Possible Mission & Vision Statements

[Mary]

Rachel and I did some brainstorming after the first Organizational
Meeting and came up with a couple of ideas. I would like everyone's
opinion - Yea or Nay ???

Mission Statement

To act as a community cornerstone uniting Alaska producers and
consumers.


Vision Statement

The Fresh from Alaska Co-op supports high quality foods, local,
sustainable agricultural practices & educates the community on health
& wellness issues while providing a foundation for stability and
growth.

[triena slatter]

I think it should be inner & community empowering coming from
individual agreement to a better life point of view of the same thing.

Mission Statement:
Alaska Producers and Alaska Consumers acting as a community
cornerstone united in creating a continuous abundant local sustainable
food chain from the farm to the table for a win win system for all.

Vision Statement:
Creating a stable sustainable slow growth and
(manageable/maintainable) food chain between local producers and local
consumers for high quality local foods using local sustainable
agricultural practices and education for the community on health &
wellness, benefits of local sustainable practices & the communities
roles to make it all happen for a better healthier life and healthier
world for all.

OK, so I'm not the best at mission & vision statements, especially
when I forget what is the difference between them again. But, I don't
think mission statements shouldn't start off with "to act as" or
vision statement to start with "the" to be the most effective. But
then again I haven't helped write one for a while. We should probable
come up with a procedure to present a few 2 or 3 choices to the main
body (those that haven't show up yet, but want to be apart) for
democratic and fair practices. See what you come up with after the
meeting tonight. And is sounds like you me & Rachael are the main
core group right now. Anybody else join the core group since I've
been here? Also, doesn't look like I will be back before the 17th.
So can you set the next meeting up on the 17th or after. I can try
and join a core meeting by skype or cell phone if we need to before
then. I would like to talk to you some more, since we don't really
have much time and I am stuck down here not able to help you out to
much. Even on research marketing internet stuff or anything. But
maybe we could talk a little more using Phil's phone in the evening.
His daytime minutes end after 7pm. I'm not sure when the meeting will
get over, So maybe send a text or call after the meeting tonight with
an update. If you know of a better idea of what I can to do help from
here, maybe I can focus more effort on something specific.

I am excited it is moving along so well, and am sad I am missing so
much of it. Great job, by the way, if I haven't said so in the last
few emails. Find out when a good evening time is for Rachael if we
need to have a core group meeting before the 17th; and if shortly
after the 17th what is a good time.

Good luck with the meeting tonight.

[Rachel Drinkard]

What about: The goal of Fresh From Alaska is to act as a community

cornerstone uniting Alaska producers and

consumers the creation of a sustainable four season local food system.

Or, is that the general idea at all? Maybe we need to scrap the whole
thing and start over.

Key points that have been consistent among members:

Building awareness and educating the community on the value of local
foods
Facilitating the production and sale of more local foods
Increasing access and convenience to these foods

A mission statement should state succinctly and clearly exactly what
your goal is, what we, as a group, are aiming to do. Let's generate a
couple of different ideas on here and go from there, building the
vision and values from that.

Rachel

[triena slatter]

Mary,

In one of our very first meeting you read a few mission statements
from like REI, COSTCO, etc. Could you send out that info again so we
can get an idea of how other great successful coops have written one.
I agree with Rachel, we should determine what are goals are to help
write the mission & vision statement, then individual goals &
objectives we are going to use to get us there. We need these for our
business model and plan as well, so it is a great start. Then maybe
between the 3 or so of us we can come up with 3 or 4 variations to put
in a poll for people to vote on.

I think the 3 key points is a good start, and we should break them out
into objectives & values, like she said, and start building or adding
some of the other ideas we have been generating, like the one about
every month have a meet the farmer day a farmer come talk about their
farm and highlight what they do and how they do it, etc. I know Mary
has already worked on something like that, but If you guys already
built on part of that, could you please share it again with me.

Thanks

[Mary]

Please read over the Mission and Vision Statements that have been
posted. If you have any other ideas, feel free to post those. We
would like to finalize these two statements at the March 17th interim
board meeting.



Thank you!