Brattleboro Food Co-op - Board of Directors Meeting – Minutes dated June 4, 2007

American Building Conference Room, 67 Main Street, Suite 7, Brattleboro, VT

APPROVED

Directors present: Penfield Chester, Denny Frehsee, Carol Hatcher, John Hatton, Sydney Longfellow, Cynthia Moore, Bill Murray and Connie Woodberry.

Directors absent: David Gagnon, Donna Remy-Powers and Suzy West.

Staff and members present: Alex Gyori, Bruce Boardman, Bj Davis, Eesha Williams, and Garth Shaneyfelt and Molly O’Brien, Board of Directors of the Greenfield Co-op.

The meeting was called to order at 5:17 P.M. with Penfield facilitating.

1. There were changes to the agenda. #9 – Alex, Carol and John will report on the CVNC meeting which took place this past Saturday. #11 – The Member Initiative By-Law Committee has not yet met so there will not be an update this evening. John’s draft response to members for their input is being tabled to the next meeting.

2. John made a motion to accept the Minutes from May 7, 2007 and Bill seconded. Denny and Connie abstained. 6-0-2.

3. There was member input. Eesha Williams asked the Board to extend their advertising budget to the local Commons newspaper. John explained that advertising is an operational issue that will be delegated to management.

4. Alex briefly reviewed the General Manager’s Report.

5. General Manager’s Report re: 20/20: Alex discussed Brattleboro 20/20’s role as being one of trying to change confrontational conversations to community spirited conversations and to ultimately work through various issues facing Brattleboro to develop a shared vision regarding economic health and a sustainable community.

6. General Manager’s Monitoring Report – Annual Business Plan: Alex discussed the Annual Business Plan which was based on the new Ends policies and their interpretations. John made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QII 1 and Cynthia seconded. There was discussion and all were in favor. 8-0-0. Bill made a motion to accept the Annual Business Plan and John seconded. There was discussion and all were in favor. 8-0-0.

7. General Manager’s Monitoring Report: John made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QII 4 and Sydney seconded. There was discussion and all were in favor. 8-0-0.

8. We adjourned for dinner at 6:36 P.M. and the meeting resumed at 7:12 P.M.

Penfield distributed an article entitled “The Wal-Mart Effect” regarding a local dairy.

9. Alex, John and Carol attended the CVNC Meeting where approximately 13 other

co-ops were represented by General Managers and by Board members. There were great ideas and discussion and a Middlebury Manifesto was signed by all declaring values and a commitment to work together thereby united the co-ops. There will be a booklet compiled of ideas from the meeting.

10. Board Monitoring Reports: John made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QIV 3 and Bill seconded. There was discussion and it was decided to add “[See Board officers policy QIV 7.2.1]” to QIV 3.5. All were in favor of accepting the monitoring report with the proposed revisions to the governance policy. 8-0-0.

Carol made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QIV 4 and Cynthia seconded.

There was discussion and all were in favor of accepting the monitoring report with the proposed revisions to the governance policy. 8-0-0.

John made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QIV 5 and Carol seconded.

There was discussion and it was decided to amend QIV 5.2 to read “…and will consist of each mailing to the general membership and the full contents of each Board mailing…”. All were in favor of accepting the monitoring report with the proposed revision to the governance policy. 8-0-0.

John made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QIV 6 and Cynthia seconded. There was discussion and all were in favor. 8-0-0.

John made a motion to accept the monitoring report for QIV 2 and Denny seconded. There was discussion and a change to QIV 2.3 as follows “Meeting discussion content will only be those issues which clearly belong to the Board to decide.” All were in favor of accepting the monitoring report with the proposed revisions to the governance policy. 8-0-0.

11. Member Initiative By-Law Update: Tabled.

12. Member-Member Linkage: There was a brief discussion regarding the idea of having a vehicle for members to communicate with each other, noting that nothing is preventing the members from linking together. The idea will be kept in mind.

13. Member Linkage: The committee (Donna, Suzy, Carol and possibly Sydney) that created the new Ends will now convene to discuss how to effectively share the Ends with the membership and will come back to the next Board meeting with ideas.

Critique.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 P.M. All were in favor. 8-0-0.

Submitted by Wendi Zimmerman, Board Administrator