Initial organizing group

[Bren]

One of the most important things we'll need is a core group of 8 -12
people who are willing to do some legwork to get things moving. I
suspect some of these people would also transition to the initial
board of directors for the cooperative.

If you've got some business experience (startups, accounting, finance,
contracts, purchasing, etc) and you're willing to serve on this group,
leave a message on this thread and we'll get you in the loop.

[Jenn Perez]

I'm a CPA, specializing in non-profit organizations. Put me to work.
But not too much work. :)

Jenn

[jjbeals]

I am not sure I have directly applicable experience, but I am willing
and motivated to help.

Just out of my own curiosity, I have starting to read about other
food coops. There is one in LaCrosse WI that grew out of a group of
individuals associated with University of Wisconsin taking a whole
foods class in 1973, they now have 4000 member families. Their website
has a lot of information about how they are involved in the community,
their bylaws, principals of operation and more. Unless this has been
done I would be willing to research other coops to get an idea of what
different models are being used, how coops have started out, what
kinds of items are carried etc.

On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Lisa]

I'm highly interested, and generally smart enough, but have no
experience in accounting, purchasing, etc. though a tad bit of
experience starting our CSA. :) COunt me in. Like Jen, put me to
work, but not too much work!

On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bren]

Great responses, folks, thanks!

Seems like we could use some brainstorming about ways to inform and
involve the broader Newberg community in this. At some point down the
road we'll need to do community meetings to build support, and we'll
put ads in the Graphic to help spread the word. Until then, though,
we've got to find a few more initial organizing folks, and I'm at a
bit of a loss as to where to find them. Ideas?

[Doug Pugsley]

Hi Bren,

I talked very briefly with Mike Ragsdale who runs the pretty successful farmers' market in Dundee in the summer/fall seasons. He would be interested in discussing the co-op idea. Shall I get his e-mail info to you?

More brainstorming....

I haven't talked to her but Denise Bacon is on the Newberg City Council and was very involved in the affordable housing work done last year. I think she would be interested in the co-op concept and might have other good suggestions of people who might be helpful.

I'm afraid this person might be too busy, but I know someone whose former job was doing analysis for supermarket citing for a national firm. His knowledge of what works and what doesn't in terms of location could be useful. I think co-ops probably have more flexibility in terms of their location in a community because of the sense of belonging. Anyway, let me know if we would like to touch base with him.

Here's the link to the First Alternative Co-op in Corvallis: http://www.firstalt.coop/

They are a long-term success story. I wouldn't be surprised if we couldn't get at least an e-mail dialog going with one or more of their managers.

That's all for now.

Doug

--- On Thu, 1/21/10, Bren <brendon....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Bren]

Good notes, Doug. Great idea about Denise! Our kids go to the same school, and I see her around pretty regularly, so I'll ask her about getting involved here. I think it's right up her alley.

I was briefly on a committee with Mike Ragsdale, so I've got his email address, but don't really know him. If you've got a relationship with him, you might just pass along the link to this group and see if he'd dip his toe in. I know he's a pretty busy guy. Send this link: http://groups.google.com/group/newberg-coop

Your supermarket analysis person is a good contact to have down the road. Let's keep him in mind for when we're ready to scout locations, and see what he's got to say.

Good note about First Alternative. I've got them listed on the 'Resouces' page of this group, and I think we'll probably want to have some folks talking to as many successful Oregon co-ops as we can, at some point.

--Bren

[Jenn Perez]

I'll try to talk to Denise, also. I don't know her terribly well, but
I live 2 doors down from her and see her almost every day. Seems like
she would be a fantastic connection for getting interest from the
broader community. And I'd love to make more of a personal connection
with her as well.

