last night's meeting
Rebecca Schillenback
Thank you!
Rebecca Schillenback
--
Rebecca Schillenback
Administrative Director
Community Nursery School
ari evergreen
becoming involved!
Here are the notes from the meeting on Friday. Thanks to everyone who
came, and to those who have taken on tasks - please pay special
attention, everybody, to the "next steps" part at the end.
My apologies for any errors or omissions - please feel free to send
any corrections to the mailing list.
Thanks and peace,
Ari
--
Save Ludgate Farms Meeting
12.9.11 - 7.30pm
Shira facilitating, Ari taking notes
======================
Welcome
Shira's just a person who cares about this business, so there's no
assumption about easy fixes - let's just see what happens. She's
willing to give a small investment (Buffalo St. Books-style), and will
give time, but is not a leader. Ok she's facilitating? Yes, we all
agree.
======================
Go-around: who we are and why we're here
Sy Smidt - Finance background, 1st mayor of village of Lansing
Hillary Lambert - grew up around the corner, into community stuff
Larissa Richards - interested in local farms and economy, planning to
have a farm
Simon St. Lawrence - lives nearby, came here when he was a kid; wants
to figure out how to plug in
Markia - assistant manager at ludgate's, have lived here and shopped
here. also a grocery sleuth!
Katie Quinn-Jacobs - proprietor, customers before that, founder of
IthaCan, HarveStation (w/ Allison Fromme), farms at Peasant Dreams
Farm
Dave Quinn-Jacobs - Katie's husband, interest in food security issues
Ari Evergreen - likes it, as a community resource, could give energy,
outreach help
Suzanne McMannis - Earthwalk farm
======================
Where Ludgate's is at (Katie presents)
- it's 4 years in the red, have lost customer base, can't turn
business around
- hadn't originally thought she'd work the store, but found it is a
huge undertaking, has had to work here a lot more than planned,
overextended with other commitments
- needs a younger clientele, needs families, students
- structure has roof, floor issues. original plan had been to perhaps
build in another building (there are 3 acres here), but there weren't
the sales needed to support the development
- could be community- or group- owned, maybe that would work better
than sole proprietor
- unless the community wants this space, it won't be here - it needs a
buy-in
- buyers club - 2000 people since january
- more people need to shop here more often
- presentation - Sapsucker Farm & Market - close, rebrand, reopen.
skillshares, local goods, diy products, farmer and local processor
equity shares. buy-in from people getting income out of the business.
that supports community resiliency.
- the place is beautiful and interesting, like those hollow trees down
at the farmer's market - park-like setting is attractive
profitability goals:
- gross annual sales 3 million
- generate living wage jobs
- retail outlet for local folks
- profit breakdown = 50% infrastructure upgrades (part of why it's so
run down), 30% employee profit sharing, 10% community ventures, 10%
shareholders
should be done green, local, low-footprint, LEED certification, bio-
bag packaging, online and bulk ordering, electric processes
connections - farms, food processors, resiliency efforts
10% profits support local ventures (donations, scholarships,
enterprise edev't)
- model employer
- active participant in foodshed development
why a coop?
changes dynamic from consumer to partner
community ownership - spreads risk, increases buy-in and empowerment
strengthens a sense of place / identity to sapsucker woods
neighborhood; this store kind of anchors that.
- brief discussion of calling it hanshaw, not sapsucker woods
neighborhood - we amiably agree it has many names!
stakeholder groups: subscribers, employees, board of directors,
volunteers, equity owners
timeline:
determine interest
steering committee
close ludgates dec. 31, 2011
open coop april 1, 2012
she has budgets and floorplans for additional buildings with root
cellars and certified kitchens
met with j. marafino - they work on worker-owned coops; he's helping
biodiesel coop too
they're selling stuff, they have to keep selling equipment etc. so
they're in a hurry to see what's happening next
======================
Q&A
Sy: how did business get lost?
- new ownership - that's the way it's been for them. there are a lot
of little reasons - bad winter, bad luck, infrastructure challenges,
inspector said they'd be closed down in the first week, licensing
issues, replaced electric and septic, renovated the office and the
house's light fixtures, cleaning was really extensive, grounds and
greenhouse also needed work.
- also there were a lot of longterm customers who liked particular
things, and they ended up losing people inadvertently, not knowing
about all of those preferences. they had workers with some of that
knowledge but there was a big learning curve, and the store offers a
lot and everyone sees it differently. bulk and local vs specialty
foods. specialty foods go out of date before people buy them - and
they're expensive.
- nyc shipping prices have gone waaaaay up recently
Sy: greenstar etc. has a lot of stuff, students don't really come out
here. they have wifi but nowhere to sit. maybe scary to put a big
capital investment; if it doesn't work it's a loss, so banks might not
like that.
