Grocery & Deli
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Monday - Saturday: 8am - 8pm
Sunday: 9am - 7pm
526 Gaffney Road
Fairbanks, AK 99701
907.457.1023
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Tanana Valley Farmer’s Market Annual Bazaar!
10 am to 4 pm
Find our fundraising booth at the Bazaar!
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Board Meeting
5:30 pm
Volunteer Center – 546 4th Ave. Suite 100 B – Downstairs
Call 457-1023 for more information
TO BE ANNOUNCED:
Communictaions/Outreach Committee Meeting
Health and Wellness Education Committee Meeting
Fairbanks Community Cooperative Market (FCCM)
Board Meeting Minutes
October 6, 2009, 5:30 pm
Before the business meeting a question and answer session was held with Andy and John Bachner, owners of the “Foodland” property. This helped to nail down some of the monthly operational costs we can expect if we lease a portion of the property.
1. Meeting Called to Order by Hans Geier at 5:30 pm. Present: Morgan Macchione, Sharon Alden, Mary Christensen, Mike Emers, Hans Geier, Evan Daigneault, Robert Leach
Quorum: Yes
2. Minutes from the last meeting were read and CHANGED. Sharon Alden moved to change the minutes to read that Board Seats “A” through “E” expire in 2011 and
Board Seats ”F” through “I” expire in 2010. Morgan Macchione seconded the motion. The motion was approved and passed.
3. Committee Reports:
Communications/Outreach – Chair: Mary Christensen reported that the Pancake Breakfast was a success with $2800 raised, a VISTA volunteer, Evan Daigneault, has been hired and is currently training to assist with the membership drive, the volunteer office has been established, newspaper ads contracted, as well as Facebook and TV.
Operations/Store Design Committees – Mary Christensen reported that operations cost analysis are underway, a book on how to write a business plan for grocery stores has been ordered, and communication with the Co-op Development Center in Minnesota established with the intent of possibly contracting a store design consultant. A joint meeting with the two committees is being planned to work out and assign tasks.
Finance Committee – Hans Geier reported that he has begun the application process for Coop500’s “sprout” loan program. The business plan is necessary to begin the loan application process. Hans also reported that he has acquired grant funding to assist with our co-op development process through his work with the University.
4. Mary Christensen and Sharon Alden led the board in sharing our individual visions for our food co-op. They are summarized as follows:
Robert Leach – Focus on the store central with the objective of providing a market for local producers in the long term, but a focus on the function of our grocery store in the short term.
Mike Emers – to be a focal point for good healthy food in Fairbanks, a catalyst, a meeting place for long term thinking, soil, earth, more producers, a lot more people making a living in farming, organic is incredibly important, when we source outside of Alaska we should know exactly were it is coming from – all kinds of good food for the community.
Evan Daigneault feels that we should focus on meat and vegetables, access to all types of local meat, coffee stand and most importantly – a salad bar
Hans Geier envisions opening a store and operating a successful retail outlet for local goods as well as other healthy products. He envisions a consumer friendly business that takes care of its members.
Mary Christensen described a 6000 square feet facility with 1500 in storage and 1000 for a coffee and sandwich bar – with a plan for expansion in two to three years with food our members want to buy that includes: organic, natural, bulk, local veges, nonlocal veges, meat from our own neighborhood, a cheese island, ethnic foods, white bread and pilot bread and REAL bread, macaroni and other staples, vegan, junk and gourmet food. In other words – Yummy food
Morgan Macchione spoke of the importance of staples to her busy family life and feels that dairy is important plus a coffee shop and deli that has convenience foods.
Sharon Alden would like to see as much local food as possible, lots of staples and good variety.
5. The Board then worked out a time line with the goal of opening between April and June of 2010.
Week of October 11 – 16 – Appointments to be set with environmental, structural and mechanical engineers.
Saturday, October 24th – Board retreat – Possible trip to Delta before that.
October – begin cost analysis for business plan starting with a joint meeting of the Operations and Store Design Committees, continue membership drive,
Completion of Business Plan by November 15.
Applications for Financing sent to financial institutions no later than December 1
January – begin renovations if financing acquired.
January – open the store general manager position for applicants
February – hire general manager and begin process of readying the store for business
6. Sharon Alden offered to organize a committee structure
7. Next Meeting was set for Monday, October 12th from 5:30 to 7 pm
8. Robert Leach Moved to adjourn the meeting and Mary Christensen seconded. The motion was passed.
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Wednesday, October 21
Store Design Committee Let’s Talk Layout! 6 pm 542 4th Ave. Suite 100 B Board Retreat Thursday, October 22 4 to 9 pm 542 4th Ave. Suite 100 B Tuesday, October 27 Communications/Outreach Committee 5:30 pm 542 rth Ave. Suite 100 B |
Monday, October 12 – 5:30 pm to 7 pm – Board Meeting – All are welcome to attend.