Jenn

On Jan 22, 10:18 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Good notes, Doug. Great idea about Denise! Our kids go to the same school,
> and I see her around pretty regularly, so I'll ask her about getting
> involved here. I think it's right up her alley.
>
> I was briefly on a committee with Mike Ragsdale, so I've got his email
> address, but don't really know him. If you've got a relationship with him,
> you might just pass along the link to this group and see if he'd dip his toe
> in. I know he's a pretty busy guy. Send this link:http://groups.google.com/group/newberg-coop
>
> Your supermarket analysis person is a good contact to have down the road.
> Let's keep him in mind for when we're ready to scout locations, and see what
> he's got to say.
>
> Good note about First Alternative. I've got them listed on the

> 'Resouces<http://groups.google.com/group/newberg-coop/web/resources>'

> > --- On Thu, 1/21/10, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> > > From: Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com>
> > > Subject: [Newberg Coop Market] Re: Initial organizing group
> > > To: "Newberg Coop Market" <newber...@googlegroups.com>
> > > Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 7:31 PM
> > > Great responses, folks, thanks!
>
> > > Seems like we could use some brainstorming about ways to
> > > inform and
> > > involve the broader Newberg community in this. At some
> > > point down the
> > > road we'll need to do community meetings to build support,
> > > and we'll
> > > put ads in the Graphic to help spread the word. Until then,
> > > though,
> > > we've got to find a few more initial organizing folks, and
> > > I'm at a
> > > bit of a loss as to where to find them. Ideas?
>
> > > --
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the
> > > Google Groups "Newberg Coop Market" group.
> > > To post to this group, send email to newber...@googlegroups.com.
> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > > newberg-coop...@googlegroups.com<newberg-coop%2Bunsubscribe@google­groups.com>

> > .
> > > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/newberg-coop?hl=en.
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Newberg Coop Market" group.
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> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > newberg-coop...@googlegroups.com<newberg-coop%2Bunsubscribe@google­groups.com>

> > .
> > For more options, visit this group at

> >http://groups.google.com/group/newberg-coop?hl=en.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Lisa]

Until today I had forgotten that our oldest daughter, Rae Kaigler,
spent a year getting a food-co-op started in Missoula, MT as her
Americorp job. That one had the dual goals of providing affordable,
healthy, local produce/food primarily to low-income families (but
open to all community members), and to provide an outlet for local
food producers to sell products. I've talked with her, and she'd be
willing to meet with us and tell us what she learned--and to help us
prepare for what we don't yet know. I'll learned a lot about what co-
ops can be, and how they can get started from my brief conversation
with her. (For instance, it took the Missoula co-op 3 years to build
from the year one buying club to the store front (they used Azure
Standard), as they needed to grow the local producer base along with
their local support/buying base. She's going to put me in contact
with the current director of that co-op, who has been there since year
3 (it's now maybe 6 or 7 years old). I think at this point that one is
a hybrid volunteer/paid staff co-op.

On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bren]

Excellent, Lisa! It'll be really helpful to have Rae's experience and insights. I'd like to get at least a couple more folks onto the organizing group, then have a face to face meeting soon thereafter. Then it'd probably be a good time for at least a subset of the organizing group to talk to folks like Rae, and the directors/managers of other co-ops.

FYI, and especially to folks on the organizing group, this guide to starting a cooperative market is pretty helpful. Probably worth getting familiar with it. There also a pdf version here.

--Bren

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[Meghan Czarnecki]

I would love to contribute, though I'm not sure how much time I have.
I don't have a ton of experience with retail, other than working at
Chapters (though I do work with our wholesale suppliers for coffee,
pastries, milk, books, etc) but I was a church secretary and
bookkeeper for about 5 years so I do have some understanding of how
the financial workings of a non-profit go (though only in the church
setting) and how we set up our accounting practices to have
appropriate checks and balances. I've done a lot of research on local
farms to find affordable, local whole foods for our family and have
purchased from many of them (and Azure Standard) so I might be able to
help with finding farms/farmers to work with. I don't necessarily need
to be a part of the main "team" but if I can be helpful I'd love to
contribute wherever needed.
-Meghan Czarnecki

