Here are the public minutes for the 7/27/16 Chicago Market Board of Directors meeting:

Chicago Market Board meeting, 7/27/16. 7 p.m. at Beermiscuous
Present: Jen, Anthony, Emily, Malcolm, Karen, Heather, Tony, Mike Grant, Mark
Guest: Greg
Absent: Kelly, Lance, Esther, Dan, Linn
Notes: Heather

Grant: Kudos to site for continuing to update the Board on progress. Kudos also to the SuperTeam (now MORE team) for looking at wasn't working in the team structure and making necessary changes. 

The finance report is on Basecamp. Be sure to look at those documents.

Karen: Report on the new MORE team (which now covers Marketing, Content & Design, Owner Engagement & Recruitment and Events). We are in the process of going through our agenda and figuring out how to get the work done most-efficiently. We have a much better sense of teamwork now. We've re-emphasized that our goal must be getting more Owners. But we cannot do this on our own and we don't have enough Owners to pay for a building right now. We need the Board's help. You need to read our stuff, pay attention, share your ideas and help us when asked. 

We need ideas and we need people to make the ideas happen. We've been too eager to take on all responsibilities ourselves and balls get dropped. We're being radically honest.

Secondly, it's becoming harder to get Owners so we're wanting to reach out to different demographic groups with focused messaging. We'd like to reach groups that are passionate about sustainability, social justice, health & wellness and more. We just need more people to help.

Anthony: We've already seen benefits to these team changes. In the last week, tasks that have been on the back burner have gotten completed because we're sharing the workload better. 

Jen: The team has re-focused its priorities and goals. 

Karen: Our meetings every two weeks are on the calendar. Any Board member is welcome. We welcome your help in all areas. 

Anthony: We're putting together a basic guide of how to post to social media so anyone can contribute. Perfection is less important than the flow of ideas.

Greg: In 2014, we made a list of demographic groups to target. Malcolm will look for it on Basecamp. 

Greg: I think you should challenge the notion that our first 800 people we just early adopters. There are still many, many people we haven't reached. If you're not on Facebook or our email list, you likely wouldn't hear anything about Chicago Market. 

Karen: We'll need to have that discussion when we have more time.

Karen: Report on Basecamp 3. The MORE team is ready to transition to the updated version of Basecamp. It has much increased functionality. You can organize file folders, "like" posts, customize notification levels, assign to-dos to multiple people, have an online chat and much more. The transition will take a bit of time and might cause some confusion in the interim.

Karen will set up the transition with Malcolm's help. The Board agrees to move ahead with this plan. 

Mike gave a report on site selection. One site fell through because a buyer came in with the full asking price. We put in a letter of intent but need to potentially be ready to move even more quickly. 

Karen: We had a Coffee & Conversation event where people questioned our timeline. We need to address that issue. We need some bullet points of how we should address this at the Owners Meeting. 

Malcolm: We should say that there's a range, depending on the site we find. 

Mike will work with MORE on how best to explain site selection at the Owners Meeting.

Mike: Report on Board elections. Tony & Lance have announced they intend to step off the Board. Depending on timing, we may now have 6 vacancies this election and, likely, at least 6 people running. We need 50 Owners to vote, under our bylaws. 

Mike: We may need to appoint someone to fill a spot. He will work out the details of how best to handle the voting process.

Greg: Presented the funding report. We submitted an application for the Benefit Chicago grant. We were the first group to apply for a share of this $100 million fund. We hope to find out next steps very soon. 

Greg: I followed up with Board members who are leaving and asked them to keep their Owner Loan Campaign pledges. We still need to decide if we'll have a breaking escrow number. Greg will post that question to Basecamp for Board consideration. 

MORE is working on marketing materials for the public OLC. 

The pro forma is still being worked on. 

Emily: Presented on the Owners Meeting. Greg will make three slides to discuss money in, money out and how we've spent our money. 

Emily: The main message is brutal honesty about Owner growth and what Owners can do to help Chicago Market. Grant will open and close the event with his remarks. 

Anthony: We need to do blog posts on each candidate. 

Grant will do a draft document of the 7 co-op principles and how we've met them this past year. 

Emily: I recommend we start a partnership with First Financial Credit Union that would allow our Owners to get perks from them. They need a letter from Grant saying we're not affiliated with any other credit union. This does not limit our funding sources and we reserve the right to affiliate with another.

Malcolm: What are the legal aspects of a relationship with this credit union? Emily will find out more. 

Greg: Also, we need to find out how we can talk to their credit union members. 

The Board entered into Executive Session to discuss internal issues.