Tuesday, October 13 – 5:30 pm – Communications/Outreach Committee
Wednesday, October 14 – 6 pm – Joint Store Design and Operations Committee meeting
All meetings will be held in our NEW VOLUNTEER CENTER at 542 4th Ave Suite 100 B. It is in the basement below the Vet Center. Doors are locked after 5 pm. We will try to leave a door open. If you can’t get in call 347-4463.
Our Volunteer Center office hours are Tuesday-Friday – 1 pm to 5 pm – Stop by any time and find out how you can help out.
Fairbanks Community Cooperative Market (FCCM)
Board Meeting Minutes
September 26, 2009, 5:00 p.m.
1. Meeting Called to Order@. Present: Rob Leach, Morgan Macchione, Sharon Alden, Mary Christensen, Rich Seifert, Mike Emers, Cora Kelley, Helen McLean, Hans Geier by phone. Quorum: Yes
2. Minutes from the Annual Meeting were read. and APPROVED.
3. Interim Treasurer, Sharon Alden reported: $30,177 in Savings Account, $7,549 in Checking Account, $2,190 in New Memberships, not yet deposited. Rich Seifert asked if we could accept donations tax exempt. Rob indicated yes, if accepted as a gift.???
4. Assignments for Board seats were conducted according to FCCM Bylaws.
Board Seats “A” through “E” expires 2011
Board Seats “F” through “I” expires 2010
Assignments are as follows:
Seat A: Helen McLean
Seat B: Mary Christensen
Seat C: Rob Leach
Seat D: Rich Seifert
Seat E: Sharon Alden
Seat F: Hans Geier
Seat G: Morgan Macchione
Seat H: Mike Emers
Seat I: Cora Kelley
5. Committee Reports:
Communications / Outreach – Chair: Mary Christensen reported on: a. Pancake Breakfast being held Sunday, October 4, 2009,
11 – 2 p.m. at the Ken Kunkel Community Center on Goldstream Road. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 children under 12 years of age, and Free to children under 5 years of age. The purpose of this breakfast series is to exchange information and ideas, as well as raise funds. There will be a powerpoint presentation and a chance to visit with board members.
b. Rob Leach will be making a presentation to the Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District’s board meeting, on Tuesday, September 29th at 5:00 p.m.
c. Triple Pack Marketing Blitz to include Radio, TV and paper print advertising. Sue Sprinkle is updating the brochure and FCCM flyer (hand bill). An emphasis was made on how important it is to get these completed.
d. Dessert Auction: November 21st at Morris Thompson Cultural Center.
e. The Vista Worker interview will be held Monday, September 27, 2009 at noon, 3rd Floor of Borough building. Mary discussed that the worker will have only one supervisor and will be required to go to training. Morgan expressed her interest in taking the training. Mary said she would like to be the supervisor, because she has specific tasks in mind for the worker. Rich Seifert stated he is a trained Vista Supervisor and that he can assist in the interim until such time someone gets the required training, and that he will be a “hovering presence” leading and assisting in the meantime.
Local Producers / Vendor Selection – Chair: VACANT – No report
We need to recruit a Chair and volunteers to be a part of this committee. Discussion ensued regarding the need to provide detailed committee descriptions. Mary stated they are on our website.
Store Design – Chair: Rob Leach reported that he spoke to a gentleman named Jim with Arctic Refrigeration that will help us figure out whether we want to work with what is available for refrigeration or if we will need to buy new / new to us refrigeration. We need to answer the question – How much refrigeration do we need? Producers / Vendor Selection Committee will be a responsible for figuring this out.
Rob also let us know that he has the building drawings on AutoCAD, and we need to ask the question? What do we want the store to look like and what departments we want it to include –i.e. Coffee Shop, Deli, ect.
Business Plan – Chair: Rob Leach reported that he is working on getting some help with it.
Operations – Chair: Mary Christensen reported that the committee will be meeting October 1st and will report on the committee work at the next meeting.
Finance – Chairs: Hans Geier reported that Rich Seifert is going Co-Chair the Finance Committee with him. Rich Seifert reported that a gentleman name Sam Skaggs, a financial advisor in Juneau called him to discuss the possibility of one of his clients, a “slow money” investor who may be interested in investing in FCCM. Slow Money investors are dedicated to investing in small food enterprises and local food systems; connecting investors to their local economies; and, building the nurture capital industry. Sam referred Rich to the book by the same name. Rich indicated that we need to have a strong Business Plan in place before we present our cooperative grocery store to him. Rich will be going to Juneau and will visit with his friend Sam and get more information to pass on to us.
Rich indicated that any loan or investment that is made will expect it to be secured. Discussion ensued regarding buying verses leasing a building. Mike said it seems FCCM is set on the Foodland building and mentioned with the amount of money it will take to rehab the Foodland building we could potentially buy and / or build to suit our needs. Rich also spoke to credibility. We need to continue to build our credibility.
