 Thrilled that you're here. My name is Scott Hess. I'm currently the president of the council and we're really thrilled and Happy that you enjoyed a meal and will help. We have a interesting and enriching program for you this evening the the bath by the the technical things the bathrooms are Downstairs when you first come in City Hall There's also some bathrooms on the main On the lower level and the entrance in the back and there's exits to my left and Fire entrance where you came in just in case there's an emergency. So we got that out of the way Raffle tickets Fill out your raffle tickets. You can fill them out and put them in the boxes until 715 and then we'll probably gonna be drawing the raffles at 745 so get those in you can Fill out you can we still have the elections you can you can You can vote in the corner for the elections, although we only have we have five Contestants for the five positions the top three vote getters will get the three year Terms and the others will get one and two year term. So please vote and you can also vote online Until 8 p.m. This evening. So the more we get it's just nice to see a nice turn out for voting On your table. Also, you have some comment cards if you have any comments About the co-op, please fill them out and we will respond staff and management will respond to the To the comments or questions that you have so we encourage you to fill one of them out and please hand them in to Bring them up to us or one of the staff people. So thank you very much And I think we're ready to go I want to announce the they are council members. We've got Katie Michaels here Mark Simakowski Eric Jacobson Eva Shackman right here and Steve Farnham and we've got a couple of members Ashley Hill and Pat there's Pat is not here either Pat surgery is not here and Shannon Leslie They weren't able to make it tonight and we also have Special this year. We're really excited that we're going to be having two Staff members that will be on the council this year. So we really feel that's going to be a great addition Yes, we are very excited about that Olivia Dunton and Andrew Sullivan will be joining The council so I think it's gonna be a great addition and add some richness to the council for the year going forward. I agree and I would like to our Facilitate facilitator for the evening is Stephanie Laffer. So take it away. Thanks everybody I'm Stephanie Lehar and I'm a member owner and an occasional planning consultant and moderator to the co-op. So glad you're here and My job is to help everyone share airtime with a very full and rich agenda So we'll have some time to get information and hear a local food panel and all sorts of things In fact, here's our agenda right now We will start by Establishing actually I'll establish the quorum before we get going I'll introduce the agenda without feedback and We'll start by establishing a quorum and I need to look around and find out who has the count close to 200 we've got it, okay, and Then we also have minutes to approve from 2018 Scott do I turn this over to you to take the motion or at an angle? Okay Okay, thank you very much Jay and do I have a second? second to approve the minutes Okay, Sandal Sandal Kate is seconds the motion all those in favor of accepting the minutes from the annual meeting of 2018 please signify by saying yes any opposed any abstentions It passes. Thank you. It was Jay So the rest of our agenda we've already succeeded in doing number one We'll we'll hear some recognition for employees that have been working at the co-op a long time and We have a real treat. We have a local producer panel of three women who own or work in wonderful family-owned food businesses who who supply the co-op and We'll have the hunger mountain cooperative community fund grant awards reports about the business and a hunger mountain Cooperative community award will have a question-and-answer period for all of you and we also have some people watching on orca media and submitting comments online and that's it and a reminder that you have to be present to win the raffles and you can enter throughout the evening over there and These comment cards if you don't get a chance to speak during the Public comment period or you have other thoughts or comments that occur to you along the way So at this point, I'm going to introduce just nap the staff rep to the council for the employee appreciation awards each year we Sorry, this is a weird microphone Each year we celebrate one person who gets recognized by the employees for their excellence in customer service This year this employee was Alex Fontaine He works in the The food service department Congratulations Alex if you're here stand up Nope Next we want to celebrate People or employees who have been here for 20 years of service or more What I call your name if you're here. Could you stand up? We're also going to have a plate Which Kari has right there We're going to give that to all of these employees for their service So we have Robert Kiergan celebrating 34 years He's our produce manager Mary Wells at 29 years. She's our bookkeeper Mary crafted celebrating 23 years. She's our graphic artist and Ben Mishore selling very 21 years He's our maintenance coordinator Pat loose also celebrating 21 years He's our beer and wine buyer and Giles brulee celebrating 20 years. He's our IT system admin Nancy McShane celebrating 20 years She's a supervisor in the prepared foods department and Rebecca Grant celebrating 20 years She works in the produce department Thank you for your service. These are only a few of our employees who spend their time and dedication and hard work Doing what they do to make the co-op happen All the staff could you please stand up and We can't we have a random pause for that and I apologize to Julia Goldstein. She's gonna be joining our joining the council I Totally admitted her name, but we're very excited for her to join us also. So thank you Julia Okay, I'd like to invite our panelists for the local foods panel to come up to the front of the room to this table Claire great and Christine and Emily Wonderful and I'm gonna have Eva Scheckman from the council introduce the panelists Thank You Stephanie Christine are you here? Does anyone know Christine Lazora? I'd love for her to come up to the front Can everybody hear me okay? Okay, well, we're gonna go ahead And if she can join us, that's great. So Let me introduce Emily von Traub Emily is The third generation to cultivate the land where she is a flower farmer Growing year-round blooms for the community of Central Vermont She specializes in winter grown tulips Fragrant lilies jalyos and many annual and perennial blooms grown in Wade's field Emily first began selling her blooms to the hunger mountain co-op when she was 17 years old a beautiful Partnership that is now 23 plus years in the making as a vendor of the co-op Emily values What the co-op stands for and the important role it plays as a cornerstone of our community Which is why it is also important her to be a supporting co-op member. Please welcome Emily von Traub Claire Wheeler, I'm sorry my Somewhere in my brain My apologies Claire George. I knew something was gonna happen. Okay Claire George started butterfly bakery in Vermont in 2003 After leaving as Baker at the hunger mountain co-op her bakery specializes in Vermont maple sweetened baked goods But now butterfly bakery of Vermont makes more hot sauce than baked goods using 100 100% for mind-grown chili peppers. Please welcome Claire George I don't know if Christine will come or not, but I'm going to start us off by Asking the two of you some questions and we'll we'll have a conversation about those and we'll use maybe half our time on Questions and stories and then we'll open it up to questions from the rest of you for Emily and Claire and Christine if she is able to make it So I'm gonna start with you Claire. I wondered if you could just tell us your story briefly and how you came to Own and operate butterfly bakery Sure Does it work for you to stand up? Sure How's it is this better because we don't have a raise Platform great Yeah, so I I was a computer science major in college Didn't want to go into that industry. It was right when the tech bubble burst and so I moved to Vermont I Wanted to start my own food business didn't know really had it how to do it So I got a job at hunger mountain co-op to give myself a little experience and After I was about a hunger mountain co-op for about a year and a half after I left there started my bakery Doing vegan whole grain baked goods, which we continue to do but about five years ago We started making hot sauce and that is 60 plus percent of our business now. We're the number one purchaser of Vermont grown chili peppers in the world We actually bought About 35,000 pounds of Vermont chili grown chili peppers this year I was fun It's fun to process and freeze them And so we also besides making hot sauce we we've actually started co-packing we make other people's products for them as well and What's really cool is our cut our customers our clients are all around the country So we're actually able to use Vermont ingredients in products that we make for California companies Which is which is really cool because a lot of these clients of ours Don't know how to source sustainable kind of quality agriculture is given left to their own devices they might just buy They might buy whatever they can from at the cheapest price from the nearest distributor We can actually connect them with a farmer connect them with a farm And and put some really good ingredients in there and it's really cool to be able to do that So that's what we're doing now Okay Emily tell us about your story and how you started Montrap flowers So I grew up in Waitsfield, Vermont and was surrounded by sorry I Was surrounded by my parents gardens from a small child and growing up and I was always fascinated with the magic and the wonder of Flowers starting from a tiny seed and with the right nurturing and love what it can turn into and I'm kind of just a nurturer by nature. So I really got into growing flowers when I was about 12 and Started selling my first bouquets at a farmer's market then started selling to a local grocery store in Waitsfield called maheron's market and then when I was 17 I pulled into the co-op parking lot with the back of my Subaru loaded with flowers and met Robert Kerrigan for the first time and Rowan was still at the co-op at that point So the two of them took a peek at my flowers and immediately said they'd start selling them And so that was 23 years ago, which seems crazy And so from that point on I was only 17 So I went off to college and decided I was gonna pursue education which I did for 16 years and I could never let go of my flower growing bug It just kind of consumed me so I would each summer come back and grow my flowers and sell them to the markets and then I Had my daughter 13 years ago and I was always juggling the Trying to keep my career going as an educator, but also keeping my dream of being a flower farmer alive, and I Realized in order to do that I needed to find a way to grow year-round blooms Because supporting yourself on just one or two seasons as a