April Meeting

April 26, 2012

Updates

FM-

Full season is full.
Rach will ask Erin Nelson for options. No decision is made.

Cody
suggested selling CF totes through other vendors.  A card inside can state that the money paid
to the vendor can go towards their membership.

Fundraiser 4/28/12

34 RSVPs 11 VIPs

We will have an information table.  Frozen goods will be sold @ the end of the
lunch & end of the mtg.

Raj and someone else will run back to the freezers at the
Dojo and Rajs house to get the goods.

Someone needs to bring the sign

Products-

No new products bought before May 16^th.

We have looked for short grain brown rice but have not found
an option that will work for us at this time

“Smoking Goose” brand out of Gunthrop has high margin. Other
co-ops recommended their line

Pig & Cow splitting will happen in May.

IS GMO corn finished beef acceptable?

Cody brought up working with Pogues Run on shipping.  We could order together and split the
shipping

Raj said no, that Pogues run is not interested.

Cara brought up Zach Bails old idea of becoming a part of
Peoples Elbow to get better pricing on shipping

Nothing was determined.

Online Store &
pick up order procedures

(Raj will make an announcement with the new board, he said
it was too much for the current board to handle at this meeting)

It was brought up that we are growing too fast

When we decided to launch the store we has a lot more
volunteers

Raj was allowed to take all the responsibility

Cody is hosting an online store organizational meeting at
his house 5/3/12 at 7:00

It was decided that CF HAS to get a procedure in place for
the store.  We had one and it was
unattended.

Raj wants a gabber/greeter for the pickup dates and a
packer.

The online store needs to run separate from the BOD

Discussed: Barb
Del Carlos questionnaire-  Add more
description to the term (GMO-free, Organic, Natural etc) It passed to be handed
out at the meeting.

**Cara and Mary’s board terms are up and they will not run
again.  Cody is resigning.

Treasury Report- $13,694.38

Other news
– The health department was invited to the CF storage space at the garage and
they cleared us.  They told us that we
needed new thermometers in all freezers/fridges. We now have all new
thermometers.

March Board Meeting

March 22, 2012 — Held at Spurlocks @ 6:30pm

Current Business

Raj and Rachael have suggested making 3 committees to run
the online store.  These committees would
be headed by BOD members but not made up of all BOD members.  The BOD passed these committees.

• Customer Relations – Store announcements, sales
  tracking, pickup coordination, delivery options (Rach will head) Phil offered
  to open a 2^nd pickup time
• Product Committee- Reordering, new products, evaluate
  cost/profit, new vendors relations (Raj will head this) Cody suggested having a
  call list to remind customers of their pickup time
• Marketing and PR- not much was said.  No one is running it

Barb Del Carlo will send out an announcement of 2 committees
and mention trying to start the marketing committee.  She will send out with 3 dates and people
will choose the date.

The committees will hold regular meetings.  Then report to the board.

Membership Certificates- Haven’t been sent because we wait
to fill a full sheet (8) before we print.

We should be checking membership cards before sales.  This can allow for us to validate
membership.  It will also clear up any
confusion about membership.  People in
the past have thought that they are members because they signed the email list.

Membership meeting details- Post cards with information
details (Rach is drafting this week)

Please
include RSVP to the POB and online.

Farmers Market – Motion to not be seasonal.  We tabled it.
We suggested thinking of ideas for marketing at the Mosey

Facility- We are operating in the garage.  We need to ask for permission to use the
courtyard as a social area.

Online Store

New Product- Honey lady at the FM. Maple syrup, send Raj
info.