An architect needs to be employed to put together a rendering and start the process of asking the questions that will provide the them with the information needed to put together a conceptual design, based on our overall plan and objectives.
Health & Fitness – No Chair – No report.
6. Unfinished Business: No Old Business
7. New Business
a. Selection of Director Positions were made and APPROVED as follows:
Chair: Rob Leach
Vice Chair: Hans Geier
Secretary: Mary Christensen
Treasurer: Morgan Macchione
Board Members at Large are Helen McLean, Cora Kelley, Mike Emers, Rich Seifert.
b. Assign Check Signors: Based on the election of new Officers, the signors will change from Sharon A. to Morgan M., from Lela to Mary M. Check signors will be – Rob L., Morgan M. & Mary C. Sharon A. will handle the details.
c. Adopt Payment Plan: A discussion to adopt a payment plan for membership fees took place from $50 quarterly payments in for one (1) to $25 quarterly payments for 2 years. The Board chose the later with a condition that at the time of official store opening, members participating in the payment plan must be current on their quarterly payments or their membership benefits will be suspended. . .
8. Decision Making Process for the Board: Mike spoke on how Calypso handles their “Consensus Policy for Decision Making”. When they vote, they determine the strength of a decision by the number of fingers the Board members holds up. The number one (1) means strong support, number three (3) describes that the board member could go either way (undecided) number five (5) means no support. It was decided to put this off until a future meeting. A proposal or proposals will be presented for the Board to vote on.
9. Consultant for Store Design: Rob has experience doing this type of work and has said he will prepare something. Mary believes we need something prepared by a professional and that we need to get it started. Discussion ensued regarding the process. Hans spoke about developing a scope of need to give to potential and interested architects.
10. Review Committee Budgets – this will be moved to the Agenda for the next Board meeting.
11. Appoint Executive Committee – will be moved to the Agenda for next meeting
12. Set date for next Annual Meeting. No date set.
13. Recommend minutes from 1st Annual Membership Meeting for presentation and adoption at 2010 Annual Meeting.
14. $200 was approved for office expenses.
15. $700 was approved for repairs for an existing computer, printer / scanner.
16. Mary decided to arrange a meeting with Mary Kopf with Sunshine foods to discuss…
Meeting Adjourned at 8:37 p.m.
Saturday, September 26
Board Meeting
5:00 pm
2371 Hawthorne Ct.
347-4463
If you are not on the board and would like to attend please email fccm2010@gmail.com
Tuesday, Sept. 29
Communications/Outreach Committee meeting
5:30 pm
2371 Hawthorne Ct.
Thursday, Oct. 1
Operations Committee
6:30 pm
2371 Hawthorne Ct.
The next communications/outreach committee meeting will be held Saturday, September 12, at 2371 Hawthorne Court (Mary Christensen’s house), 11 am.
FCCM First Annual Meeting 8-29-09
Our First Annual Meeting was held at Pioneer Park’s Civic Center in the theater.
It began with Rep. David Guttenberg from the 26th Alaska State Legislature presenting an Honorarium to David L. Lacey who founded the FCCM. Dave’s son, Vaughan, was there to accept the honor.
Cora Kelley made a power point presentation of the Co-op’s founding and goals for the health of our local community and the environment.
The Agenda was presented and Cora made a motion for approval. Hans seconded. The motion was approved.
Mary Christensen announced that we now have 1,005 members. Since 136 were present, we had a quorum.
Present on stage were Hans Geier, Rich Seifert, Mary Christensen, Sharon Alden, Helen McLean, Cora Kelley, Mike Emers, Morgan Macchione, Rand Petersen, Rob Leach, and Lela Ryterski. Each person introduced themselves to the audience (general membership).
Rob, as the Interim Chairperson, reported on what the Co-op had been doing to develop a business plan and connect with local producers.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Sharon reported that since our founding we had collected $37,000. Of that $10,000 went to the feasibility study, $2,800 was advertising, $1,600 for printing, and costs of goods was $1,800. We presently have $20,520 in the bank.
COMMUNICATIONS/OUTREACH: Mary reported that we’ve worked hard to have a successful Harvest Fair/First Annual Meeting which serves as a kick-off for a membership drive to realize 500 full members by November.
OPERATIONS COMMITTEE: Mary made an appeal for members to join this committee outlining its duties (i.e.: securing equipment, insurance, employees, etc.)
PRODUCTS/VENDORS COMMITTEE: Lela gave a synopsis of what had been occurring: finding vendors, developing criteria for products.
FINANCE COMMITTEE: Hans gave a synopsis: We’ve connected with a co-op bank.
STORE DESIGN: Rob reported we’re considering a section of the old Foodland Building.