flower farmer is really hard to do in a zone four state like Vermont We don't have the longest growing season So I started to try to find ways to be creative and add new crops To what I was already growing and I had a really strong interest in growing tulips and Finding a way to force them in winter So that I could be bringing flowers to the co-op into the other markets Not just from June through the end of September, but you know, could I make it so that I had blooms almost year-round? So 10 years into my tulip forcing. I now I'm plant I'm planting in the middle of planting 80,000 tulip bulbs And I figured out some ways creatively with season extension To have them start as early as mid-January and then last year they went until the end of June So I had a hundred and fifty day long tulip season and I do that by incorporating some Interesting ways of season extension. I create something I call a snow bunker And I really try to be as low impact as possible in my farming and so basically I Re-use materials that I have on the farm to create a structure and I backfill that structure with snow and so essentially it's like a tulip igloo or You know all natural walk-in cooler where I'm just using what's available to me in the environment So there's not extra fuel or electricity going in because I want to be as low impact as possible But so I'm kind of rambling on here. That's how I got started. I love what I do I love being able to provide Central Vermont with fresh local flowers year-round it brings me lots and lots of joy And I love the support of the co-op and people who buy my flowers. So So let's I'd love to ask you a couple more questions and then bring it to everybody to ask questions What's one more interesting or surprising things you've learned about being in business and I'll switch to you Claire because it's not always a straight line you start with a plan, right? Yeah, it's It's definitely not a straight line So in the last five years since we started doing hot sauce we've grown a lot I spent a long time basically doing The same thing day in day out. It's it as a baker. It's what I enjoy doing They get great pleasure with doing the same thing day in day out but all of a sudden it's we're not doing the same thing day in day out and learning to Grow as a business has been really interesting because the we're about six times the size that we were just three years ago and and so Learning what that means as a business here in Vermont while being really committed to staying True to being a small business I mean even if we ever become a big business. We want to stay a small business. We use our hands and things all the time and It's it's been very That's I don't know. It's a good. It's a learning experience every day So, you know, we're doing all this this co-packing co-packing can be a really Mechanized business you can do the same thing over and over and over again And we're really committed to like I said being a small business. So our niche is custom co-packing and we really bring our hands into making other people's making other people's products be, you know, the in I can't think the right way to say put it but it's It's been really It's been an eye-opening lesson to learn how to make other people's products and how to make them in the most efficient way Possible that we can all make money and you know build our businesses But also not to lose the humanity in it And that's been a really important part for us and it's been a really great daily lesson Thank you Something interesting or surprising you've learned about being from being in this business Emily I think just how much the weather impacts farming of any kind and Needing to be able to think on your feet and be creative and how you respond to and prepare for the weather like today getting ready to Tuck more tulips in and it starts snowing and I know all my tulip crates that are pre-filled with soil that I have to Plant are gonna freeze and my bulbs haven't gotten here yet So trying to figure out how to adjust with what's happening with the weather is a big challenge But one that I really embrace and then just the You know Trying to make sure that I have things scheduled out the way they're supposed to be I do a lot of successive plantings So over the summer months every week I'm planting a new crop of lilies and trying to make sure that I'm timing that so that I Don't have a glut of flowers that I can't move So just trying to figure out and juggle all of that and I think also It's been really wonderful to kind of feel out the flower season year-round and Kind of surprisingly to me I I don't know why it surprised me, but people are desperate for flowers in the middle of winter just like I am And it's been really amazing to see How many more flowers I can sell at that time of year? It really has become like the foundation of my flower sales is my winter sales And so how much people really want and need color at that time and it totally makes sense to me But it I think the first couple of years that I was realizing that it was a little you know Pleasantly surprising to see how much people want flowers during that time of year Great. I do So the last question for me is I wondered if you could each give us a little of the inside scoop about what it's like Working with Vermont co-ops and with hunger mountain co-op in particular Because I don't think we always think about what it's like for our producers to work with our co-op business So hunger mountain co-op was my first customer in Vermont since I was working there before I left to start my own business and There is absolutely no way that I could have ever gotten a start without Stores like the co-op and other independent stores in Vermont We are incredibly lucky to have this Incredible abundance of independent stores here in Vermont so many places so many so many places just just have chain stores or just have Walmart and The barrier to entry into those stores is enormous the the regulations you have to pass the The rules that you have to follow you have to sell through distributor. You have to use a co-packer like me but it It's it's a difficult for stores like the co-op to deal with how all a small little businesses You know, there's more orders to place. There's more. There's more Orders to receive we make more mistakes as we're learning And it's it's incredible that they're willing to spend the time and the money. I mean hunger mountain co-op I don't know if they still do it But I know when I was starting out would print my UPC codes for me. I did The little barcode on the back is actually really expensive. It's a really expensive thing to put on your packaging and And hunger mountain co-op and and other stores like them will actually print them for you If you're a small business and can't afford to or don't it doesn't make sense for you to put a barcode on your packaging And that's that's amazing. You know Walmart's not gonna print your barcode for you So it's I'm immensely grateful even though We are dealing with all different kinds of customers now or all different kinds of stores I'm incredibly grateful to the small to the independence stores and the co-ops around here And there's still who I seek out if I'm even if I'm going outside of Vermont the companies that I reach out to I still reach out to the independent stores. I I actually have a lot of I don't I don't object to selling to the chains But I I kind of make them approach me because they they're hard to deal with if I have to approach them So it's I'm incredibly grateful. Thank you So I I feel just super grateful to be able to be a vendor and a member of the hunger mountain co-op For the 23 years that I've been selling there There's been a lot of flexibility and an understanding when maybe a crop feels or I don't have something that the support is there from the co-op and that No matter what I have or when I have it to bring it in and they're willing to sell it So there's just been a tremendous amount of support and I think it was really important for me Starting out, you know as a teenager with this venture to have a store that so clearly valued my product and Supported me and believed in me. I think it really kind of helped me have the momentum to keep moving forward And I now sell to at this point I'm selling to 10 stores throughout central Vermont, but My heart is really at the co-op and my hearings where I first started out So they're my priority and I always make sure to have as many flowers there as I can possibly have I Really value that the co-op values local Farmers and locally grown things. That's it's it's really important for us small farmers If we didn't have places like the co-op that valued that it would be really hard to make ends meet so That emphasis is really important and as a member the fact that I can go to a store and buy all organic produce Is really important to me So I think all those things make it a really special relationship and Like she was saying that having independent stores Who support local Vermont products is it's really important especially in the standage with all the chains kind of taking over Are you ready for some general questions? Okay, I'm gonna get the other Mike What would you like to know from Emily and Claire these founder owners who are co-op vendors? Sandal if it doesn't work out can repeat the question I think it's on try try just no I have a my name is Sandal Kate. I have a question for Claire. I Think I remember you starting out on Berry Street Is that right? So actually Berry Street was our third home We actually started renting the coffee corner in the middle of the night That's where we did our baking right after I left the co-op then we rented out Patrick Giantonio's kitchen. He makes the Patrick's pretzels the twist Patrick's Twisters We rented his kitchen for a couple years and then when we finally got a space on Berry Street That was that that place holds a very dear spot in my heart because I was our first home I remember finding you because on the same platform, which is behind where Fisher auto is whatever And the bike places there now I had to go to the vacuum cleaner store, which was next door, but it was much more interesting to me that you were there So I have a question just about how Difficult or easy was it for you to expand and where do you do more of your production now? If that's something you can make public. Yeah, no, it's Expanding is difficult so On Berry Street, we had 450 square feet was a really tiny little space When we started doing the hot sauce we started renting out space at the Food Venture Center out in Hardwick And that is been that was unbelievable We grew an enormous amount way more than I ever expected in the span of about a year we rented the space there and I wish there were a food venture Center for companies my size Because we are we have we're at 3,000 square feet now and we are desperately out of space we are One of our we have Up until about a month ago. We had two 40 gallon steam kettles one of them just broke. So we've Fortunately been able to replace it with an 80 gallon steam kettle but we're making between three and five thousand bottles of hot sauce a week And we need more space all the time