>
> > On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > One of the most important things we'll need is a core group of 8 -12
> > > people who are willing to do some legwork to get things moving. I
> > > suspect some of these people would also transition to the initial
> > > board of directors for the cooperative.
>
> > > If you've got some business experience (startups, accounting, finance,
> > > contracts, purchasing, etc) and you're willing to serve on this group,
> > > leave a message on this thread and we'll get you in the loop.
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Newberg Coop Market" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to newber...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > newberg-coop...@googlegroups.com<newberg-coop%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>

[jjbeals]

Two things that I keep thinking about are momentum built from Food
Meet and the Earth Day event in April. I guess we are not to the 8-12
person core group, but I wonder if it would be worth meeting
nevertheless in order to draw on the momentum from the Food Meet and
to have more to present and offer at the Earth Day event in April.
After reading through the Food Coop founding manual (and the anonymous
contributors’ posts) I realize that I do have skills to offer. In my
previous employment I was a driver of long term planning. I put
together timelines, presentations, protocols, org charts,
spreadsheets, did research, etc. Also from this experience I know that
it is never an increasing linear process from start to finish. Often
it is 2 steps forward, 1,2 or even 3 steps back. Or it requires
painful scraping of plans in which much time/effort has been invested
in order to move forward successfully.

So I would like to suggest that we meet soon and I am offering my time
and skills to put something together for the Earth Day event that
would reflect a direction that the current core group dreams up,
(fully recognizing that this is just a dream, the first vision,
nothing we are committed to long term). Thoughts I have for the Earth
Day event are having a selection of products that the coop would
possibly offer, a sign-up sheet for interest in a buying club (we
could start with Azure Standard), comparison of prices that the coop
could offer vs. Fred Meyer (?—if we can show there’s a savings), a
display on savings in shipping, fuel and time to be able to purchase
these items in Newberg rather than purchasing them out of town, and
some case studies of other food co-ops. I am sure there are other
better ideas we can come up with.

The goal of this is really to generate interest or let those
interested identify themselves, not coming up with exact plans for
going forward, if that makes sense.

On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bren]

Yeah, I've been thinking similarly. It's probably worth getting
together and mapping out some plans. I'm underwater with work through
this weekend, but then I'll be able to jump back in here and get a
meeting on the calendar.

Let me get through this weekend, and then on Monday I can start
bouncing possible meeting dates around. Unless someone else wants to
jump on that sooner (which would be great). The tool I use to
coordinate dates across many calendars is http://whenisgood.net. It's
free, with no account needed, though setting up an account (still
free) makes it easier to manage responses. I usually pick 4-5
potential dates, then see which one gets the most response. If nobody
takes on this responsibility by Monday, I'll do it.

[Lisa]

I agree--we ought to meet while the energy is fresh. Thank you, Jill,
for naming all this so well, and offering to help get some greater
organizational push toward Earth Day.

On Jan 28, 9:52 pm, jjbeals <jjbe...@comcast.net> wrote:

[Sheila Bartlett]

Thanks Jill.

On Jan 28, 9:52 pm, jjbeals <jjbe...@comcast.net> wrote:

[Bren]

Friends--

I've set up a few options for a face to face meeting for the
organizing group. Visit this site: http://whenisgood.net/fqtmm2 and
just "paint" over the times that work for you. Be sure to include your
name when you hit submit.

All of these dates are open (at the moment) for meeting at one of the
conference rooms at my office (200 N. Meridian...big blue house kitty
corner from Coffee Cottage).

--Brendon

On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Aaron]

Hello!

I would love to help in any way I can.

I currently perform in multinational corporate finance and accounting
roles, with specialization in financial analysis & planning, inventory
utilization analysis & planning, process optimization, and strategic
planning.

My wife and I have owned and operated our own food business, and we
are HUGE proponents of local, organic (and beyond) foods, as well as
nutritional awareness.

Let me know what you need!

--Aaron

On Dec 8 2009, 10:36 am, Bren <brendon.conne...@gmail.com> wrote: