Welcome to our first weekly Chicago Market update. Check this space every Monday for a quick glimpse at what our many committees have been doing.

This first update, though, takes a wider view. Here's a Cliff's Notes version of some of Chicago Market's biggest accomplishments in 2015. What a year it was:

Chicago Market Owners elected the first Board of Directors.

The 15-member Board met for the first time in January and continued meetings every month since then.

The Board drafted Chicago Market's bylaws, which were later approved by a vote of the Owners.

We created a list of Purchasing Values to guide how we'll stock the store. 

Chicago Market representatives met with a host of aldermen in our target area.

Chicago Market hosted its first-ever holiday pop-up event, offering farm-fresh produce and other locally produced items. 

The Board voted to hire Chicago Market founder Greg Berlowitz to head up our funding efforts.

We hosted a well-attended first-annual Owner's Meeting, where Owners heard about the co-op's progress while enjoying local food and drink.

We launched the Chicago Market email newsletter.

The co-op held its first farmer-listening session.

The Board crafted a timeline to guide our progress.

Chicago Market was present at many events throughout the year, including Farm Aid, the Good Food Fest and the Square Roots Fest.

We strengthened our connection with the co-op community by meeting several times with national co-op expert Jacqueline Hannah. 

The co-op hired a commercial real estate broker.

Our Site Selection Committee began going on site tours.

We launched a successful drive to get 80 new Owners in the last weeks of the year, to fund our Market Study.