and I'm trying to figure out how to do that We we would like to move into our for it We don't moving is really expensive and difficult and I would love to move into like a 15,000 square foot space But we can't afford that yet. So we're just trying to make it work where we can until we can afford to grow I'm not willing to take an investor. So that makes it a little bit more difficult. But yeah, that's what we're doing All right Thanks other questions. I'm gonna come over and I'm gonna let you use my mic This one is for Emily Emily Transporting all those flowers must be a big job and take a lot of time and how do you do you have employees? And how do you how do you do it all and also your daughter? How does she fit into your life? it's I Call it us struggling and juggling It is it does take a lot of time and I actually resigned from my teaching job this past spring So this current year. I'm totally dedicated to my flowers I do do the majority of my deliveries every once in a while My mom or dad will chime in and help out with that when my daughter was little And up until just a couple years ago. She always came on every delivery with me. She's always there right near me when I'm Either out in the field working or arranging flowers So she's very much my little sidekick But yeah, it's it's been a real juggle until this year When I was teaching I would get my daughter up in the morning and we'd go to school And then when she was done school We'd go to the greenhouse and I'd harvest like mad and we'd go home and I'd make dinner And I'd give her a bath and put her to bed and then I'd go back to the greenhouse till Midnight or one in the morning or Until my mom came down and said you have to turn the light off in the greenhouse. I can't sleep so so it's been It's been a journey But I'm really passionate about it and all the hard work that I put into it for the first 12 years of my daughter's life has made it so that now I don't rely on needing to teach in addition to being a flower farmer and That's a really great place to arrive at for me to just say that I'm full-time year-round flower farmer here in Vermont. So Other questions Yes, okay, I'll go for it. Have you ever either one of you a little bit different questions, but tried to Change recipes of the hot sauce or innovate there or change the the bulbs that you grow or Or or increase the variety Yeah, I mean I'm always trying new annuals perennials new bulbs Last year I did 65 different varieties of tulips this year. I'm doing 75 different varieties Ten years ago. I started out with 3,000 bulbs this year. I'm planting 80,000 bulbs So I'm constantly changing looking for new varieties to trial and increasing production You're trying out new things is what we do constantly my specialty is actually in recipe development and product development so I help out We do our own product development and recipe development, which you know shows up in new products. Oh even more, okay? and and then we have And then we also develop products for other people. So There's a hot sauce tasting room down in Brooklyn called the heat nest and they are the ones who Supply the hot sauce for a show called hot ones, which we've had a hot sauce on which is really cool but we develop products in conjunction with them for usually collaboration sauces we do Independent products and then we also do non-hot sauce baking Recipe development as well. We're working on a cookie recipe for a company out of the Midwest right now We're working on another cookie. Well, and then and then we With co-packing it's interesting because sometimes you can talk about things and sometimes you can't and so I need to be careful about what I can talk about But then there's even products locally that we've helped develop to that Interestingly, we can't talk about because that's the agreement that we made with the with the person But in products actually that are sold at Anger Mountain co-op that we help develop which is really fun Great Others I'm just gonna butt in real quick. Yeah chef Doug and his crew are getting ready to leave If we can have a round of applause for the wonderful meal Doug thank you so much. I'm looking around to see if there are other questions for Business founder owners at the front of the room Okay, I wonder if I could ask you a closing question then as you know we're so So happy to see you succeed in your small businesses and not so small but businesses anymore And I wondered from where you sit. What gives you hope for the Vermont farm and food system Start with Emily you have the mic. What gives me hope is just the Especially now sorry I'm really scared of microphones. I don't know I I think what gives me hope is The the local movement which obviously in Vermont. It's it's we're rooted in it You know, it's very much a part of our philosophy But I'm really seeing over the last couple of years how much more people are valuing Locally grown flowers versus flowers that are flown in and the impact that flying flowers in has on our environment And you know the pesticides that are used from on things that are flown in so the hope is people really appreciating and valuing local ecologically grown blooms and Where that's going for me in my business I have an incredible amount of hope and are in our Local food system. I remember when I moved to Vermont in 2002 There was kind of an attitude of like oh you to get good food You have to go to New York or to Boston and and then that kind of slowly changed into okay We have good ingredients here, but you know, we don't really have the restaurants You know, you still have to go to the big cities for the good restaurants And now we have amazing restaurants and we have amazing ingredients and people It's so weird to me when I travel outside of Vermont and I see Vermont farms on the menus And I'm like, oh, yeah, I know I know Beth. Yeah, that's great and And and it's and I feel like it's just keep growing it just keeps growing and I feel like people are recognizing it I feel like it's it's good at every step along the way. It's good for our communities. It's good for our Bellies it's good for Our soil it's good for our souls and and I feel like people are recognizing it. I feel like it's just getting better Wonderful, well, let's have a hand for Emily and Claire. Thank you so much So I'm looking around for Matt Levin now There you are it's time for you to come up And tell us about the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community fund grants. We're a little ahead I hope nobody minds if we get out a little early and have more time for community conversation. Is that okay? All right Good evening. So I'm Matt Levin. I'm very honored to be the chair of the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Funds Advisory Committee and as those of you know who have been here for a number of years every year we have the privilege and honor of Making some contributions to the community Using the resources of the co-op so the community fund was started in 2005 to offer financial support to Organizations and businesses and initiatives that are aligned with the co-ops mission in the last seven years We've given out over $50,000 in grants to 49 different recipients and It's a real privilege and honors I've said to to be part of this process where members of the community businesses and organizations reach out to the co-op and ask for help in this unique way and It's part of a conversation. That's really grown over the years So the advisory committee that decides That processes these applications that looks over what comes in every year It's made up of member owners and council members and staff And the committee makes the recommendations and then the council makes the final decision about who gets The grants each year so we do use a criteria that's that's set out We have a formal process the criteria includes Alignment with the co-ops mission the anticipated project impact and the applicant's access to other resources we look for programs and projects that do not have other places to turn for assistance and Frankly where a small contribution from our collective resources can make a big difference in supporting their work So the fund is supported by donations from members and the co-ops operations So thank you to all of you who made donations to support the fund it's a really critical part of what we do and This year as in past years the council Elected to put the uncashed patronage refunds into the fund as well So with all of that together we can make a really important difference for these projects that are doing so much good work in the community so this year We we got seven applications and we're very happy to announce that we were able to award fifty five hundred dollars to two local organizations and one business and It's not a huge amount of money, but for a lot of these organizations again This is what can make the difference in their year-to-year operations it can what can make the difference in helping them recover from an emergency or a Equipment failure or for a business it can help them get started and get a leg up And I have to say since we're ahead Stephanie. I'm gonna take a moment one of our favorite Well, my favorite projects is Fattoad Carmel And we had this and and we had this big discussion around the table at the at the committee Should we be giving money to help a company that makes Carmel like how is that really and Right, you know some people were like of course have you ever had there? You know and other people were like no no it's junk food. Well it comes from goat milk, so it's not you know But and it's a local product and they're supporting the local economy and so you know there's this big that we thought well It's you know, let's it was a really good application. It was very well thought out So we did it and was it the next year that so that the next year at the fancy food show in New York City Martha Stewart went to their booth and raved about their karma like yes, that's us We so you know, that's not the core of what we do because we also do things like buy trays and and reusable silverware for meals on wheels programs and Make sure that projects have the kind of freezer and refrigerator space that they need to be able to make food Last so that they can get it out to people and need in the community and help business to help help small farms build Rootsellers and and help community gardens plant trees and put in infrastructure So it's really it's really good work where again a few hundred dollars or a thousand dollars can make a really big difference so this year we have three recipients and I hope that there's someone here from each of the organizations so they can come up and be recognized and Will mail checks later, but we do have certificates for all of them So the first recipient is capstone community action from Barry of $1,500 To help them make efficiency improvements in the food shelf So we'll announce all the folks and then we'll Give them their certificates So second is the family center of Washington County in Montpelier $1,500 to add fruit trees to their community garden and to upgrade their freezer capacity and Last is a herbcraft LLC of Middlesex $2,500 to install a new