Harvest Co-op Supermarkets
Board of Directors Meeting
June 30, 2003
Present: Ed Barsamian (general manager), Jeff
Rosenblum (secretary), Andrew Weaver (treasurer),
and Sujatha Byraven (board member)
Absent: Mike Wiecek, Melitta Jakab,
Eliza Strode, Betsy Adams, Elisa Alonso
Revisions to the Agenda: Postpone
approval of budget, NASRO Health Care Proposal, and approval
of minutes due to lack of quorum
President's Report - Mike Wiecek Mike
was not present at this meeting.
Eyes and Ears of the Board
Nothing to report.
Committee Reports
MSSC:
- Jeff started out by suggesting that the minutes
be emailed out to the board prior to the next board
meeting so that members who are not present can read
minutes and action items sooner. Ed will check in
with Phil to see if the minutes from the Planning
Committee can be submitted as well.
- Recycling - Chris is currently working on this and
Ed will check in with him regarding any progress made.
- NASRO Health Care - Chris asked board to look into
this as a member benefit. Elisa will present the information
to the board and then it needs to be approved by the
board.
- Community Fund - Members will be voting for community
fund recipients during the board elections and it will
be part of the overall ballot. Guidelines for groups
who want to apply need to be formulated. .
- Environment/Food Policy - Jeff will meet with Amy and
have a report for the next board meeting.
- Survey - The goal is to get 150 responses from each
store, most questions are the same so can be compared
with last year. The incentive to fill out the survey
is that respondents get their name put into a raffle.
- Member Party - Jeff had no report about the event because
he did not attend. Unfortunately the email scheduled
to be sent to members had some technical difficulties.
This is meant to be a monthly event and to be low effort.
Andrew recommended that the dates be set for the parties
for the remainder of the calendar year and given to Chris.
There was also a suggestion to announce the party in
the store and try to encourage shoppers at that moment
to stop by.
- Staff/Board visit - Ed still thinks this is a good
idea. Jeff doesn't know how to get the date set. Ed will
check in with Chris and schedule a time and Jeff has
agreed to attend.
Nominations and Elections Committee: Jeff
will pitch in to help with the Nominations/Elections
process and check in with Betsy. Andrew will also contact
Betsy to let her know Jeff will be helping with committee.
Planning Committee: No report.
CCMA Report:
Jeff said that the biggest component of the conference
was looking at who Harvest's customers are and why
they are motivated to shop here. The National Coop
Grocers Assoc. study determined that 15 percent of
shoppers are core shoppers and 54 percent are mid-level
shoppers. Core shoppers are defined as those who only
buy organic, read the member boards, etc. Mid-level
shoppers notice the aesthetics of the store and comparison
shop. Mid-level shoppers should be targeted by the
store's marketing efforts. Ed added that co-ops that
include conventional products can attract that mid-level
shopper easier.
Ed explained a series of ads shared at the
conference. One had the slogan, "Where honest food
grew up."
Ed has not received cost of participating in the campaign
and should be hearing soon.
Both Jeff and Ed expressed interest
in spending more time with larger, urban co-ops similar
to Harvest rather than the smaller co-ops that are
more numerous at the conference.
General Manager's report - Ed Barsamian
Ed reported that he is planning on running ads in El
Mundo. The Spanish speaking community going to represent
40 percent of the shoppers in this area and 30 percent
of the staff are Spanish speaking.
In the Cambridge store a crossover aisle
has been opened up, new brooms and dustpans have been
bought per requests from member workers, and the bulk
section has been reset with jars. In JP they are still
working on the store re-set and more improvements.
[The meeting moved into executive session
at this point]
[Board moved into executive session at
this time]
[Minutes submitted by Natalie C. Jaeger]