Treasury Report: Grand total: $14,001.81 with FM & Flour
order $900 spendable

Checking: $2,145.10

Operations: $ 371.71

Equity: $11,485

Next Meeting April 26^th 2012

*This meeting was pushed back to the 1st of March due to scheduling conflicts

City Foods Minutes

March  1st 2012 6:30 – 9pm at Spurlock’s

Present: Barb Del Caro, Denis Del Carlo, Raj, Ben L, Ben A, Rachael, Cody, Cara, Mary, Phil

Old News

Online Store Sales

• Some orders are not getting picked up.  Cody suggested we offer a courteously call to remind customers when pick up is open
• We have 2 repeat customers
• Member specials are being developed
• Do we offer “member specials” to friends or only members? Tabled

Volunteer Meeting Review

• Barb Del Carlo is our new Volunteer Coordinator!!! Welcome Barb!
• Rach suggested we hold regular volunteer meetings
• Barb and Rachael will meet to further discuss

New Products and Fundraisers

Mark Hufford

• Double M Farms outside of Rossville, IN has offered to donate $500 worth of freezer chickens.
• We will add chickens, pork sausage, pork bacon, and eggs from Double M Farms to our store
• Product stays at Mark’s until orders are closed.  He delivers what we need.

Fundraiser / Member Meeting

• April 7th was the date for our annual meeting / fundraiser at the Knickerbocker.  Due to Easter, April 28th is the confirmed date.
• Cody and Raj made the menu.  Cody is handling the majority of the cooking at the Bistro 501.
• We will need 3-4 people to set up.
• Annual meeting details discussed on 3/8/12 6:30 pm at Spurlocks

Online Store

New Products

• Cheese will be added to next order cycle.  We voted to sell the cheese in “units” with a 1lb minimum.  We will charge per pound in the future.
• We will add chickens, pork sausage, pork bacon, and eggs from Double M Farms to the store

Order Cycles

• Staying with 2 week cycles until we have more volunteers

Inventory / Order

• Inventory is being done
• Once we hear back from more volunteers we will vote on paying the $300 seasonal fee.

Farmers Market

Treasury Report

Ben and Raj

• Operations account $1191.  There was a miscommunication about member equity being transferred into operations account.  Raj and Ben will discuss and report back.

Other

Dojo

• Phil added lights and locks so that the side door is more accommodating.

Dwolla

• Cara signed us up and will write an intro.  $0 fees under $10 transactions. $.25 fee over $10 transaction.
• Paypal is expensive and we need options.
•  Square is also being setup

Commercial Kitchen

• Cody will contact Long House Farms about kitchen availability
• BP kitchen has new tenants and is not open for rent

*This meeting was pushed back due to scheduling conflicts

City Foods Board Meeting – February 2, 2012

Rachael calls meeting to order

Monday, Gregory Monzel from Pogue’s Run spoke at the library.  If we can publicize, Greg will come back.  Ben A. asked Julie to make a press release, but Greg never sent biographical information for information.  Presentation was very informative, Greg is the contractor to build the store and stayed on as the general manager for 11 months.  Most of what he discussed was building the actual store, but he was also very involved in grant writing and fundraising beforehand.  Indy Foods is an organization; Pogue’s Run is the store.  After Indy Foods had raised enough money, and secured funds for a manager, they hired Greg to finalize location, raise money, and build up the store.  Indy Foods was a non-profit organization, not a cooperative.  MOST PROFIT COMES FROM BAKERY AND DELI!

City Foods should become an LC3 (new definition for minimal-profit businesses that focus on social benefit) – get tax-deductible donations) – will be legal after this year.

Fundraising:

Short-term goals:

Long-term goals:

Cody: We need someone to do this full time; the Board are all part-time, and over-extended, but it will never be what it could be if we don’t have a general manager.   Break it down to a reachable number (i.e. $30,000) for a full-time manager.

Online store needs to be run by a person.  Greg: get lamb and cheese.

Cara: we need to decide on a direction; events and galas, or the online store?

Volunteers: who will organize?  Send volunteer coordinator job description to volunteers who want to work with City Foods.  GreaterLafayetteVolunteer Network – contact all of our 25-ish major volunteers and find a coordinator or two.

Fundraising: Big, signature event.  Send a mailing to members and ask for $20 per person.  Host a harvest dinner, use up inventory, and make some money.

Online Store: We need to run the store.  What we need: press release needs to go out, emails to members, getting volunteers to a big meeting.  WE NEED TO GET THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM WITH US.  Likely to recruit 5 people.  People need to know the store is open for orders, send notification.  Send a notification that it is almost closed.  Change message on pick-up date and time.  Bags for orders.  After tallying orders, someone needs to pick up list and pack orders.  We will also need someone to do inventory and package product.  Someone needs to be at the garage to hand out orders.

DATE FOR NEXT ORDER:

6 board members, 2 volunteers.  Assign tasks permanently.

Ben L.: volunteer notifications, Falon will help; customer notification – Google calendar?  Write a message and schedule to be sent.

Phil: inventory; visual and updated spreadsheets and web site, posted to Google Docs

Ben A.: treasury and cashbox

Rachael:  online updates to websites and date changes

Mary: packing orders and printing order slips

Cody: hand out orders

Email on ordering being open – Ordering open Monday-Monday (Feb. 6-13)

Updating automated message – include pick-up date/time, info on forfeit of orders, etc.

Saturday hours: 10-noon; Feb. 18, March 3, March 17

Volunteer Call-out:  late Feb./early March (21^st, 23^rd, 25^th of February)

Packing – Friday, Feb. 17^th

Treasurers Report – As of today, we have $1,051 in operations.  One new member, Craig Stinson has thrown in $20 for membership.  $11,680 in membership directory.  Online store is operational; City Foods has not made the transition to a viable business.  Fundraising was effective, but not enough.  Sales did not pay for themselves.  We spend $90-$100 every month – $50 for garage, $30 for insurance, $300 for farmers market.  $25/visit if we only do it sporadically.  Deadline for FM is first day of market.  Meeting is on Tuesday for Farmers Market vendors.  If we don’t get a membership, we won’t be on the website and we might not get a spot every week.  FM starts on May 5^th. Credit cards; WOLLA/Cube/Paypal.  It would be a good idea to offer all three options to our members. Money would go to the deposits account.  Motion to establish Wolla account, seconded, passed.  This is a non-credit alternative.  Ben keeps the money box safe; there is always $50 in the cashbox.

Google groups; Ben L. has set it up, everyone can access and emails are archived.

Online store: Fat Cow?  We do not want to pay them again.

Rachael: we need to start gearing our focus toward fund-raising; next meeting will be focused on fundraising events.  Start-up Co-op conference: March 9-10 inBloomington.  Scholarships available, contact Rachael.  Contacted by Purdue about Iron Chef competition sponsorship February 18.

** This meeting was pushed back due to the holidays **

Date and Time:   December 8, 2011, 6:40-8:30 PM

Board Members Present: Cara, Ben L, Cody, Rachel, Ben A

Investigation of vegetables for the online store

• Cody will look into this using Marketmaker a Purdue online resource
• Marketmaker is on the Purdue Agriculture website
• Farmers need to be found who are interested in cooperating in this endeavor

A list of potential products which can be added to our inventory needs to be developed.

Flour has been ordered for the online store, but it was the incorrect type.

• In the future receipts need to be received and checked before any shipments are sent
• Items purchased for the online store should already have been agreed upon by the board before purchase

Ben Leonard will look into starting a Google group for the board to make e-mailing easier

Beta Run

• Board members were supposed to opt in for the online store test run.  That is why some people did not receive reminder e-mails about ordering
• Elana hasn’t picked up her order.  She is not concerned.
• Shopping cart needs to be easier to use.
• Change pick up times at 10am

Next order Dec. 17^th to Members only

• 17^th pick up 10-noon
• Orders close 15^th
• Order prep 16^th Cara
• Cody to check on labels on products
• Send out notification email by 12/10 Rach- draft, Ben L- Send it out

Next year- Store will open to public also.  Members will be special pricing each ordering round

Product order

• Inventory sheet will be online – Rach
• Stamp, paper, are in.
• Bags need to be improved but we have enough
• Pack more product (accidentally on agenda)
• Ordering more product: Work with Indy Co-op about splitting shipping. Ben (loading dock?)