refrigerator and freezer to increase their capacity to store raw ingredients for use in their beverage product So Kari's giving out the certificates. We're taking pictures of them So thank you again to all of you for your support of this really great effort that we do as a community Again, it's a little bit amount money from a lot of folks put together It can have a really good impact and really lasting impact on the community Folks who are interested in being part of the review committee Please let Kari know we're always looking for new folks and spread the word to organizations The community let them know that we're here to help them. We we open the process every year in In July and so you can look for that next summer and thanks so much for all of us working together to help the community Okay, so I'm inviting Scott and Mark from the co-op council and Kari the general manager To present a series of reports next and then we'll follow that pay attention closely because there's questions and answers afterwards and the questions are from you so Here we go And Katie Michaels is gonna present a couple slides. I'll just go through these real quick Mark you're first substituting All right. Hello everybody. I am the treasurer of the Council and I have some financial information to share with y'all So well, you'll see our net sales for the for the fiscal year was 24.8 million. Woohoo. We did very good our verb very well You'll see that the biggest the biggest part of that pie is the cost of goods sold That is the amount of money we spend to buy the products to put in the store the purple is the employee employee compensation at 28 percent and Then the olive colored slice up there is everything else that goes into running the store in terms of heat repairs Cleaning the parking lot of snow and all that kind of stuff So you'll see the bulk of the bulk of the expenses there in that in that pie chart This I think is the one of the most important slides that we have here. This is our sales growth from 2010 to 2019 You'll see the that curve that's down in the middle that's sloping down towards zero That's this this is probably one of the most important slides that we need to pay attention to Sales growth back in 2010 was 13.3 percent This past year was a half a percent now. We talk about sales growth and One of the things is we don't we don't try to get growth for growth's sake One of the things why we we talk about sales growth is that so that we can do all the things that the co-op is doing and in Terms of meeting meeting its ends And if you look at our impact report, which is on some of the tables on the side of the Side of the side tables here. You'll see that we do have a big effect within the community both with with supporting local producers with With employees with the compensation with all the other things that go into go into the co-op so One thing that this tells us is that now that trend may may Reverse and it may go back up in years to come it may dip below that that point So this has been on the council's radar for the last couple of years because we do see the trend of sales growth So keep that in mind So we do show profit for the year and and a patronage refund One thing that you'll notice is that we have eighty two thousand about eighty two thousand and a half Dollars from earned income. We did have one anomalous line item from reverted equity of $245,000 that was income that that was an earned income it went from our balance sheet to our profit and loss And that was because we we applied Some of our rules of the bylaws to members who hadn't paid in their full equity So it's kind of a one-time one-time number that shows up on the bound on the profit and loss In any case we did declare a patronage refund, which which we do every year if we show profit and a distribution of 27,151 So so while this does show profit ability that the real number of profitability is that eighty two thousand four ninety five So out of twenty four and whatever million dollars The total profit after everything else is paid for is is only eighty two thousand dollars And again, we're not looking to make huge profits But that money can go into reinvestment into programs and things that the co-op does in order to Continue its mission One thing we talked about over the last two or three years is the senior discount You'll see that in 2010 the senior discount was just under thirty thousand dollars This past year was two hundred one thousand dollars So this is grown at six times the rate of the sales growth of the co-op So based on our community conversations that we had over the last couple years The co-op Resoundingly heard that hey don't let's not mess with our senior co-op But this does continue to grow and should our sales growth continue to decline like it is It's going to be harder and harder to To pay for this this discount So right now we do have for those for those seniors who are taking a discount But may not necessarily need it based on their financial condition We do have a program where you can Turn turn off your senior discount and then the co-op can then use that that those funds or that discount To support other programs like co-op cares and and other other programs to To help with those who may not be able to afford it In the future this this if this trend continues, which it looks like it will The count the the co-op will have to make some decisions about how that's how that's applied So liabilities versus equity. This is the the money we owe for Versus the the the money that we have in hand You'll see it's decreasing. That's the right trend so for every dollar that that That we have we owe seventy-six cents and that's actually pretty good The council has been working over the last year year and a half to put ourselves in a good financial position To to prepare ourselves should our sales growth continue to slow like it is So our thought is that if we if we don't owe more than more money than we have We're being a we'll be in a good position to take advantage of Either a contracting market or any opportunities that might present itself So total equity this is this is the money that the co-op has In in the in the bank most of that money you'll see of between 2018 and 2019 it gets a little flat on those curves there or on those bars That's because a bunch of money that was in 2019 that that that one time Anomaly that I talked about came out of that bar and went on the profit and loss So it's kind of a transfer but again still going in the right direction in terms of being in a good financial position in order to take advantage of a Contracting market or any advantages that we might find in the marketplace And that's it. We're taking questions afterwards. Is that the alright? So anyway, thank you very much And here's Scott Thank You Mark This is this is the one of most I think amazing statistics that we see every single year We are up to as it says almost 9,500 members for a community of 7,500 in Montpelier County of only 60,000 people. So although our sales growth is Has kind of flattened out a little bit We still have a tremendous amount of new members on a on a monthly basis and the council is always Amazed on the on the reception that we're getting and more and more people. It's about 70% of our sales are from members And it's just it's just an amazing an amazing fact We also get on the when we have the surveys we have a tremendous and high degree of acceptability and and confidence from our members our co-op employees, we're up to 175 172 and Based on the legislatures the Vermont legislatures wage model After three months Actually all employees are earning a livable wage after three months and most of them We will offer tremendous benefits full health care dental eye care and I think 50% for for their family too and Local producers we we hung around co-op 40% of our sales are local products. It's one of the highest co-op sales in the country Continue to that's one of the one of the I think strongest reasons why people shop at the co-op And here's just some of the stats and figures Which makes us so popular and I think that's why most of us shop here We're just such a Magnet as our two guests were saying that so many companies have just started started out with With selling their sales at the co-op and that's certainly one of the biggest emphasis That I think Kari and his staff continually work on in acquiring more local products And finally the last couple of years. We've been working on our bylaws Redoing our bylaws and we have a committee. These are the people obviously that are on the committee On our website After each meeting our notes are posted. We're slowly working on On revising them. Some of them are minor issues. Some of them are major we will be wrapping that up and they're not too distant future and Presenting it to the council and then after that there'll be there'll be numerous forums informational Sessions and then at some point when we're ready. We'll have a special we'll have a special meeting Where we will be explaining and and voting actually explaining be done before then But then we will be presenting to the to the membership some bylaw changes So I encourage you all to keep an eye out for the forums The groups that we're going to the forums and the sessions that we will be having At the co-op and please read the the minutes and the notes that are posted on the on the website Katie Hi everyone So in the past year issues of justice equity diversity and inclusion have been ones that the Council has spent some focused time and attention on and while acknowledging that we have more to do We had a half-day training this past February on unconscious bias There's a subcommittee of the council that's been reading and discussing materials related to gender and Now we're in the process of shifting to some readings related to race that the committee is discussing and the full council is reading and On the whole I think we acknowledge that we have more to do in this regard But that issues of justice and equity and diversity are really important both within our co-op and our broader community And we hope that we can play both a leadership and a partnership role in this regard And Another area that we've been working on in the past year is to educate ourselves about some of the changes that are happening In Montpelier and the community surrounding us in Montpelier We invited a series of guests listed above who have spoken about topics like the local food system food insecurity demographic trends the Union and others And from this learning generated a list of potential strategic initiatives that the co-op could focus on in order to both Accomplish our mission and our ends and do the good work We're doing but in the context of the changes that are going on in our community and given the financial situation of the co-op We want to do this In ways that either grow sales and or reduce expenses So we've given a list of potential strategic priorities to the management team to explore and think through and they're going to report back to the council about those in the months ahead and In general the council is here to make sure that we're doing what you guys want us to do And