[BCN] great discussion...

[Joshua Laskin]

  dear________(who didn't sign your name, 
     so I'll have to call you, 'R.W.')

Dear Ardubya,
  You raise many key issues--here are some
specific thoughts:
  Are there any Harvest Members out there, who
don't know about the Annual Members Meeting, held
once a year, at the end of October?--analogous to
a corporate stockholders meeting, it's a legal
requirement.  The location alternates between JP
and Cambridge.  At these Meetings, the Board
presents the Annual Report.  The Board always
tries to put the best face on this Report, but
its possible to read between the lines, analyze
the graphs and charts oneself, to hear what
they're not telling us.   
  IMHO, the first step of a Members initiative
would be to take control of this Annual Members
Meeting.  I DON'T mean by this, that we should
use these Meetings to take control of the Co-op
itself--which the Board actually fears, because
technically it's possible (as a majority-vote by
a quorum of Members there, is legally a decision
of the Co-op)--I don't consider this a practical
path, only an extremely last resort.
  When I say that Members should take control of
the Annual Meeting, I mean it in respect to: 1.
the Report; 2. the agenda; and, 3. organizing. 
  The Annual Report contains the minimal
information which Board and Management want the
Members to see.  They don't want us to see the
BAD news--they fear our reaction--so, they don't
give us all the information which we really need,
to know what's going on.  Therefor, WE, the
Members, not the Board or Management, should
decide (and demand) what information should be
included in the Report.  At the last Annual
Meeting, we voted (in a straw-poll) to add
Member-Sales, and Co-op Debt, to the Report--it
remains to be seen, whether our requests will be
honored next October...
  Currently, it's the Board who sets the agenda,
and chooses the facilitator, for the Annual
Meeting--but their agenda never includes any
whole-meeting discussion.  Instead, the meeting
is broken up into small groups for
discussion--but small-group discussions never
lead to anything--and attendance at these Annual
Meetings is small enough to allow for united
discussion.  Members therefor need to review the
Meeting's agenda, and also bring in an
outside/disinterested facilitator.
  Once we're able to actually discuss the Co-op
together, we'll be able to start to organize, to
broaden Members' role.  A key first step, I
think, would be to establish a new committee, of
Members, tasked to evaluate the Board's
job-performance, annually, and to report to the
Annual Meeting.  Currently, the Board evaluates
its OWN performance--but, that's really OUR job. 
Board-elections begin at the Annual Meeting--but,
without Board-evaluation, how can we determine
whether Directors running for re-election are
worthy of our vote?  Another necessary step would
be to take Board-elections out of control of
Management, and outsource them to a disinterested
3rd party (like the League of Women Voters, for
example, who work for donations)--it's way too
easy now for results to be rigged, to keep real
leadership off the Board.
  I think the biggest issue Members have with the
Board, is the Board's ignoring those By-laws
which specify Board tasks.  Unless Members put
pressure on the Directors to fulfill their
responsibilities, they'll continue to do only
what they want to do.  The Co-op's By-laws are
our contract with the Co-op, so our Board needs
to start living up to them.
  Finally, I agree with your statement that our
local lifestyle has broader, even planetary
ramifications.  Our daily life, especially how we
get what we eat, is where our rubber hits any
road to the Future.

Joshua Laskin



--- rwbussewitz <rwbuzz at gis.net> wrote:

> ...It would be hard to imagine
> going back to the days 
> before Harvest finally came to JP. It's such a
> shock to learn that it's 
> a struggle to make it work at all. I can't
> believe we who depend on 
> this store could allow it to fail, but i also
> wonder how many have any 
> idea of what's going on. So I can only say
> let's hear more.  I think 
> actually the management of the store does owe
> it to the membership to 
> let people know what's behind the seemingly
> unreasonable prices. When 
> one sees they're not "unreasonable" in the
> greater context it moves one 
> to want to know more. There is actually a lot
> at stake here. It's about 
> our lives, our life-style, and in fact the
> planet isn't it?
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> BCBCNists.bobostoncoopet
>
hthttp/lists.bobostoncoopet/mailman/lilistinfocbcn>







 
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