Public Board Minutes from 10/26/16

Present:  Mark, Mike, Dan, Grant, Lizzy, Emily, Kelly, Anthony, Greg, Linn, Larry, Bill  (and two owners - Molly Milne, Adam Widera)
Notes: Anthony and Emily

Open comments from Owners, introductions

 

Discussion of new features of BC3.  Props to Karen and Grant for migrating from BC2.  Discussion of protocol for notifying people on posts, Grant cautioned people to not always notify everyone.  Anthony cautioned about duplicate To-Dos, and Grant agreed – make sure that to-dos are not already there.  Linn cautioned that you can’t see edits in documents anymore, and so if you make major changes, note it.

 

Grant pointed out we have had official notice from Tony that he is stepping down.  We now have 14 board members.  Grant makes a motion that Mike be the board liaison to legal.  The board approved the motion.  Tony will be taken off of board-level projects. 

 

Linn asked whether Tony could continue to sign contracts and edit documents, Grant indicated that he could, but if concerned talk to Mike.  Tony will still be running the legal project.  

 

Treasurer Report from Bill:

 

Passed out summary handout.   Since we’ve started, we’ve collected approximately $236,000, and our expenses have been $154,000 and have approximately $80,000 in the bank.  Owners buying in at approximately $277 each.  Anthony asked a basic accounting question.  

 

Bill will also give out summaries by vendor so we can see exactly where our money has gone.  Bill is going to start a budgeting process by team, in order to create spending controls.  

 

Bill walked us through a P&L statement with expenses broken down by category.  

 

Emily asked about the importance of going back and reconciling categories of spending.  Bill and Mike suggested that the most important thing was ongoing consistency, and Emily suggested that there be a protocol for tracking expenses.  

 

Bill also notes that we haven’t used the inventory part of quickbooks, so that we keep tighter control on what we buy and sell.   Emily pointed out that we need better cash operations and controls. 

 

Bill took some specific questions about expense line items.

Bill next passed out the balance sheet.  He discussed the basic balance sheet, but also discussed the cost per owner over time. 

Anthony presented on MORE updates, specifically marketing campaign outline. It's now a long-term plan with defined goals for Ownership that target specific groups. First is Co-Op love, then campaigns surrounding health and wellness, environmental concerns, etc. Each will have specialized graphics, logos. Better targeting of advertising. More specific reachout to Owners who are already part of these groups, utilizing individual Owners' passions. Plan right now is to do mostly 30-day campaigns with some gaps between them for regrouping and evaluation. 

Opportunities for engagement for Board members: recruitment is the responsibility of all of us. Board should be looking at these campaigns as they happen and sharing on social media, especially as they pertain to our audiences. Breaking it up builds manageable chunks that will hopefully build momentum and morale. This hyper-focused approach to recruitment will inform everything we're doing- advertising, events, etc. going forward.

Bill asked if we should form "scripts" to empower Board members who reach out to potential owners. Anthony says all that material exists, and Lizzy utilizes it in volunteer training. Should we do role-playing at the next Board meeting to go over this material?

Mark asked what we should say to potential landlords who ask us about Ownership growth. Mike says it's not a Marketing decision. 

Grant says our messaging is out there that we're stressing the 1500 number, so we shouldn't back off that announcement with landlords. Kelly thinks landlords won't necessarily know that this is our goal. Greg says we just need to stress that we've got campaigns going and have had successful campaigns in the past.

The important part is that our bank cares about the 1500 number because it reflects financial viability. This translates into contingencies which is what landlords will be concerned with.

Dan says so far we have been insisting on 90 day-contingency periods.

Grant brings us back to upcoming campaigns: co-op lovers and health and wellness.

Greg asked about yard signs: are there any other plans for folks that are not on social media? Yard signs will have text messaging info. We're also redesigning the bi-fold to be 8.5x11 print-friendly that anyone could run off in their home or office.

 

The Board entered into Executive Session to discuss a human resources issue.