so we want to hear from you. We encourage all members to come to meetings To reach out to any of us individually and or to join the dinner and discussion event that we hold every spring We want to hear your opinions. Thanks Okay, I'm next. Hi everybody. I'm Kari Bradley the general manager and thank you for being here This is a great turnout especially on what feels like a mid-winter night So I'm gonna kick it off and talk about a couple of the challenges that the cop is facing this first slide Was actually part of that community learning project that? That Katie just spoke to this came from Ben Kitter of the Department of Labor And we've heard about the aging of Vermont But this this slide really kind of painted it bit more vividly for me What it does is it breaks down the Washington County population into four age groups Indexes it to a hundred back in the year 2000 and what you see is that out of the four one of the groups the 65 Years and older group has grown and it's grown about 40 something percent and the other three Age cohorts have gone down Especially the zero to nineteen age group So this is not exactly news, but it's a it kind of it it paints the picture pretty well And how this relates to the co-op is it definitely impacts the customer base It's it's it's harder for the co-op to attract new customers because of this and it's also impacting The labor market of course because as people are retiring and leaving the workforce that means that all businesses are really having more challenges in recruiting and Retaining employees and the co-op's been fortunate. We've had a very low level Rate of employee turnover over the years, but we are now starting to feel the pinch Especially in the category of of employees that are substitute if they don't have a regular schedule, but they're used to fill in for when people Take time off. It's become harder to find folks to fill those roles So that's one challenge and I also wanted to just say a few words about our Contract negotiations with our employees union. I know there's some employees are going to speak to that in a little bit But I just wanted to talk about The a couple of the key issues that are still on the table If you haven't heard this process has gone on much longer than usual We try to wrap it up Back in June actually so that the start of the fiscal year we're working with a new contract and And But we haven't been able to reach agreement Because of two key issues one is wages. We haven't come to an agreement on what the wage structure should be for the next two to three years and I just want to say that For me and for the leadership of the co-op and for the co-op overall Employee compensation is a very important value. There's there's just no question about that Scott went through Some of the components of the compensation program including the benefits Mark shared with you that we allocate a large amount of the sales dollars to To employee compensation We were really at the sort of the upper end of what food co-ops do in that regard and So so, you know, we should be and we are proud of What we've accomplished That said, you know, we want to continue to make improvements and the co-op has offered Average annual increases of between two point eight and three point six percent Over the next two to three years in terms of wage increases that does include staying open for a couple of holidays Where we're closed now as part of our proposal But we feel like this is a responsible Offer in the context of what mark was sharing in terms of our financial outlook And you know, we're really trying we've we've been walking a very fine line for many years in terms of our profitability As mark shared with you and we just we need to be responsible in terms of the increases that we can offer unions asking for More and we're just trying to work through that process at coming to an agreement the other big issue is Is a based on a proposal from the union about what they call bargaining unit work and it has to do with the hands-on tasks that a lot of customers will will experience so the stocking the shelves and cleaning and customer service and Preparing food and working the cash registers. These are the these are the tasks that That the folks in the bargaining unit routinely do we also have our managers doing those from time to time and union has Proposed that we would place restrictions on the ability of managers to do that work and you know We see a lot of benefit for having managers be involved with their teams and and being part of that the work at hand And we've offered some compromises in terms of limitations that we could accept but again We haven't been able to to reach agreement on that so I'm going to shift now and to talk a little bit more about the year-end reports and Really encourage us to think in terms of impact I was invited to speak at the Morrisville food co-op annual meeting a couple couple three weeks ago They just celebrated two years and in business as a store and really my message to them was you did it you created a store it's really hard to do and Excuse me what that does is it gives them a vehicle to now have impact in their community and they're starting to do that And they have the capacity to do a lot more we too as a co-op measure our success in terms of the impacts that we're having in a wide variety of values that that are encapsulated in our mission in our hands so Whether it's in terms of community on the left you see Our donations and sponsorships have grown over the past five years of able to give back about $46,000 last year and donations and sponsorships on the other hand Workshop attendance in terms of our educational mission has really declined over the past five years We're getting a lot fewer people turning out for workshops Which which says that we need to do we need to find new opportunities new ways of getting information to people that works for them co-op cares is our member discount for low-income members and When we were having the conversations about member discounts over the past couple years people said loud and clear We really think that Resources that are available should be should be provided to members who are least able to afford the co-op. So we've done some focused concentrated outreach to local nonprofits and community partners and have been able to increase the number of households a hundred and sixty-four Households that were involved with co-op cares last year and then the last one is the cooperative community fund As Matt was explaining part of this fund is an endowment that's here for the community For the long term and we've been able to build up the assets in that portion Up to over 82,000 over the last few years in terms of environmental sustainability It was sort of a mixed report card this last year this slide is showing tons of carbon emitted and We were making steady progress and bringing that number down and then the number bounce back up this last year and the main reason for that is that we replaced our heating and cooling system and Although the unit is more efficient. It's actually properly sized for the building and it's in is Providing the right amount of heating and cooling for the space that we have So we're sort of right sizing and hopefully it'll be more comfortable in the hottest and coolest part of the years But it was a somewhat of a step back in terms of energy usage in terms of waste Diversion it's important that we acknowledge that what's doing a lot. We composted 81 tons of material Organic material last year that's keeping it out of the landfill and and going to Vermont compost and grow compost to become potting soils and other things and then 141 tons it's estimated that we recycled and kept out of the landfill and I also want to Point out a couple places where there's been some innovation over the past couple years Our green team has really led the effort on this alternative recycling Using the ARC program over in Berry if you're not familiar with there's a real Real resource there in terms of recycling materials that aren't part of the single source mainstream recycling stream So just as an example from last year 54 gallons of bottle caps recycled at the co-op and 137 pounds of corks this is kind of fascinating And then bag credits we've seen an increase in the number of bag credits and you Customers bringing credit bags back so we don't have to issue a new one over 226,000 bag credits last year and then food and just another area to Think about the impact that we're having of course and in terms of fresh food. We've seen a large Increase in the percentage of and the amount of the fresh categories that we're selling and Which we take to be a marker for for healthy food We heard about local You know roughly 40% of the products that we sell are coming from local which we define as Grown or value added within Vermont or a hundred miles of Montpelier and then are obviously Organic certified organic is very important value for the co-op and about 30% of our products come from there And then we also consider other co-ops to be part of our community Or we want there to be a strong co-op network and last year We sold a million dollars in products from other co-ops. That's about 4% Okay, so that is the presentation and we're gonna open it up Okay All right, so the format for the question and the answer Is going to be like this? I'm gonna ask Your questions and comments about anything at all that you would like to talk about I would request that you keep your contribution your comment or your question to 30 seconds or under I do have a harmonica in my pocket. It's sort of like the Academy Awards if you run too far over and We'll do that for about 10 minutes I'm actually going to start and see if there's questions from people who are watching On Orca and have questions online and then open it up And then I'm going to by pre-arrangement have some staff members address the co-op community for for a few minutes And then we'll have some more open questions and comments. So that's our format and Jess do we have any Questions no nobody online has one. So okay. How about somebody who's live? What would you like to know or comment on or talk about? My name is Sandal Kate and I have a question about rounding up When you go through the line, it's a voluntary thing and you could sort of sign up somehow I also I'd love to know how that's going the rounding up and then if there's some way to maybe promote it a little bit more by having a Visible sign on the back of the cash registers or something like that because sometimes I have to remember to say oh sure you can round up or the Clerk may remember to ask me if I want to round up But I think that must add up considerably, but I'd love to have an example of maybe one month of rounding up Who's taking that one? I don't have I don't have data I know that we've been able to raise, you know hundreds of dollars not not thousands but hundreds of dollars for Local community partners and I and I believe last month was the largest amount But I don't have the number at my fingertips and your point about promoting. I think that's that's Right on, you know, we just need to encourage people to Think about it be aware. It's