Volunteers

• We have more volunteers
• Create a Google Docs folder for Volunteers only
• Cody will conduct a volunteer meeting mid January at the library: he needs tasks that need to be done and an email to be written.

Treasury Report

• Spendable Cash: $606.20
• Amount in Operations: $1194.03
• Working to get donations

New Business/Parking lot

• Mid to late Jan. Greg Monzel may talk for us.  He started the Indy Food Co-op
• Google Docs needs organized
• Reveal the Online Store 2012 and send members a notification/comment card/discount code
• Newsletter, Julie is working on it
• Midwestern Prairie Farmer magazine is writing a 4 page article on City Foods thanks to Cody !!
• Dwolla, Square, vs Paypal
• T-Shirts
• Business Cooperator Tab Logos with info

Next Board meeting January 19^th 6:30 Spurlocks

10/27/11- 6:30
Rachael, Cody, Cara, Ben L, Mary, Ben A, Falon

Old Business:
Call to Arms sent by Ben L
Issue with user emails has been resolved
Get it on website homepage-on FB already

Volunteer Opportunities:
Need to provide calendar so volunteers have dates
Response to generic emails to confirm (Rachael)
18 volunteers have filled out form to date
Log-out button
*Need separate inventory of unpackaged product

Benefit Concert:
$438 total for City Foods ($100 total went to A.D.)
Lots of prizes/raffles

New Ideas:
Winter solstice benefit-hand out winter collections
Screen cast-video with php list, explain what to do (audio overlay)

Packing:
No way to print sheets
Automatic response is confusing
Put screen/curtain in front of dirt bike
Taxable v. Non-taxable-add tax into cost of item
Date of pick-up should change for Thursday order
*Distribution: Saturdays 11-1
*Packing: Friday 6-7 PM
Shelves need to be organized-shelving plan to label permanent locations on shelves

Inventory: Saturday after 1:00 PM
Feedback survey
Product numbers & reordering system
Notifications to members for repacking
Reorder point (every 25 lbs)- item-specific
Inventory instructions sheet for volunteers
Need 1 person to set inventory/reorder trigger
Quickbooks Pro-Inventory (generates reports)
Use City Foods laptop for email
Cody: Baseline for packed/unpacked/space

Beta Run:
Fix brown rice button
Feedback survey
Overlapping for out-of-stock items
Timing: 2 weeks-November 2nd- email for Beta
Email all City Foods members
Select 25-30 for Beta test (~email selected participants Nov. 10th)
Open store: November 12th
Pickup: November 19th (pack on Nov. 18th)
First email-include dates

Reorder Product-Cody
100 lbs. Pastry Flour
100 lbs. Buckwheat Flour

New Products:
Soy & Oats
Lentils (?)
Coffee- 20 lbs/mo, $4-6/lb
*After Beta Run unless it’s from Greenfield
BP-commerical kitchen (Rachael will contact)
Must be packed before November 9th

Beta Run Reminders:
Email on Tuesday before (Nov. 15th), 2 days
Order prepped email (Nov. 18th)

Stamps: 2.5×4, $34-Cara will order
Paypal deducts fee-charge tax/raise price
Google checking?
Visa merchant?

