Time:7:00-9:00pm Minutes:Lee Herman Attendees: Board:Anthony Todd, Bob Kunze, Dana McKinney, Grant Kessler, Lee Herman, Sofia Jouravel Guests:Allie Koolbeck, Brian Rutzen, Helen Park, Kate Grimm, Matthew Ruffi
Requiredpre-reading (PDF downloads): (As part of Board members'Duty of Care (PDF download), preparing for Board meetings means reading and understanding the pre-reading listed below in advance of each meeting.)
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5 min TOPIC(s):Housekeeping
PRESENTER:President OUTCOME:connected, inspired, ready for productive meeting ACTION/INTENTION:clarify meeting protocols
Zoom mechanics briefing for Owners:
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Owner Growth Check-in
Owner number: 1857
10 min TOPIC:Team Meeting Reports/Notes PRESENTER:Grant OUTCOME:clarity; Board is informed across teams ACTION/INTENTION:confirm everyone has read them; questions? follow up? Anthony - impressions on Operational Feasibility? Giving us the fresh look we wanted? Bob - yes! very impressed.
10 min TOPIC:Ownership Refund Policy PRESENTER:Anthony OUTCOME:policy approved; plan to post it publicly and note in Newsletter ACTION/INTENTION:discuss and approve current policy re: refunds; agree to regular review schedule Anthony - rather than a bylaw amendment, suggest a policy (see attached document in Pre-Reading) that reflects formally our ad hoc process, with a more specific and defined process. Board decides quarterly how much is available for refunds and published. Dana - should we check in with people with a deferred request before refunding (just to make sure they still want their refund)? Anthony - more a procedural thing, Policy needs to say what we have to do. Grant - we decided not to do this until open. Why do we need to do this quarterly? Anthony - at a minimum, we need to do it annually per the bylaws. Doing it quarterly signals that we are paying attention to it. Could do it per policy and say with each one that we are not refunding until opening. Bob - Is this first come, first served? Anthony - may need a change to make it work that way. (action item to change) Dana - procedural question, does responsibility for this transfer to the GM once we're open since they will oversee the annual budget for the co-op rather than the Board or is it a decision in partnership? And I think this needs to align with our fiscal year, not the calendar year, to be clear. Anthony - fiscal year is in the bylaws. Make policy Board and GM instead. (action item to change) Vote to follow on Basecamp (Anthony) 10 min TOPIC:Asking for volunteers PRESENTER:Kate OUTCOME: ACTION/INTENTION:
Kate reviewed process in attached PowerPoint (download) Dana - I love having a process! Awesome! Sounds like these are longer duration opportunities, being on a team, having a "role"... what about event volunteers (single event assistance)? Kate - Use the Google Sheet for those sign-ups, this process is for ongoing activities Grant thanks for teams
10 min TOPIC: Treasurer's Report
PRESENTER:Lee OUTCOME:awareness of financial status ACTION/INTENTION:description of financial status Lee - reviewed financial statements Dana - when going through books, please break out vendors so we can see where money goes
10-15 min TOPIC: Firebrand team report/questions
PRESENTER:Lee/Bob
OUTCOME:shared understanding
ACTION/INTENTION:description of site visit; need for quick responses from Board; questions
Lee reported - Grant and Lee started the team, then Grant got sick, and Bob wasn’t writing a grant proposal and jumped in on the team. He’s been immensely helpful since he’s been in the pro forma most. Now that Grant is back, Grant is going to step back in and Grant and Bob are going to manage.
They had their initial meeting with the Firebrand team - particularly excited about J Hannah. They toured the outside (don’t use the corner doors at night) and had immediate ideas about rearranging the space, different services, etc. J. Hannah indicated that she thought we should have a more secondary shopping/destination store, rather than a primary grocery store role. They already have thoughts on labor, loading, etc. Primary product mix team is not involved yet, but will be.
They looked at pro forma and there’s a lot of work to do, but not hopeless.
Sofia asked what prompted the “secondary store” comment - Lee said it was still an offhand comment at that point.
They love the parking lot. They chatted with Marsha from Dakota on the market study. Marsha thought all numbers would hold up as long as we had the same square footage, which made team happy.
Challenges - The biggest hurdle is that J. Hannah thinks we need 70-75% of financing as NON bank financing. Anthony asked why - JH is seeing as industry standard from co-op lenders right now. The non-secured loan no longer exists, the good news is that NCB (National Cooperative Bank, which loaned to Fredericksburg) got a guarantee from SBA and guaranteed a co-op project. They will probably have figured out how to make that work going forward.
Dana pointed out that Fredericksburg made their second capital campaign goal.
Bob pointed out that possibilities of Advantage Illinois.
Dana noted a question in the report that led her to ask about questions that are going to go to CTA - Lee pointed out some possible questions, but we need Firebrand to make those questions concrete first.
Lee also pointed out that they like the building, they think it’s quirky and potentially functional.
Dana asked about future plans for additional meetings with the board to discuss broad thoughts. Lee said we could likely make a whole board meeting happen.