BUSINESS PLAN: Rob explained how all these committees together will develop the business plan.
ADOPT BYLAWS: The copy of the Bylaws that was sent out to the membership had not yet been looked over by a lawyer. Two days prior to this meeting the core Board Members met to approve and update the editing done by the lawyer. Copies of this new edition were available at the door. Rob was at the podium to act as parlaimentarian.
Dan Hancock moved to substitute the old bylaws with this new edition. Mary Stech seconded. Rich Seifert didn’t want to approve without reading the corrections. Rob went over the basic changes. It was voted on, and the substitution passed.
Ben Birtles made a motion to adopt the new bylaws. Bett Schaffhauser seconded the motion. Discussion ensued. There were questions about founding members verses regular membership, and how often the Board meets. There was a call for a vote, and the Bylaws were adoped.
ELECTION OF NINE BOARD MEMBERS: As we opened the floor to address the election, a member made a motion to amend the Bylaws to include eleven Board members instead of nine. However, since we just voted on the Bylaws, this concern would have to be addressed at the next meeting of the membership. We moved on to the election.
Nominations from the floor were accepted. Lela nominated Vaughan Skylark. There was a move for nominations to be closed. It was seconded. All were in favor. Votes were placed into a closed box on the stage.
MEMBERSHIP FEES: $200 was proposed for full membership. Discussion ensued about the amount, and concern that time payments would be untimely for funding our project. The criteria for payments was left for the Board to decide. A motion called for a vote. It was seconded. A vote passed the $200 membership fee.
The floor was opened to Members’ Comments: there were none.
Mary announced the potluck.
Cora moved to adjourn. It was seconded. All consented. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
These are the (as yet) unapproved mintues for the board meeting held Thursday, August 27.
Present were Rob Leach, Helen McLean, Hans Geier, Lela Ryterski, Rand Petersen, Morgan Macchione, Sharon Alden, and Mary Christensen.
The previous meeting’s minutes were read and accepted.
TREASURER’S REPORT: We now have $14,844.10 in savings and $3,549.32 in checking. Advertising expenses were $2,250 and supplies were $1,594.86.
We need to get an accountant soon. Tax returns are due this year. We have to file a biennial report every two years. We filed in 2007 so a report is due in 2009. Maya Bachner is volunteering to do bookkeeping.
PRODUCTS COMMITTEE: Sue Cave had to back out due to work. We’ll miss her. She did a lot the short time she was here. We’re looking for someone to take her place and connect with the ranchers.
Rob mentioned that CSAs know what grows well in Fairbanks. Consumers need to adopt to those foods. We can get that information out. Morgan brought up watching the movie, Food, Inc.
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE: Facebook has an announcement for the Annual Meeting; also in the e-newsletter. We need volunteers at 8:00 a.m. At Pioneer Park. Cora to rehearse power point presentation. Shaun’s friend made a quilt for our fund raising. We can display it here and auction it off at the dessert auction in November.
OPERATIONS COMMITTEE: Waiting until after the Harvest Fair to meet.
FINANCE COMMITTEE: Hans, Rich, and Bridget Schwafel met. We’re on board with the North Country Cooperative Development Fund in North Dakota. They brainstormed people to contact.
STORE DESIGN: Rob had the square footage figured out. Lela had ideas for the rest of the Foodland building she would draw out on foam board for the Annual Meeting/Harvest Fair.
HARVEST FAIR: We planned the details of which plates and cups to buy. Sue Sprinkle will make cloth napkins we can reuse. Plastic plates and utensils can be reused. Rob will get ice and put up the booth that we had at the Fair.
Dave Guttenberg will present an honorarium for Dave. We’ll ask his son, Vaughan, to receive it.
OLD BUSINESS: BYLAWS: We went over all the changes the lawyer suggested and edited the previous draft. The changes were made and copies will be available at the First Annual Meeting. We’ll make a motion to substitute the edited Bylaws.
Hans made a motion to adjourn. It was seconded. We were all in favor. Meeting adjourned at 10:00pm.
Harvest Fair on Saturday was fantastic! According to the News Miner 500 people went through the doors. My best count of members who came was between 139 and 160.
We took in $11,900 at the door bringing us close to 1/3 of our goal to reach $100,000 with 500 full members before November. In the meantime, we continue to gain new members via Pay Pal. This morning’s count of full members in our food co-op is 134.
The afternoon entertainment was excellent!. The highlight for me was Amy Angaiak’s hoop playshop. The kid’s loved it and it continued for the entire time the grownup’s were in the business meeting! A HUGE thank you to Amy.
Just under 200 people shared our Harvest Dinner! That was a smashing success! Thanks go to Sue Sprinkle, Helen McClean, Sharon Alden, and Cora Kelley for working tirelessly to put on such a great dinner!!
There are many more people to thank in coming days. Please comment and add your thank you’s to this blog!