no pressure to do it, but if if you know if More people do it more. It's a way to really have that impact in the community Because I know the the organizations really value it Great What else would you like to know back here? I'm gonna run up with my microphone. I Kept forgetting to round up and they told me they could put something Excuse me something on my card that they Someone was just allowed to ask me that I gave the cashier permission to say do you want to round up and I think you could probably promote that Because I think it's wonderful that you don't ask as a regular thing But if you want to be reminded every time you come you could promote that in the newsletter and just say, you know Let us round up so Great idea. Thanks I'll just look up it if there's a council member or if Kari you want to respond to something just wave in case I Don't get it. Who else has a question or comment over here? There was the chart of the growth rate and It was exact up and down and I was wondering if anybody could say something about what factors influence that Why is the slope going down and what caused the spikes? What is influencing the growth rate? Sure, I'll take a crack at that So what the the factors that go into sales growth are? the number of customers and how much the customers spend and What we've seen in recent times is that the number of transactions is actually been decreasing for the last three years Probably the main reason for this is that there are more options people have more Outlets that they can shop at and that includes driving to Costco or Direct from farmers or online There's just a lot more places to get the products that we sell and this is not uncommon For food co-ops for natural food stores. It's just more competitive And this is not a particularly competitive in our market, but but there is competition for us and then the other part is How much people spend on average? We have seen some growth there a Component of how much they spend is price inflation. So all the time Prices are generally going up and we pass you know our cost go go up We pass that along in terms of the price increase this this slide is actually adjusted for price inflation So we're using a CPI number from the state government or the federal government And I think the one of the reasons that it's bouncing up and down is that those are estimates that that that price inflation If we removed it and we just looked at just the raw number. It's a lot smoother So I think there's a lot of assumptions in calculating what inflation is But but that's the that's the main thing and they're really in the important point with the take takeaway is that as Mark said We're not trying to grow For growth's sake we need to we want to grow for impact And we also want to grow so that we can match the With the growth in our expenses all all businesses all organizations all expenses are incurring more Households are occurring more expenses over time and we just want to keep pace if nothing else. I think my question is about the next slide back It's the one with all the numbers on it No That one So I'm a little confused About the difference between the bottom two numbers total patronage refund and refund is tributed Yeah, and I know there's an explanation for it because I've heard it before but if you could do it again sure be great So a patronage refund is a unique feature that's provided for co-ops cooperatives by the IRS it's actually a pretty neat thing that we get to benefit from from As a consumer co-op if we make a profit we have the ability to return some of that profit to you the owners and That's you know there's there's a way to calculate the total number that's allowed and then the Co-op has the ability to determine how much of that to distribute in cash or credit and how much to retain There is that option to retain a portion The IRS requires that at least 20% be distributed as cash. There's no sort of long-standing Rule and this year given that most of the income came from this one-time conversion that mark was speaking was this Coming current with our bylaws which say that if a member has not made their full and equity investment and not shopped at The co-op for at least three years then their investment becomes common capital We haven't really caught up with that rule in many years So we did that this year for the first time and so the vast majority of that net income and and the patronage refund The hundred hundred thirty five thousand portion is actually coming from Money that we already had we didn't earn it in terms of operations So that was the reason that the refund that we're distributing later this winter is on the low side It's actually the 20% the minimum because it Really reflects that we weren't actually all that profitable last year. Is that helpful? So and that and that refund will probably be around February and it'll be issued as a credit so that it If you know if someone wants a check We can we can do that but most people prefer to just deduct it from their their their purchase Hi, I know how much I spend a year at the co-op. I was just wondering what the average is. What does the Each member pay on the average? I don't know the answer to that It's a good question. Should I go? Oh, she's got a microphone. I have a microphone. Yeah I'm going okay. Um, okay, so I know we are a co-op and we have this patronage fund and That we give money back when we have money to give back but I'm sure I'm not alone in Feeling like that's probably not I mean I get like a 12 or $20 or whatever might come back So I think about like how much effort and time and money it went to actually, you know Search that out and produce the check and you know and send it all back So is there a way just to say maybe I don't want that don't even go through the process Save the money and it would be better spent elsewhere You're absolutely right that It does take a lot of effort but by law we're required to return 20% of profits back to the member So that's in statue. We can't we can't get around that. However, you can take your patronage refund and put it to the community fund if you'd like so if it's you know If it's a little bit amount or make a big difference to those people who are applying to for grants for next year Yeah, if you if you just simply don't do anything with it, it'll revert back to an unclaimed patronage refund Yes, it's a lot of work Okay, I'm gonna pause the general question and answers for a few minutes and this There's some staff members who are invited to address the co-op community and then we'll go back to some questions and comments that you have Thank you. Um, I actually don't feel like I was invited. I kind of put my force here My name is Lisa Rochelle. I've been a member for 13 years and a staff member for five First I am deeply grateful to the staff that have dedicated so many years of their life to our co-op our union and our community I know it isn't easy and you deserve much more than that beautiful plate and an unfair wage proposal Second I would like to speak this year about Transparency and the lack of it at the co-op the co-op embraces the concept of open book management But in our co-op world that really means we only show you what we want you to know Where are the pages that say we can't afford to give our workers a fair raise? Asking staff to give up two paid holidays and time with their family in order to pay for their own seven cent raise is shameful to me as a co-op member and unacceptable as a worker Transparency for salary and the benefit packages of our management management team is an absolute necessity Is there gender pay gap at our cooperative without transparency? We just don't know how do we know the pay gap between our highest paid employee where there's rumors that includes a car and the lowest lowest is the in the alignment with our members values and our cooperative principles while we have so many staff That can't afford to shop where they work I Spoken in the past at the lack of trust between the staff and management The co-op even spent six thousand dollars hiring a company to confirm the mistrust between us with little to no action of change We still operate under a punitive environment and not a teaching one. I Believe transparency is key to rebuilding that trust Please support the staff and by the way the union wage scale is published right here And it's available to any member who requests it Transparency is accountability and we need a transparency by law. Please add transparency by law to the bylaws I thank you for your time. Hi. My name is Emilia Salada Hartman I am the chief steward of ui local 255 and a member of the negotiating committee After a hundred hours at the bargaining unit table as well as six months Spent negotiating our contract with management. They continue to ask us to give up our paid holidays To pay for our own raises Management has received raises without making any such sacrifice if we do not agree to this We will only receive a seven cent raise Kari painted our positions as being very close on wages My question is that it's if that is the case. Why have we seen no forward movement from management in four months? They will tell you that union employees already receive an annual raise That is our experience by and not something that we bargain at the table. We have never bargained that at the table this year of contract negotiation has been a shifting landscape of Different roles being applied Furthermore in the recent negotiating session, they suggested not paying us retroactively to our July 1st Start date when we should have had our new contract This much like negotiating a raise separately from the annual experience raise has always been the practice Tactics such as these do nothing to build trust between management and the union Another outstanding issue is management's continued practice of expecting and allowing department managers to regularly perform hours of work Normally assigned to union employees This erodes our bargaining unit by concealing the obvious need to more for more labor hours Co-op management has continued to refuse to properly invest in its workers by adding these labor hours to department schedules Despite an ever-increasing workload This refusal has led to increased stress low morale and injuries as well as adding to the already heavy workload of department managers They are being asked to do unpaid overtime Which they said at the bargaining table to us when we question them how the managers were performing their own jobs as well as ours That is an exploitative practice that I don't think lines up with the co-ops values We are asking for support from the community in our effort to secure a fair contract in a safe and healthy workplace If anybody wants any more information, we have handouts. We also have buttons if you want to show your support for our staff Thank you Hello, my name is Melissa pelkey and I have been part of co-op communities for many years This community for the last 10 years and have worked at hunger mountain co-op for over seven years. I have seen How over the time most co-ops have lost their way Focusing more on profit rather than serving the community as they were originally