15 min TOPIC: Capital Campaign team - funding feasibility assessment
PRESENTER:Lauren/Allie OUTCOME:awareness; general approval of direction ACTION/INTENTION:plan for assessing funding feasibility Allie - setting expectation, review of plan Lauren - Goal for OLC was $1.8, $1.2 remaining Bob - timeline? Allie - Campaign spring 2021 is aggressive timeline Bob - TIF is longer timeframe Anthony - if we get expected new lease, will have two years of time, aggressive timeline is great, but if it moves some, that's probably not a problem, feasibility assessment is the critical timing, September 1st is probably good but firm Grant - I think so but need to check on some things and get back to the team Dana - these need to be on the timeline Bob - yes, timeline needs an update Lauren - we can control when we have the campaign, but also have to look at cycles for organizations and government grants, not thinking all our money would be in place by March 2021 Anthony - potentially one or two high-value owner lenders who chose not to lend. think that the Firebrand study is going to address the concerns that led them not to. Lauren - please let us know if there are specific individuals we should reach out to Does Board need to approve questions and lists? Anthony - suggest posting them for review Grant - at least Sofia and I will be looking at it, so it will get Board review Dana - think it should be reporting item, Board needs to keep eyes in but rely on experts, "nose in, hands out" Lauren - need two more people to help with interviews over the next couple weeks, will train them Lauren - can we test preferred shares? Anthony - want to have a careful chat with team about it - it's a big decision and has legal implications Grant - OK to inquire about it, but can't commit yet. Anthony - Owner Loans have to be Illinois residents, donations can be from anywhere. Grant - LEAF program can get US loans out of state, don't know about out of country Allie - will ping Grant and Sofia with outreach lists Volunteers? Grant - maybe some folks from the callers from OLC campaigns
15 min TOPIC:Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - Everyone Welcome? PRESENTER:Lee and Dana OUTCOME:shared awareness/understanding ACTION/INTENTION:discussion based on reading
Choose one of the interviews in the"Everyone Welcome?" PDFto read. What 2 or 3 takeaways can we learn and take action from?
Anthony - we spend a lot of time doing education about history of co-ops, typically about white co-ops. Jessica and Malik - connections to Black and African co-ops, we don't think about that enough - there are really important analogs in other communities, should say not just come to our community but we need to learn about other communities and African American co-ops. Dana - got her book at Up and Coming, also saw Malik on a presentation, here in Chicago. We have our connection to the Austin Food Co-op, haven't reached out to them in a while, maybe try to partner with them to build bridges and build a wider community. There are a lot of housing co-ops in Chicago, a lot of them in diverse communities. I think they are mostly south and west, but some on the North side. Sofia - Kelly talked about communicating with refugee rights and activists for outreach Dana - we have Refugee One in uptown Sofia - women's sewing co-op just opened Grant - we've tried to keep in touch but doesn't seem to go I had the same takeaway as Anthony about not knowing about Black co-op history, we should learn it and then tell about it, blogs, guest speaker Anthony - inviting someone to share it might be a more authentic approach, reach out to James to do an event, could be really useful, think it would be interesting Grant - Dana, others, let's figure out who might be the right person to go after Dana - talking about farming initiatives, urban growers group run by people of color we should connect with Anthony - one of the things we haven't been as good at as an organization to listen, get other organizations to tell us about things they are doing, need to do more listening and facilitating, less presenting Bob - We have a significant low income population in our service area, I think we need to figure out ways to get them shop, specialty shop may not be it, impressed with what Eastgate co-op has done, make fundraising easier, we have to get serious about how to get that population to come shop, Eastgate surveyed that population to find out what they wanted and needed. Anthony - I think we have to get the low cost ownership structure done, just have to figure out the details and move forward, would potentially get us a connection Dana - then we have owners with voices Lee - Malik's version of community sounded much more cohesive than ours. And we are still very separate from part of our community. Anthony - I think we need to spend more time facilitating connections that may not have immediate impact, long term important for connection, creating spaces and audience from them Helen - I’ve toured urban farms in Chicago just to learn about the programs they run (for example, one also runs education/job training along with healthy eating and farming.) A virtual tour could be an option. Lauren - Refugee One just moved to Edgewater, but I'm a volunteer with them and know a few people on staff! Dana - what are we doing in marketing and how do we think about how we are presenting a lot of whiteness? Need to raise our awareness, Grant - what do we do next to keep learning? Sofia - outreach and inclusion team? Grant - yes, but need a Board member to be liaison Sofia - need to move from ideas to action Lee - yes, but leverage to have a team to do things remainder TOPIC:Owner Forum
PRESENTER:Dana OUTCOME: ACTION/INTENTION:Hear owner thoughts/concerns, answer questions.
Matthew - The Board said they'd post a response to Ben's Open Letter, but I haven't seen it in that thread yet... Is there timing for that response? Lee - in my queue, probably next week Matthew - seems like addressing this more quickly would have been appropriate. Art work in the building is really cool, is there a plan to publicize this? Next newsletter? Dana - was excited to see what I could online, and got something up on Facebook there as soon as artist posted, but I think it's a great idea to do a feature if we can Grant - love the idea, but don't have the bandwidth Matthew - will reach out to the artist and interview - information Dana - she has a great Instagram feed Matthew - Is there an update on how the survey is going? Dana - just under 200 respondents so far, would love to have everyone that opened the email respond, 600 opened it, Becky monitoring information coming in, she will come to next Board meeting, will do some analytics. Lauren and Allie (Capital Campaign team) will be talking with Becky about survey responses as well to get more financial feasibility implications for what we see in responses. Have we gotten any emails from respondents of the survey reaching out (prompt at end of survey since it's anonymous)? Kate - got one for volunteering. Dana - reminder email going out Friday, trying to wrap by Wednesday or Thursday next week Matthew - Lee for walkthrough of prior spend and remaining funds Love what consultants said about specialty, Great marketing possibilities Re low cost ownership, time may be now, but would argue that for people for whom every dollar matters it hard to say now is good Anthony - it will take a whole lot of work and time, need to make a decision before the end of July Dana - also, there's a difference between announcing it and marketing it Matthew - talk about outside consultant for funding - any idea of cost Grant - that research is down the the road Matthew - thanks for Capital Campaign report - that was great. Grant - Happy Birthday to Bob! Dana - glad you're back, Grant!
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