DUCK SOUP COOP
Board Minutes
January 17, 2008
Present: Peggy James, Leo Kurylo Cynthia Nelson, Tania Nezrick, Ruth Peterson, Mary Helen Polensky.
Absent: Patty Ruback
The meeting was opened by President Nelson at 7:08 pm. Agenda items were identified with requests for additions by Nezrick and Kurylo. The agenda was approved by consensus.
Corrections in the December minutes were as follows:
Paragraph 2. Add the words “and passed by consensus.” at the end.
Paragraph 3. The second last line should read “The board members voted to present for approval at the GMM the proposed bylaw change.” (Note: This proposal was approved by the GMM at the subsequent meeting.)
Paragraph 5. The following is the sense of the change that will be made to the minutes. The exact wording will be supplied by Nelson for inclusion in the revised minutes.
The Scholarship Program is to be modified so that both the fees and equity required for membership may be waived for the recipient. The fees, however, will be paid by donations which have been made to the scholarship fund. The number of scholarships available will depend on the amount in the fund. No equity will be given to recipients should they choose to terminate their membership since no equity was paid. Interested persons must fill out an application, attend an orientation, and reapply annually.
There will be a solicitation annually for this fund during the time of membership renewal.
After the corrections were made and discussed, Polensky moved and Nezrick seconded that the minutes be approved. The motion passed.
MANAGER’S REPORT
There have been 100 membership renewals to date. There will be a grace time beyond the due date because it is not possible to put a renewal back into the system immediately at the register at this moment.
Scannable labels are now in use. The POS system seems stable. There have been some instances of difficulty with the Link card scanning, but the number can be put in manually so customers are always served.
James is working to fill two part-time positions. She has a number of applications and will be reviewing them soon.
Because of the more easily available data, James will be able to work on taxes very soon. It is much easier to file the sales tax now. Beginning this year we will file our tax information electronically.
A lease has been signed for 5 years with the date beginning in November, 2007. There will be a set percentage increase in rent each year.
Sales are strong with low days at about $2100 and high days at about $3200.
Electricity costs have not gone up greatly even though we have more new equipment. A contract has been signed with Larry Nordstrom to do snow plowing for the parking lot. This has worked very well to everyone’s advantage.
OTHER BUSINESS
Board meetings will continue to be held on the third Thursday of each month. The next meeting will be February 21 at 7 pm in the board room. When the final board member is appointed, the re-elected board members will be appointed to classes via lottery. At that time we will also set a date for the Long Range Planning meeting. March was suggested as a probable time for such a meeting.
Any suggestions for another board member should be given to Nelson.
The Energy Fair will be August 9 and 10. Nezrick has agreed that the Outreach Committee will take on this responsibility again this year and has notified the organizers that Duck Soup will be there again.
Kurylo asked about plans in case of robbery. James responded that staff have been told not to resist. DSC is insured for such exigencies both in the store and when money is being taken to the bank. A security system is also in place.
The possibility of strong competition was also discussed. The philosophy is that Duck Soup will meet membership needs as long as they are present. The topic has been discussed before. The sense is that DSC is unique enough and fills a strong enough niche in our community that we are relatively confident at this time.
The board discussed the demographics of our members and shoppers. Our lowest sales times are when both public school and NIU are not in session. The staff knows shoppers well enough that they have a good sense of where shoppers come from. Members, of course, give their address when they sign up.
Kurylo asked about the need for a back-up generator. In 17 years, less than $1000 has been lost due to lack of electricity and that was due to compressor failure rather than loss of service. DSC does have loss of refrigeration insurance. Having a generator that would carry the load of electricity needed would not be cost effective given our history.
The issue of what to do if our Manager was incapacitated was discussed briefly. This is a topic that needs more discussion and will be put on the agenda for the Long-Range Planning meeting. We do need to look at redundancy. In the past we did not have the resources to do so, but it should be discussed more fully.
The election of officers resulted in the following slate being elected by consensus:
President: Cynthia Nelson
Secretary: Ruth Peterson
Treasurer: Mary Helen Polensky
Tania Nezrick will again serve as Outreach chair. Nelson requested that board members take turns moderating the meetings. Members agreed to do this.
Nelson has requested and received input for the annual evaluation of the Manager. She will compile the results and prepare a statement to be given to James shortly.
Kurylo moved adjournment at 8:30 pm.
Ruth Peterson
Secretary