Category Archives: Board Happenings

monthly board happenings posts

Board Happenings: September 2018

Take a minute to see what your board has been up to!
– Through July of this year our volunteers have donated over 2,400 hours of their time, resulting in the equivalent of over $60,000! Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers! We wouldn’t be able to do this work without you!
– Our Annual Member Meeting is coming up on October 23rd. Members will receive an email invitation to the event. This is a member’s only event, but if you want to join in you can become a member at the meeting.
– Don’t forget to vote for your Board of Directors. Voting is one of the major benefits to being a co-op member, so don’t miss your opportunity to exercise your democratic rights.
– We are on track to have our business plan finished in November. The Finance team has been working hard with the Small Business Incubator at the University of Northern Iowa to develop a strong plan that will set us up for success.
– The next board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, October 17th, at 7pm at Millrace. All members are welcome to attend the open sessions of the meeting.

Board Happenings: August 2018

Take a minute to see what your board has been up to!
– This year along our volunteers have donated 2114 hours of their time to the Co-op, resulting in the equivalent of over $52,0000 of wages! All this hard work is paying off as we’re on track to top 900 members in September. We wouldn’t be able to do this without our amazing community supporting us along the way, so THANK YOU!
– Board elections are right around the corner. If you’re interested in running for the board, online applications are due by September 8th. If you have any questions about what board service entails, you can contact any one of our board members or info@cedarfallsfood.coop for more information.
– We were given the opportunity to view some potential sites recently, and we’re on the verge of announcing where the future home of the Cedar Falls Food Co-op will be. Be on the lookout for this exciting news!

Board Happenings: July 2018

– We are now seeking candidates for this year’s board elections! If you’re interested in running, check out our board candidate application packet at https://rootedcarrot.coop/become-a-board-member/.
– This fall is our 5th annual Fall Food Fest! Join us on September 25th at the Cedar Falls Community Center to celebrate 5 years of community building!
– The Food Cooperative Initiative has invited the Cedar Falls Food Co-op to join them for monthly peer calls. This allows us the opportunity to work with other co-ops who are in the same stage of development so we can learn from each other.
– More of our base business work, such as the financial pro forma and business plan, are well under way. We’ve made a lot of progress with these the past few months and are excited to get them buttoned up so we can move on with the next steps.
– You can get all of your board information directly from the horse’s mouth! Each month our meetings are open to our members. Join us for August’s meeting on August 15th, at 7pm at Millrace.

Board Happenings: June 2018

Take a minute to see what your Board has been up to!
– Did you make it to any one of our many events in June?! We had an excellent campaign and we’re so excited to be building the future with so many amazing members!
– Board elections are coming up soon! If you’re interested in running, keep an eye on our website at https://rootedcarrot.coop/become-a-board-member/
– The Fall Food Fest will be here before you know it! If you’re interested in being a vendor, contact us at info@cedarfallsfood.coop

Board Happenings: May 2018

Take a minute to see what your Board has been up to!
So far this year, our volunteer have contributed more than 1,200 to helping build our store! This amounts to over $30,500 is wages! This shows how our co-op is truly a community effort! Thanks for all your hard work, and we couldn’t be prouder to share this effort with our amazing community!
– Budgets and legal and consultants, oh my! With the end of the fiscal year upon us, and getting closer to launching our capital campaign, our meetings have been dominated by the development of next years budget. We’ve also been working on hiring legal, site selection, and design consultants to make sure that we’re making the absolute best decisions when creating your store!
– It’s almost time for Board elections! We’ll start accepting applications in July, so if you or someone you know is interested in serving on the Board keep an eye out for updates.

Board Happenings: April 2018

Take a minute to see what your Board has been up to!

– As we get closer to signing a lease and building our store, we’ve been having more discussions about what it means to be a full service grocery store. In-depth conversations about delis, hot bars, and buffets may not sound exciting, but we’re making sure to thoroughly examine every choice to guarantee that we’re bringing you a store you love.
– It’s budget time again! Again, not the most exciting thing, but we go through every detail so you don’t have to! Each year we get better at assembling and projecting the next year’s budget, so by the time the store opens we’ll have this down pat!
– All of our business documents are close to being finalized, including our business plan, financial pro forma, and investment campaign documents.
– If you want to learn more about what your is doing, we invite you to join us at our next meeting on Wednesday, May 16th at 7pm at Millrace.

Board Happenings: March 2018

– We sent 5 representatives to this year’s Up and Coming Food Co-op Conference and they had an insightful and invigorating experience. We can’t wait to take what they learned and put it into practice in creating our co-op!
– As we get closer to entering into Stage 3 we have a lot of technical items need to be completed. Items like the business plan and pro forma are getting finalized and we’re almost ready to launch our Owner Investment Campaign. This is going to be a very big summer for the Co-op and we can’t wait to share all this hard work with our Owners!

Board Happenings: February 2018

– We had a great turn out at our Member Mixer in January, and we even gained 4 new members that evening!
– We’ve really enjoyed hearing from you! We’ll be taking this input into account as we work through the decisions of designing our store.
– It’s that time of year when we start putting together our budget. It’s not the most exciting work, but rest assured that we carefully plan our year in order to use your investments as responsibly as possible.
– We’re sending 4 representatives to the Up and Coming Conference this year. This is the largest conference for startup food co-ops and each year we learn so much! Be on the look out next month for a conference update.

Board Happenings: January 2018

Take a minute to see what your board has been up to!
– Our committees have been hard at work getting ready for the co-op’s best year yet!
– Operations has worked hard to put together a General Manager (GM) job description. Hiring a GM is one of the most important task a start-up co-op undertakes, so we’re making sure to take the time to get the best one we can.
– The Membership Investment Campaign is putting together all the materials needed for our upcoming campaign. This ranges from loan paperwork, to legal documents, to marketing materials. This is a HUGE undertaking, but we’re plugging along and will have everything set once we’re ready to launch.
– It may only be February, but it’s never too early to start planning next year’s budget. We take our fiscal responsibilities very seriously, so we make sure to be thoughtful that we’re spending the co-op’s money in ways that benefit our members.
– Our next meeting is February 21st, at 7pm. Board meetings are always open to our membership and we encourage anyone interested in learning more about how your board is functioning to attend.

Board Happenings: December 2017

– Our volunteers have been absolutely AMAZING this past year! Our members have volunteered over 3000 hours, which equals over $72,000 in wages!
– Our Capital Campaign committee has been hard at work, and we know we’ll have an exciting few months ahead of us.
– The majority of our meeting was spent planning out our activities for the next four months. We are at a very exciting time in our development, and there are going to be a lot of great news coming out very soon. Some of these plans include:
             – Finalizing job descriptions for both our Capital Campaign Coordinator and the General Manager.
             – Revising our mission and vision statements
             – Working on our business plan, and…
             – Launching our Capital Campaign!
– In case you didn’t know, all our board meetings are open to our membership, so if you want to hear all of our exciting news first hand you are invited to attend our meetings. They are always held the 3rd Wednesday of the month, at 7pm at Millrace.