- could have upgrades to current building, but the floor isn't
washable, so the ag markets people don't like it, they want to shut
them down; applied a different standard to these folks than to
previous owners
- buffalo st. books buy-out; we discuss amounts of money, what could
be done with community support. bsb has 2 classes of shares, so you
can get different profits back, have different buy-ins
- capital would be needed for inventory, shop, and startup capital
- energy is needed - that was the main impediment, they got tired
trying to organize and get a coop going; tried reaching out to
customers, but nothing came of it
- had an offer to buy the property but it didn't pan out
Shira: is there a scenario where these guys stay owning the property
and the coop comes in and works etc.?
- yes, but who pays for upgrades?
- rent to own could work
- they'd be taking a huge risk, so this is a plan b - they'd rather be
free, so they can join the coop and shop here!
Sy: there has to be someone to manage and run it, or it'll stop.
Dave: they have confidence in Markia
Sy: you need someone with financial background to create a business
plan, someone with training and experience who can maybe take charge
of it so folks don't have to reinvent the wheel - before you go the
community
Shira: there's perhaps an opportunity here for a larger conversation,
a larger group to do something more creative
Sy: there isn't the time to do it more creatively; someone has to
lead. financial support has to come in fast. maybe someone out of the
johnson school?
Suzanne: Greenstar?
- Sy talked to them, sounds like they couldn't do it now, but maybe
people within Greenstar have the skills and time
Markia - they've been asked to stop carrying organic food by some
customers - it's a delicate balance to keep folks happy, the person
who takes over would need a very clear vision and specific skills to
make sure they could do what they want to do
We look at a document, "How to start a food coop" - we look at a flow
chart that confirms we need a person to lead
Simon: is it ok to shut down? could they lose zoning / use?
- Dave: the local gov't wants it to be local, and it's zoned so there
can't be a convenience store
- they have a license but it's hard to keep it
Simon: can the floor be fixed without destroying the building?
- Katie: Cement or wood; roof is also a major issue - gets 110 degrees
in there, and it destroys the food
- Markia: one freezer went out, and then their new one created
electric problems
Ari: would anyone be willing to help locate a leader and establish
feasibility?
- Markia is willing to help
- Shira: could money be pledged by the community via Facebook etc.?
that could help us see if this is really possible.
- Sy: there are things to be cautious of when asking for investment
capital, you have to use specific wording
- Larissa: this place is magical, that's what's special about it.
maybe you need a special kind of person to lead; she knows someone
who's a model customer, quirky taste, likes finding things here that
you might not find elsewhere, and the setting is very special. people
love it so it will be easy to get support for it… finding that special
person who understands the right ambiance, that's hard.
- Katie: there has to be someone to really make this their project -
that's harder to get than capital. whatever the focus, you need a
broad clientele to come spend $10 every day to keep it afloat.
Larissa: small farmers can't market to larger stores, have they ID'ed
folks that will come to sell microprocessed stuff?
- Katie and Dave: yes, there're tons of people… many small vendors
with small quantities (a lot can go wrong), farmers' market day
possibilities - but something has to come back to the store, or it's
not something they can afford to do.
- Markia: people want variety, and yet you can't do that, you have to
specialize
======================
Go-around: next steps
what we're willing to do to keep this going
Shira: would facilitate another meeting, would help with web support
to check out the possibility of a community buy-in. also maybe do a
customer assessment or survey, could use online tools like
surveymonkey.
Suzanne: could be on a steering committee. we could look at autumn
leaves' business model with rent and coffee and books.
Ari: community needs assessment, even door to door, also web and
writing and outreach
Sy: has business contacts at cornell that he'll try to send it to
Shira
Dave: will be a great customer and member of the coop, overextended
Katie: would support a steering committee, and would be happy to help
select and train the new magic leader person. would definitely be a
customer!
Markia: knows the store and customers, could give that knowledge
Simon: could serve on a steering committee, kind of overextended but
could spend some time on that
Larissa: could help develop a marketing plan
Hillary: works hard! would be on steering committee. interested in the
fact that so many people joined the buying club, would like to focus a
survey on them.
Dave: has a mailing list if needed. better if it comes from someone
outside of Ludgate's though.
Markia: Ludgate's has 2500 facebook friends
Hillary: Mark Ludgate has a lot of friends and he might be willing to
help; he might even know people who know that magic and would be
interested in leading
Katie: but you have to think about the future, what's going to happen,
there's this whole image of what it is and what it's been, so you have
to think of it as a new thing. this place has a personality, and when
the ownership changed, it changed… and it'll keep changing.