November 15th-Green Drinks
Ads in Lafayette Independent/article
Keep website to members only
NOTE-Pick up only

Next board meeting: November 30th @6:30

September City Foods Board Meeting Minutes

Date/Time:

September 29th, 2011, 6:30 PM-8:00 PM

Location:

        Spurlocks

Board Members:

        Present: Ben A, Ben L, Cody, Mary, Rachel

Farmers’ Market

1. Would like to do one each month (1 in September and October, Harvest Market, and Dickens of a Christmas)

Online Store

1. The call to arms is ready to send out, but details with the PhP mailing list needs to be finished first.  Rachel will send Ben L the information for the PHP list, so that he can work on this.
2. Testing of the online store has been completed.  There are still some difficulties with the “not enough stock to complete order” message.  
3. Ben A successfully ordered food from the online store.
4. An online store test is scheduled for the weekend of October 14th

1. Friday, Oct 14th: 2 people are needed to pack food (7:00 pm)
2. Saturday Oct 15th: 2 people are needed to distribute orders (10:00 am-1:00 pm)
3. Sunday Oct 16th: Review test and plan for store; 5:00 pm at Java Roaster

5. The inventory for the store needs to be reviewed and a mastor inventory needs to be created

Benefit Show:

1. At Nickerbockers on Saturday, October 15th
2. Bands will be playing from 9:45-2:00
3. There is a $5 cover some of which will go to pay the bands
4. There will be a raffle with drawings throughout the night

Product Issues

1. The rest of the product should be packed after the trial run for the store
2. We may be able to use the church next to the Dojo for packing
3. Ben A will order the stamps, ink and anything else which can be bought over the internet
4. Several other purchases of packing materials will be made at Sams’ Club using a check

Upcoming events

1. Next board meeting: 27th of October
2. Indiana Coop Summit: 28th of October (Ben A and Rachel may go)

Farmers’ Market:  went very well; 1 friend signed up, 2 other potential friends

• Made approx. $208; biggest seller BB PC mix; people very interested in buckwheat & gluten-free products; much excitement about City Foods(CF) & products; no complaints or neg. comments on price of items
• Found old e-mail list; need to create master excel sheet to consolidate all e-mail addresses; idea discussed using CF laptop @ FM to collect e-mail addresses
• Look into:   FM boot camp classes/seminars @ Purdue; Mosey Down Main St is 9/3/11 NOT 9/10/11 as discussed

Online Store Progress/Discussion:  getting closer to being ready

• Approx. 415 lbs. packed 8/23/11; need to secure packing location
• Rach worked on price list; bread flour & shipping went up; NOT included in prices:  kitchen, bag & freezer tape costs
  • Member benefit to stay @ 10% for now; possibly raise non-member prices by 10% in future
  • Motion to pass pricing w/ an addition of $0.10/lb for kitchen cost- PASSED
  • “Call to Arms” E-mail: send out after changes are made, then on Facebook
    • Brittany assigned to review volunteer forms & to contact when needed; Need specific prompt/template to send to all volunteers once they sign up; Ben L. to look into setting up an auto-respond program

Financial Issues:

• About $300 on hand; now have credit card for CF
  • After online store set up, look into new products (dried spices)
  • UU Church-could be used again @ discount rate; Ben A. will look into a possible dinner benefit (sell products, talk about co-op, gain members, etc.)
  • Shipping expensive; discussed possibly driving to IN & MI farms next time (save money, take pics of farms)
  • Labels- too expensive; Motion made to not stick w/ old labels- PASSED
    • Raj’s idea: No glue; won’t work w/ packing situation
    • Rubber stamp w/ “City Foods”- good idea; Cara will look into
    • Possibly print labels (Avery) w/ CF computer & printer; Mary will work on
    • Rach will send e-mail on Tues 9/6/11 to vote on labels

Other Issues:

• Raj’s list -packing jobs; need to create checklist for packing sessions- Cody will consolidate list by Wed 9/7/11
• Website needs to be done; Rach will have online store/starter website ready: Thurs 9/8/11
• Tues 9/13/11: Meeting @ 6:30 pm at Dojo (test online store; discuss next packing day after trial run)
• Thurs 9/22/11:  Next board meeting @ 6:30 at Spurlock’s

July minutes

7/28/11

Mary, Cody, Rachael, Ben A, Cara, Phil

Cooperation Celebration: Puccini’s- Rach will ask in person Black Sparrow- Cara will ask

Selling Product at the Farmers’ Market (FM): We will sell small amounts of all products and have “Sold Out ” signs)

Cody drafted an email to send out to the mailing list.  The content is a call out, history, current status, reg volunteers needed.

Need before we send 1) Johns survey to spreadsheet software and 2) Set up volunteer flow

Online Store: Launch end of August beginning of September

Beans: order on hold due to figuring shipping out (possibly picking up beans)

Cornmeal: “

Rice: ordered 7/28 100# brown, 100# white $70 shipping

Flour: order on hold (figuring shipping)

Added “inventory” to the example Volunteer Task List

Assigned individuals –

BP kitchen, tote shopping, shelving – Cara

Volunteer Coordinator – Falon

IT person – (CSS is needed) – Cara

Public contact person – Rachael

Inventory – open/volunteer

BOARD MEETING MINUTES – JUNE 2011

Attending:  Ben Alkire, Rachael Yanni, Cody Hall, Mary Lehmkuhl, Falon French

(Falon to look into plastic ingredient bins through TuWa – refer to online store spreadsheet)

Ingredient bin:

Cody: we need the ingredient bin for the natural bread flour; any time we dump any ingredient into one of the buckets, it needs to be done in a kitchen.  It’s better to do it just once.

Rachael: 33 pounds of flour = 5 gallons.  The ingredient bin is $125 for the smaller one.  For the larger bin, it is a 37 gal for $175.  Are we going to put them in bags too? 

Mary: Has to be done in a kitchen (Cody: or in front of a customer) – scrambling with just one bin.

Minutes: approved

Cooperation Celebration has become the official name of the dine-and-donates. 

$273 – LBC

$260.50 – La Scala

Working with a person from Puccini’s for next Cooperation Celebration (date TBD); Black Sparrow for next month.

New space: has refrigerator, shelving, located downtown.

Mail: Ben needs a key for Post office, Mary and Julie and John and Rachael have keys to 529 location; IRS mail goes to Cara’s mom’s house

Farmers’ Market: unable to go last week. 

2 of the 5# bags of flour go to James at 529; 8 remaining to sell.  20 2.5# bags of pancake batter remain, along with 26 1# bags of black beans (some need labels).  Went to BP kitchen, nice owners, had everything necessary, $25 for half day, $40 for full day, offered to let us store stuff there if we need to. 

Strategic Plan: Tactics due this month, some have been pushed back to July

Rachael: Make a motion to push back tactics to focus on the online store. 

Mary: If we focus on the online store, we’ll only do the tactics that relate to online store.  Once we’ve done a lot of stuff, we can refer back to the strategic plan.

Cody:  I agree that we can do this through July, but there are things that are really important like our signature fundraiser.  And once the online store is operational, we’ll need other tactics like marketing.  The board needs to hand over the store to an Online Store Committee, made up of mostly non-board members, so the board can focus on board issues.

Mary: Maybe we should have an on-the-side meeting to look at the strategic plan, if we’re focusing on the online store then we should highlight things that are time-sensitive and push back everything else. 

Rachael:  Stephanie says that there hasn’t been anything online in months.  I want to keep a log of who’s a member, who’s a partial member/friend, etc. 

Intern (400 hrs) background in health.  Need an outline for internship ASAP. 

Phil: we need to send out a monthly email, so that members know what we’re up to and don’t forget about us. 

Mary:  Cara and I used to enter this information, so it exists somewhere with a hard copy of emails. 

Motion: delay tactics not related to online store.  Motion passed. 

Ben: Have been working on grants, making a presentation to Lafayette Enterprise.  City Foods is not alone; there is a regional problem in getting grants.  We really just need a $1.5 million loan, because we can pay it off.  Soros foundation might be a possibility. 

Chris Brown told Cody and Cara he would be more than happy to help with rent, nice guy who owns a lot of property, and there is a space next to Artist’s Own that might be available. 

Phil:  we need to ask for volunteers, more aggressively.  Cody will send something out in the next week.  Need more volunteers for farmers’ markets.

Cody: I would like to see us operating the online store until we can cover small rent on our own building. 

Online Store Specifics:

Initial Product Inventory (refer to spreadsheet).  Total inventory cost will be $1129.66, with estimated shipping.  Bags will cost $241 (not including shipping and printing); check on taxes we might have to pay on bags.  Shelving will cost $210.

Prices from Sunspot: Organic black turtle beans $1.95/lb in bulk section.  

We might want to look into paying for monthly access at the kitchen and keeping the bin there; might be easier than moving bin every time. 

Treasurer’s Report: We have about $3,000 available for operational costs (not membership equity).  Membership equity is being saved for online store.  Figure out how much to move to Operational Account, and minimum balance. 

Vote on Storage Containers: Option E – 1 37-gal ingredient bin, 20 5-gal buckets, 5 10-gal buckets.  Unanimously chosen as best option.   (refer to spreadsheet)

Online Store Procedures:

Semi-monthly (2^nd and 4^th Saturdays of each month) – refer to Online Store Procedure report. 

July 23 – first pick-up date for online store.  Need volunteer sheets before, minimum of 2 volunteers for each preparation day and pick-up days.  Need 3 people signed up, so if one person doesn’t show everything works out.  Need an order number and a way to print out order lists (John said he could do it).  Volunteers obtain order lists every Friday afternoon before pick-up day.

Need to do product inventory, and order more when we reach 25 lbs. 

Tentative Trial Runs  – Online store opens 1 week before first pick-up (July 23); only board members and active volunteers.  2^nd trial run will be 2 weeks later, include family/close friends/dedicated members (August 6).  Allow first 20 members to participate test run.  Online store goes live as of August 20. 

Beta package for second run.  Give a sample of every product for a set fee (ex. $50 gets a 1 # bag of everything).  Beta package at Farmers’ Market – display products, rack up sales.  Customers in beta run get a discount; members get a discount. 

Next Online Store Meeting:  July 6^th at 7:00 PM at the Dojo Garage. 

Ben:  Move to Adjourn.  Unanimous.

MAY
CityFoods Board Meeting Minutes           

May 26, 2011  6:00 – 8:30pm

Venue: Spurlocks Downtown, ‘Purdue Room’

Board Members Present: Cara, Cody, Ben L., Ben A., Rachael, and Mary                   
Others Present:  Fallon (start member) and Phil (member)

Fallon hasn’t paid her membership but shall soon. She has agreed to be Secretary once fully paid and admitted as a City Foods Board Member.
Former Secretary, Ben Alkire, will be taking the office of Treasurer in place of John Fry.

Discussion for name change of our ‘Community Night’ to “Coop Night” and “Cooperation Celebration” Next one to be held either at Puccini’s or Black Sparrow – TBA

Mary is designing small folding table informational cards – will make

Packing flour – BP Kitchen – Cody will do it – packing the flour

Extra key to be cut for Ben A for Post Office box

Raj – Ben L – BEN A- meeting with Julie and go over books
            Cara: consider using Quickbooks

Double check Lafayette / Tippecanoe? Vendor’s Permit – has it expired? – No, is valid and current

FLOUR – a big discussion
Plastic containers, totes for packed flour, Mary is working on it – 45 gallon/50 gallon cans with wheels? big bags vs small bags – mobility vs storage – totes
- possibly order new flour ~June 5

Does Raj have dry beans?

Buckwheat, pastry bread flour, blueberry pancake mix  2x bread
one small tote holds 80lbs flour

6 x 30 gallon tote wire racks $90
Cody will develop a wash station for beans

Find out more about Halal meat – Ben L

Meeting for On-line store Thursday June 2 +

We should work with local cooperative businesses, credit union especially.

Development internships: Brittany Van Cleve – Education, work on event calendar

Went over Strategic Plan; reassigned tactics and put deadlines on some tactics. And discussed procedures for carrying out and presenting tasks/tactics.

The online store is a bridge to having a brick and mortar store. Goal is to have online store functioning in next few months. Couple years out, a real physical storefront. This is something that needs great focus.

April City Foods Board Meeting Minutes
Annual Board Election Meeting
Date/Time:

April 2011

May 5th ,2011 6:00 PM – 7:45 PM

Location:

West Lafayette Public Library

Present at meeting:

Cara, Mary, Ben A., Ben L., Rachael, Cody, Phil and John

Board Officer Votes:
Officers: Cody and Rachael ran for President, all other seats where unopposed.               

President: Rachael

Vice President: Mary

Treasurer: John

Secretary: Ben

Terms:

3 years: Cody and Ben L.

2 years: John, Rachael, Ben

1 year: Cara, Mary

Other Business:
Regular Board Meeting Date:

Board meetings will be held on the 4th Thursday of the month. Meeting place not set. Possible new meeting location ideas were, TAF, The Union, or some other room at Purdue. Meeting rooms need to have wireless internet access.

Online Ordering:

Need to test system, get order handling procedure down.

Tactic Meeting Date:

Tactics Assignments: Meeting on 5/13, backup on 5/18, details on Google Calendar.

Flour:

Need to package what we have on hand now, and order more products.

Flour for 529:

We’ll get them flour

Farmers Market:

Meeting on 5/13 details on Google Calendar, backup date is 5/18

Community Night:
    Need to change name of event from “Community Night” to something else.

February City Foods Board Member Minutes

Date/Time:

February 24^th, 2011, 6:30 PM – 8:45 PM

Location:

Downtown Public Library

Board Members

Present: Cara, Mary, Ben, Zach, Cody, Julie and John.

Absent: Rachael

Guest: Sandra Sydnor-Bousso (PSEAB/Purdue Class)

Purdue Class Presentation: No vote

Sandra presented her Feasibility classes and E-Commerce classes findings. Main suggestions were to be more social and to hire a full time employee to get things done and stream lined.

Board did not discuss these ideas.

LUEA Presentation: No vote

Questions: Should we still pursue? What’s in it for us?

Board decided we should still pursue this opportunity.

Board decided this falls under Rachael’s March tactic of “Research and document grant opportunities”.  She needs to get details from Dennis Carson on what LUEA has to offer us.  John had a meeting with E.N. (notes in Google docs) from the GLC, and received conflicting stories from what other members had been told regarding LUEA’s offerings.

Board Meeting Schedule:  Vote

Vote: Board voted not to ‘officially’ change the scheduled “last Wednesday of the month” schedule.

Notes: March’s meeting will be changed to Thursday, March 17^th 6:30 PM

New schedule will be brought back up for discussion after April’s board elections.

Resigned Board Seat – Vote

Raj resigned his board position. Cara presented 2 options:

1. Alert all current City Foods members of open position; take applications, interview potential replacements, then vote of replacement.
2. Continue with 8 board members, and fill empty board seat in April during the annual board elections.

Vote: Board voted to wait till elections in April to fill the seat.

Note: John will serve as Secretary till April elections.

Farmers Market – 2 Votes

Note: March 8^th, Farmers Market Meeting (check time) City Hall

Question: Should we attend the Downtown Farmers Market at all this year?

Vote: We will go to the Downtown Farmers Market at least once this summer.

Question: How often? Once a month or full time? Pay the entire $300, or just the $30/40 it cost for a one-time fee.

Vote: We will pay $300 to go to the Downtown Farmers Market.

Main push was that your spot is very inconsistent if you aren’t a regular.

Cara is sending the checking a.s.a.p.

Note: John will be getting information on the West Lafayette Farmers.

Board review February Strategic Plan tactics – No Vote

                Follow up on January tactics was not completed

Assignment of Raj’s tactics was not done – It was asked that board members decide on their own which one’s they will do.