2012 02:51

By 12th Moon, 

Council President

Council held its January meeting on the 17th in The Space. We met on the third Tuesday rather than the normal second, following policy guidelines approved last year to avoid holding meetings on the "10% on the 10th" sales days. Look for our monthly meeting to be on the 17th again in both April and July this year.

Our General Manager (GM) Brandon Kane presented our first item of business, the monthly GM's Report. Brandon reported that both stores had a very good year, showing continued attention by staff to improving operations at both locations. He also reported that Oasis will be undergoing a reset of both Grocery and Deli areas, and that staff have started to compile email lists for all staff and would like to compile an email list of our members, in an effort to reduce paper consumption and for better lines of communication.

Similarly, short surveys are being created for both staff and members to help in our efforts to acquire information and opinions. Brandon also reported that the Area Supervisors (AS) Group, comprised of the managers of the stores' different departments, supports the idea of GreenStar acquiring a small, second satellite location in Collegetown, and that a new "Donation at the Register" program has been initiated, allowing our customers to donate to a specific cause each month as they check out. Lastly, Brandon introduced Kirtrina Baxter, who spoke to us about the work she will be doing with staff to assure cultural competency at GreenStar.

Two more guests, D. ("Dee") Scott and Evelyn ("Evie") Weinstein, our new Ombuds, introduced themselves and our new Ombuds Program, which will be launched this month. (Please look for the Ombuds Program Charter and more information at the stores and on our web site, and see the front page article in this issue for more details.)

Brandon next presented his annual Asset Protection report for referral to our Finance Committee for review. The report shows that the stores are protected against financial loss by having proper procedures in effect and through the purchases of appropriate insurance contracts.

Our Finance Committee's report back on the GM's 3rd Quarter Financial Report came next, and Council approved the committee's proposal to accept the GM's report as reviewed by the committee and as being compliant with Council requirements and expectations.

Proposed changes to the Official Personnel Policy came from our Personnel Committee as our next item. The changes, which were approved by Council, reflect changes that have been made to the staff structure and new names assigned to different levels of employees.

The Personnel Committee then led a discussion of possibilities for a working retreat for Council and the AS Group this year. With many changes initiated, we still have many goals before us. An open dialogue between AS members and Council members regarding our future plans and preparedness should facilitate a better understanding of the Co-op's direction.

The Governance and Monitoring Committee was up next, presenting an application from a member to fill an open seat on the Ombuds Advisory Committee (OAC). Council appointed Keith Babuszczak as a Member-at-Large on the OAC; welcome, Keith, and thank you for volunteering to help our co-op.

After our mid-meeting break, and with a few amendments, the minutes of three past Council meetings and the regular and executive sessions of our December meeting were approved, which brings us up to date with past Council meeting minutes. Thank you to Shayna Grajo, Board Administrator, for pulling all of those together.

The next two items on our agenda for the evening went back to our Finance Committee for revision. The committee had pulled the first off of the agenda and the second was decidedly linked to the first and was tabled by Council until our Feb. 14 meeting.

Council next approved authorizing both payment of our budgeted contribution to GreenStar Community Projects for 2012, and approximately $1,700 for two separate training opportunities for Council members. On Jan. 28, Tara Gross, Chris Negronida and Joe Marriffino will attend a Cooperative Board Leadership Development 101 training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and I will attend a leadership training with Brandon, also in Brattleboro. The following weekend, Jan Rhodes Norman, Tara Gross, Chris Negronida, Kash Iraggi, SunShine Huntone and I will attend a workshop from the Carbon Farming series given by Joel Salatin at the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, NY. All of the Council members who volunteered to go to the trainings and workshops will report back to Council at a later date.

We saved the best for last — a proposal from our Policy Drafting Committee (PDC) that started with GreenStar's Council having decided in December 2010 to adopt and implement a Policy Governance approach to the Co-op's governance "in a form to be determined by Council," including certain "parameters" as listed in the proposal approved on 12/14/10. During a weekend-long training last July with our consultant Art Sherwood from CBLD, Council started to write new Policy Governance (PG) style policies, and after two meetings a month for months, the Policy Drafting Committee (PDC), charged with bringing completed new policies to Council for approval, presented new "B," "C," and "D" policies (General Manager Limitations, Council Process, and Council-Management Relationship policies, respectively). The PDC also presented a list of old policies, replaced by some of the new PG policies, which we repealed, and a change of charge and name to the committee. The PDC will now be the PRC (no, not the People's Republic, but the Policy Review Committee), and it is charged "with continuing to review all documents currently contained in the Policy Book, and to bring to Council recommendations for (a) a new organizational scheme for that book, (b) a list of policies, or parts of policies that should be repealed, re-written or created, by the end of 2012, and (c) with the membership committee develop a process and timeline for reviewing organizational 'ends' ('A' Policies) and expressing them in a Policy Governance form."

Melissa Blake has indicated that she is stepping down as chair of the PDC, but will continue as a member of the PRC. She and the whole committee deserve our thanks and acknowledgement for all the work they've done and the commitment to continue facilitating our transition to our new governance system.