created to do I Feel that it's important that the co-op members here from the employee perspective Have the decisions of the co-op impact us of impact all of us as a community While I love the co-op the community and the co-op model I am concerned that is becoming more corporate as our co-ops across the country This is largely due to the increased influence of national co-op organizations such as NCG CDS, which is now known as culminate and UNFI According to NCG's website National co-op grocers is a business services cooperative that represents 148 co-ops in 38 states NCG states that they help unify natural food co-ops. That's making co-ops just like all the other corporate grocery stores culminate claims to help existing Corporate cooperatives retain their vitality and plan for future growth opportunities So it's likely no surprise that their clients are existing cooperatives that seek to expand as hunger mountain continues to include in its business plans culminate has also been known to influence co-ops to change their bylaws and remove member owner control Which has already been tried here at hunger mountain One hunger mountain manager has worked as a consultant for CDS, which is now known as culminate While the co-op does need to remain financially viable in order to be sustainable It does not need to do so at the cost of its members employees and values United Natural Foods Incorporated is one of the biggest corporations in natural food distribution and is where hunger mountain orders most of its food itself and NCG negotiates contracted rates for NCG member co-ops which stipulates that you and if I be the primary distributor For co-ops and that they contribute to a joint liability fund While these types of organizations and corporate ties may increase the buying power sales and popularity of co-ops They also erode the autonomy of cooperatives the focus on supporting local food producers and the control of members and workers We need to retain control as a community of members of our co-op and ensure that it continues to retain the values It was founded on Thank you Thank you, Lisa Amelia and Melissa So do you is there a brief response that you want to take or should we go to community questions and answers? Let me just say that in addition to compensation being important value for the co-op We also want to obviously provided a great workplace and you know It's a little painful to hear that that people don't you know enjoy the workplace Don't value the workplace as much as we'd like them to and obviously that's a challenge that we need to work on Okay, sorry. I didn't didn't mean to mischaracterize. Okay. Do you want to respond? We value our workplace We just believe that we deserve equitable raises Justice management has received and that we don't deserve to have to fight for that for Six months now with no movement from management All right, I'm gonna open it up for this discussion or anything else that people want to talk about for a little while longer Who'd like to weigh in? Back there first of all having been a member of this co-op pretty much since as a sec Inception way back when it was the Plainfield co-op a pre-order co-op before it became Hunger Mountain co-op I've seen through many years and I want to say to the staff. I Greatly appreciate all that you do and the fact that you are there working hard serving the customers with a smile and Care and many of you have been there many years but then I come to the annual meeting and I find out all these things that are concerns and as a Low-income earner who has never averaged a livable wage in 50 years of working. I Really empathize with you, but I I would like to find out more Frequently what the issues are what's going on in the union negotiations? And is there some way that that can be? Communicated to the members on a more regular basis. Where could I find out that so I can you know Be supportive and be more understanding And I see there's some offering of flyers, and I also wanted to say that Members of the staff and the council beat will be around for a few minutes after And if there's a desire to continue the conversation, we may figure out ways to do that so write it on your comment cards as well Other comments and questions Elizabeth hi, I'm Elizabeth just deal staff member And co-op member I just wanted to answer your question Any of us staff can answer those questions to you? At work we do have a free speech clause in our union contract that we fought very hard to maintain Two years ago, and we were successful in maintaining that so we are allowed to talk to you about Any topic provided that we're not Representing pretending to represent the co-op or claiming to represent the co-ops So so you can talk to us Great. Thanks All right This is more like a comment. I Just wanted to find out what is the real reason why Every time I go into the counter that I am being asked if Are you Rolanda and I always wanted to joke and say yeah, because I haven't changed my name lately so I Just wanted to know why I am being asked every time and if that's the case Why don't we just print like a card with our number and with our picture in the back? So I guess that's my comment for tonight. Thank you. All right Does anyone want to take that? Okay Hi, I'm Andrea Mills. I work in the front end. We always try to Verify the customer's names. We have so many customers. We have a lot of new staff members So you can give us your number and we just want to verify your name so that in case we made a wrong Entry it doesn't get credited to someone else's account Does that make sense? It's the only store I go to to where I'm greeted by name every time It's both wonderful and and unusual Stephanie I'm just gonna answer Go ahead you questions. I'm gonna give a little bit more information Everybody can hear me. I've been encouraging everybody else to put the microphone up. Okay, so the answer to one of the questions absolutely talk to the staff and If you have questions while you're at the co-op but another way that you can get information about the union negotiations You can ask for the packet that each council member gets at the beginning of the month That's public information that any co-op member can access They just have to call Kari and he will provide either a printed copy or an email version of it and you can see The the report that he gives to the council about what the union negotiations are at least From the management side if you want the staff side, of course, please speak with the staff So that's information that is on the website I'm not sure where it is in the store, but Everybody here and all the other 9,000 members can access that information if they want to okay So that was one of the things the other thing is as far as the card is concerned it used to be that you had to actually fish the card out of your wallet and hand it over to the To the the clerk and they would scan it and that's how you would know That's how the membership was verified and it switched from that to Asking the member what their number was so that they didn't have to take the card out of their wallet So in either case it's awkward I'm not sure which is less awkward, but At some point some maybe in the past five years there was a change over from that So I hope that gives you a little bit more of a sense of a little bit more of the history of the membership ID Thank you, okay, I'm just going to take a few more We have an online. I think I have Yeah, I was wondering That everything you sell is organic or there's some things that aren't organic in the store Actually, no Only 30% of our sales came from certified organic products last year So a lot of natural a lot of local a lot of fresh And a good portion of it is organic Can you give Jess the microphone for the online question and then I'll go to Rick This is more of a comment. I think it was regarding the negotiations The co-op could allow letters from members and the staff in its newsletter and could also sponsor an online forum for member discussions about various issues Great, thank you Rick Barstow and my question is concerning the senior member discount And I was wondering if there was a way that wouldn't be too complicated to say well Whether having six percent or zero percent if there's some way Three or four percent would would be better for me, but going down to zero percent Discount would be a little more burdensome as well. It's some way to to make it flexible Lots from the council or correct I'm not I'm not sure that's an interesting idea We there's been versions of that that were knocked around in our discussions, but in terms of allowing a Member to just pick the level that they're going to stick with for a period of time You obviously in theory, that's that's great. We just that we would have to figure out how to do it technically So thank you for the suggestion. Okay I've got a sort of a practical question Several years ago You said that it was less expensive for the co-op if we use debit cards rather than credit cards and I was wondering if that's still the case and also, I'm wondering why the The swiping process at the cash register has changed. I liked using just the wave you can use you can wave your Your credit union card and it used to be a debit card now if you wave it it automatically defaults to being a credit card And it seems like that's undercutting your The savings that you had from me using my debit card. Yeah. Yeah, so first first part Yes debit cards are less expensive for the co-op the Merchant fees or the fees that are applied to merchants for credit cards Range quite a bit and some of them are quite high, especially those reward cards debit cards. We think is probably the least impactful Tender even even less than cash in some cases Just in terms of the handling and the second part of the question. We had recently had an upgrade So I think that's the short-term issue That will be rectified as soon as the you know programmers can do it I Think there's two or three more and then I think I will Close it up. I see you too. All right. We have one. Yes. Yes My name is Stephen Farnham. I'm a member of the council and I wanted to thank Scott for bringing up the point about the Biola process that we're going through and I just wanted to Emphasize that it's entirely an open process all of our committee meetings are open if anybody like to attend and We do have Information sessions from time to time in which we invite you all to come and hear about the progress make comments you can get in touch with anybody who's on that committee if you have any thoughts you'd like to share and I also wanted to add that The process is going to be one where we do the best we can to Overhaul the kind of Disorganization of the by-laws without making any Substantive changes and what they actually mean or what with the effect they have and then The plan is to have some separately voted items Following that that are not attached to approving the actual Rewrite so they don't necessarily have to happen. They can have one or the other or both and There has been some talk about Transparency being one of those issues some whether you support it or don't that's something that we're talking about