Free "Webinars" from Food Co-op 500, Wednesdays 10-11:30am
Rory Bowman
which are available to everyone with an Internet connection who can
afford the price of a phone call to listen in. Files from these
seminars are available in the "Files" section of VFC-General or at http://cdsfood.centraldesktop.com/fc500registration/FilesFromFc500Series1
If folks would like to participate in another, expanded round of
seminars, a seconds series will begin next week. The schedule is below
and you may attend any or all. These are free of charge but you must
register in advance to participate. "Webinars" begin at 10am pacific
time and usually last ninety minutes.
Sign up by going to http://cdsfood.centraldesktop.com/fc500registration/
Sept 10th: Bill Gessner
Orientation to Development: 4 Cornerstones in 3 stages
Sept. 17th: Stuart Reid
Skills and Tools for the organizing stage
Sept 24th: Joel Dalhgren
Legal issues for new food co-ops
Oct. 1: Mark Goehring
Governance and accountability
Oct. 8th: Marilyn Scholl
Members and Economic participation
Oct 15th:Bill Gessner
Creating a budget: Sources and uses
Oct. 22:Mel Braverman
Evaluating feasibility and planning for success
Oct 29th: Debbie Suassuna
Market Research: Projecting sales and identifying site characteristics
Jan 7, 2009: Bill Gessner
Planning your member loan campaign
Jan 14th:Kelly Smith
Marketing and promoting
Jan. 21: Denise Chevalier
Project management
Jan. 28th: Carolle Colter
Hiring your first Project Manager (PM)
Anja Larson
Aren't completely sure what tilth is? Well at its best it looks like
chocolate!
Even though Oregon Tilth is not based in Clark County, WA, they are
still the best certifier around, and
work a lot certifying fair trade farmers in Mexico, etc. This season's
chocolate festival, all around the Pearl, a tram ride away from Food
Front, is also a benefit for international sustainable farmers.
http://www.nwchocolatefestival.com/2008-location
I am cc'ing Peggy and inserting her website, because she donated her
salty dark chocolate for the VFC Valentine's Day potluck. And she uses
Guittard, if I'm not wrong - I'm so seldom wrong. Guittard being based
out of the EU is obliged to track each cocoa bean back to any likely
child laborer being exploited in its creation and export.
http://peggyshandmadechocolates.com/
And she also grows tulips, somewhere in Hazel Dell.
Rory Bowman
moments to step back and look at what the last few weeks of expert
advice from Food Co-Op 500 folks has led me to consider, as it relates
to VFC.
In many ways, the webinars conclusively demonstrated that VFC is half-
baked or losing ground. The first webinar on the three stages (four
cornerstones) model demonstrated that VFC jumped ahead of itself and
has clearly lost capacity (in all four cornerstones) over the past
calendar year. The second seminar on skills and tools reinforced this
observation, and demonstrated how structural issues within VFC and the
lack of a competent founding team hobbled its chances. A lack of clear
understanding about the board's role and the inability of a key
founder to relinquish control leaves VFC with clear deficits it has
yet to recover from (and which I personally believe it shall never
recover from). The VFC name is largely mud, and for good reason.
The webinars on legal issues, board accountability and economic
participation continued to hammer on how VFC had failed at the three
stages (four cornerstone) model and needed to address those issues
before going forward. Lack of vision, inadequate systems and
alienation of talent meant there was a general lack of support from
ownership, which manifest immediately in low owner numbers and will
eventually lead to under-capitalization. That the board has voted to
allow itself to spend down all owner equity on its own training and
"development" pretty much guarantees it will go broke without some
significant changes, and the goals put forward by the current board on
August 27, 2008, are simply delusional. I know of only one store in
the entire nation that has accomplished what VFC proposes: River
Valley Market. And that was done with a seriously seasoned expert at
the helm. VFC leadership currently does not include a single person
with start-up experience, and the little business experience it does
have is primarily in large corporations and from the perspective of
non-managerial employees (a completely different animal).
The last three webinars of 2008 began to point to a larger issue that
VFC has never addressed: Cooperative Development Services is largely
wed to the dominant grocery market of our time. Much of their
discussions assume that cooperatives are identical to other
supermarkets, and plans to build smaller models of a retail Safeway,
such as the one at 3707 Main Street. Full-service supermarkets with
large parking lots for suburban shoppers, these aim to include
multiple departments and such amenities as a "grab-and-go" deli or in-
house cafe. With the exception of Food Front (which is currently
operating two stores at its fifth and sixth retail locations,
respectively), none of non-PCC cooperatives I have visited meet this
model, and certainly not stores such as People's, Alberta, Corvallis,
Yelm or Olympia. All of the assumptions going into the last three
webinars were (a) that one wished to mimic a suburban supermarket, (b)
with paid staff and "normal" hours which would (c) attempt to capture
as many food dollars as possible from the market area. There was
almost no allowance for a smaller store that would serve more modest
needs, make substantive use of owner labor or limit itself to just a
few products. Consider Alberta, which is within a few doors of a well-
stocked wine shop and a decent cafe: They do not sell coffee and have
a small wine selection. Consider People's, which has no parking and is
within a few blocks of a New Seasons and several cafes: They do not
carry meat and only offer drip coffee, with a weekly "farmer's market"
that increased their sales by ceding key aspects of their produce
department. Both of these by CDS standards were mere "neighborhood
stores" but what is wrong with being a neighborhood store? Why must
the model always be a suburban Safeway that aims to maximize its
market? I assert that it is enough to meet the needs of members, but
this assumes that the vision of members can be ascertained.
At the very first "coming out" potluck for the VFC owner drive, I was
working the share-sales table. At that table I had a number of
interesting conversations with new members and prospective members.
One of them was a woman with HVAC repair experience, whose partner had
worked in three food co-ops and helped to start two. "Keep it small
and build it," was their advice: the important thing was community.
Another was a man who had started and sold half a dozen businesses.
"Don't let consultants tell you what to do," was his advice: they will
run the show.
I assert that CDS has very valuable advice, but that VFC has abandoned
its purpose and lost its vision because their lack of experience and
fear of accountability has sent them into the arms of consultants.
They are essentially listening to the advice of experts with no
appreciation for their community or the assumptions those consultants
make. This is why their vision is getting larger and vaguer, and much
less tethered to business reality.
Key materials (including all handouts and several movies) from these
webinars may be viewed for free online at http://cdsfood.centraldesktop.com/fc500registration/
See for yourself.