So if you have any comments, you'd like to give to any one of us don't be afraid to let us know. Thank you Okay, I have Three or four hands up and I so let me just recognize who I'm gonna call on and then we'll close it out I have one I had one over here still and I have one there Okay So right now Hi, my name is Andrew Sullivan and I am not a huge fan of Facebook But I just wanted to mention that our local labor union you we 255 has a Facebook page Absolutely anyone can get information From our union anytime they want so just wanted to put that out there. Thank you Andrew there and I'm gonna come back With respect to the decrease in the growth rate there's a new business on Berry Street that's getting a lot of traffic and Is there any and I'm assuming a lot of that traffic doesn't even know the co-op exist? You know a few feet away. Is there any way that co-op can? Develop a way of letting these people know that they could stuff into the cafe or come and buy something because That business is you know, it's generating a lot of people just walk speaking about Bar Hill. I take it. Yeah Yeah, it's pretty remarkable isn't it? Right place right time for that business Yes, I'm sure there are ways we We need to talk with them and sort of Try some things and see what can be done Hello, my name is Cindy McLeod and while I work for the co-op. I'm not speaking as a union member I'm speaking as a member. I Originally got involved with a co-op back in 1977 when it was the Plainfield co-op and I have been a long-term member raised my kids there and I'm a great advocate of the co-op When I retired I Seven years ago. I came and I started working at the co-op as a cashier and I think I am the oldest cashier there I don't work a lot of hours, but I love it and I just want to tell you that I'm a great many Employees love working at the co-op. They love their cuss. We love our customers We love what we're doing and all we're asking is that we'd be treated with respect because Being a long-term member This is my co-op too and I've invested a lot of time and effort through the years in This co-op and I really feel strongly about it and its value And I just want to leave with that feeling that we're not a corporation We're a co-op and I remember how we were founded and I've seen us grow and I still love it today Most of it Thank you Thanks, Cindy This is the last comment. I do see other hands up I see a number of other hands up But I'm going to ask you to use your comment cards and hang around with us afterwards for a few minutes after this comment because I'm gonna Pass it on after this so we can close the meeting Hi, I'm Elizabeth just deal co-op number 8295 is all my cashiers. No This comment is actually very related to those of you that have your hands up and are not being allowed to speak This right here in this room is the highest decision-making body of this cooperative Period not the council not the general manager not me This body this annual meeting this is your co-op 15 minutes is not enough This 15 minutes is not enough to have a discussion about any of the points that anybody has brought up in this room Those of you that have your hands up are not Gonna have the opportunity to speak I am and I'm grateful for that and I apologize to those of you Who are not having the opportunity to speak? 15 minutes is not acceptable and this is your co-op Don't accept 15 minutes We've got almost 10,000 members of this co-op a little 30 seconds Not not okay. That's not democracy So I'm being asked to wrap it up. So, thank you Okay Thanks, Elizabeth. I appreciate that and we 35 minutes into this conversation Which Is still not enough for this group, but I appreciate people hanging on and We're we're here to continue the conversation for a while afterwards so we do have a couple of more things to wrap up and I'm going to ask Eric Jacobson to come and present the hunger-bountain cooperative community award This year. Thank you very much. I'm Eric Jacobson. I've been on the board now two years working on an ethics committee, which we haven't had much time to talk about tonight But one of the ideas we had on the council is to develop a an award a hunger-mountain co-op award to Celebrate individual Contributions that are trying to turn the tide on some issues that are dear To us or have made a lifelong contribution to this community so I'm gonna in a minute turn The microphone over to a member Susan Turner Who will speak to this, but I want to welcome you I think this has been a successful idea and we're going to continue so we welcome you to continue to make nominations and Also lifetime achievement, you know, it could also be a lifetime achievement going forward. So Without further ado, let me welcome member Susan Thank you Thank you. Well the first recipient of the hunger-mountain co-op community award not only reflects the co-op's goals, but Has taken an idea and Built it into an organization that benefits many of the communities here in central Vermont She selflessly serves the farm community the food insecure community and the dedicated Community of organizations serving those who others Otherwise may be unable to access fresh and local produce As a volunteer I can attest to the fact that she also serves a community of volunteers who care deeply and We appreciate her knowledge and leadership and helping us to contribute to the well-being of our neighbors She unites everyone in purpose and Expects more of herself than of anyone else This year's recipient has proven herself in multiple ways Drawing us closer together The farmers the Fed the feeders the volunteers Her development of these networks has enriched so central Vermont in both tangible and Intangible ways Thank You hunger-mountain co-op for the opportunity to honor and to thank The founder of community harvest of central Vermont Allison Levin. Well, thank you. Thank you. Suzy So much and and thank the co-op for this great honor They have been a big part in making the work of community harvests of central mob possible. I'm sorry little teary and Their their partnership has been just one piece of the puzzle that has made this work possible In here in central Vermont as Suzy indicated our work with many farmers and their generosity And sharing their bounty with not just the markets that they sell to but also the community has been what makes this work possible and I'm just the Person helping to drive that mission But it really takes all of the community together to build this this effort and and Recover the food that would otherwise go to waste in the community So people like Suzy and other the 200 and 200 to 300 other volunteers in the community that Help us do this work and all the other organizations the food shelves the senior meal programs Other organizations feeding people with limited access to fresh local food all working together to make it possible for Everyone in our community to have fresh local food Whether they can purchase it at the co-op or whether they are not able to do that We want to make it possible for them to eat Healthy food and we have so much of it here in our community We want to make sure that that isn't going to waste and I'm just sort of the cheerleader to help that make that happen It really takes the community working together to do that work and the 40 farmers and individuals that we get the food from and the 20 recipient organizations that we donate it to and all of you who are able to help in different ways whether that's volunteering with us whether it's out in the fields today in the mud and the snow or Helping behind the scenes doing data entry or kind of contributing to our organization financially which Many organizations and businesses including the co-op are able to do it really takes us all working together to help the community Eat really good food and we really appreciate it and thank you so much for the honor Thank you Thank you Okay, I'm just going to run through some thank you's and we'll wrap it up here I want to thank the our host of Lost Nation Theater and Our photographer tonight is member owner Paul Richardson of Richardson photography Chail child care was covered by a member owner Stephanie Picard Nori towns rain towns and Peyton Smith. Thank you very much Of course the dinner that was provided by our prepared foods department including chef Doug and The drinks were provided by Morse block deli Want to thank Stephanie as our facilitator and Lisa who's been taking notes tonight and all the co-op staff and our member owners who have helped set up and then we'll help clean up in just a moment and I want to give a special thank you to our community relations team Stephanie Kanonen Robin Joy Jess nap and Mary Traffton. Thank you very much and on this slide there are a number of businesses and organizations that volunteered or Provided raffles and that sort of thing. Okay, I just thank the Zazz pottery for making the plates and our award artists Matt C. Schultz And as I mentioned earlier, I want to thank the three departing Council members Shannon Leslie that's not here right now Ashley Hill and Mark Smakowski. Thank you so much for your many years of As treasurer and thank you so much. You've been a major major asset all of you and thank you so much Mark and Thank you so much. We really appreciate You coming I encourage you as mentioned before to come to council meetings Please give us your feedback at any time our numbers and emails are listed and Placed in the beginning as you leave up on the bulletin board and thank you so much for coming and if I have a motion to adjourn Raffles Paul thank you. Okay. I apologize motion to adjourn soon All right, so you have to be present to win We have our endangered species duo's chocolate. Do not unwrap it says winner Terry Colkowski is Terry here Yay No, yes All right, we have a hand raising in the back. Go ahead host defense on the go Eva Schechtman Nice nicely done derma e vitamin skin care winner is Brian Carlson Do we have a Brian here? Oh Over there. There we go. Nice go that way Honest tea teas and tote best bet see barstow good culture teas and caps Susan James Susan are you here? Oh There's Susan very good and the better life green cleaning supplies to Kachura Huckabee Doing really well here primal kitchen hoodies and goodies Susan Swanson Susan are you here? Oh, there you go T-shirt grab bag Walter Liggett All right portable thirst quencher Rima Carlson. All right. Good. Good GT's kombucha bundle Bob Gross The foodie mix and match Jessica Clayton and the wine party to Elizabeth Matai All right nicely done. That was a hundred percent here way to stick it into the end everybody Okay, one last reminder Starting tomorrow is member appreciation weekend at the co-op through Sunday five percent off for members We also Featuring a dozen items in our fall case lot sales so lots of savings and order your turkeys and pies By Monday November 18th Scott Now do I have a motion to adjourn this? 2019 annual meeting Okay, your name Susie Swanson the winner and a second J Okay, all those in favor of adjourning the annual meeting this year, please see why saying aye Any opposed any abstentions have a great evening and get home safe. Thank you so much everybody