Board Blog

I can hear the shouts from my bedroom:

“Wait a minute, Katrina! Didn’t you just write a blog entry asking us to help raise money? Why are you asking us again? We already raised all the member loans!”

Let’s take that last shout first—you’re right, we did raise all $250,000 in loans, and I’m still amazed and proud of us every time I think of that. The thing is, however, that member loans are not the only source of member funding for the relocation. We need to raise another $45,000 in donations and member equity to complete the member part of the funding. If you think of member funding as three-pronged, we’ve got one prong taken care of—that’s the member loan part. Now we need to concentrate on the other two prongs—donations and equity.

If you look at the broader picture, member funding is just one of the sources that we are using to make this move happen. Sources are where we get the money for the relocation. Uses are where we spend the money for the relocation. The sources are like ingredients that go into making a pie, and the uses are the pieces that are carved from that pie. Member funding, and member equity in specific, is a really crucial ingredient, because it helps guarantee other sources of funding, like the bank loan. This is because equity is an asset, not a liability. As great as member loans are, they are debts that we have to pay back, and that makes them a liability. Member equity, on the other hand, is an asset because it’s an investment that is non-interest bearing and only has to be paid back if the member requests it. Banks like the look of a balance sheet that’s rife with member equity, and that’s exactly what we want ours to look like.

Equity and donations are also great sources of member funding because they present a different and sometimes more feasible route of supporting the co-op. Donations can be made in any amount—even rounding up by cents at the register helps! Extra equity can be purchased in shares of $60 each, and you can buy up to 10 shares. These shares are non-voting shares that allow you to invest up to $600 in your co-op. If you couldn’t make a member loan, consider purchasing a couple of these equity shares.

Here, the board does owe you an apology. We haven’t had the extra equity certificates ready in a timely fashion, and we are sorry. We’ve gotten caught up in some legal hula-hoops concerning the precise language on the certificates, and we are ironing it out so that you can purchase extra equity and have proper documentation saying that you did so.

We are trying to get all the equity and donations in by June 30th—and we are already half of the way there! According to the handy handout in the store, we have already reached $25,000 through new membership equity, extra equity shares, and donations. Oh yeah—we are in the midst of a membership drive, so bring in your friends to become members, and we’ll reach our equity goal even faster!

So let’s concentrate on filling up that beet that we've been hearing so much about in the store and in the weekly Bytes. Or, if you’d like to indulge your sweet tooth, think about extra equity as the secret ingredient for the pie we are baking, and let’s throw a little more into the mixing bowl.

It's spring in Urbana-Chanpaign:

- finals approach but aren't quite here

- there are little baby seedlings coming up in our gardens (our our basements)

- It's Boneyard time

- the farmers' market is a scant four weeks from starting

- the flowering trees are busting their moves

- sneezing echoes across the land

- earthquake season is underway (just kidding)

- Common Ground's spring GMM (General Membership Meeting) is happening

There's lots to catch up on at Common Ground - even if you've been receiving the emails and have been shopping in the store, news happens fast. Besides, what better way to catch up with your fellow members than at a GMM? Excuse me - at a GMM with food? Not just food, but DESSERT made by co-op members... people who really understand dessert, who believe in dessert, who are AT ONE with dessert?

I'm bringing pizzelles... see you there.

Over the past several years Common Ground Food Coop has been emphasizing the concept of members as owners. As members we can be proud that we are owners of a business that represents values over profit. The coop is by and for you and me, as we are committed to exercising control over the quality of our lives - not only through our food choices, but also through the socio-economic paradigm of a cooperative.

We choose from within ourselves a subset of persons to serve as our representatives to make responsible decisions and policies that reflect what we want in our Coop. We own the Coop as a business collectively through our monetary equity and choice of representatives. We also own the Coop through our "sentimental equity" towards personal health, the local economy, social justice, concern for the earth, etc. The Coop gives us collective voice and power to make a difference in these matters.

General Membership Meetings (GMMs) are at the heart of bringing Members, Board, Staff, and Management together to consolidate all the aspects (sentimental and material equity) of running a coop from dreams to reality. As semi-annual events they are both social and business oriented to help connect the dots of a cooperative. General is an operative term; the state of the business is generalized so that the bigger pictures of operations, governance, direction and community can come into focus and perspective so you know its strengths and weaknesses. The GMM is an unparalleled opportunity to ask and hear questions and answers about important issues related to the success of the business as well as its cause.

Board meetings and operational management have grown more focused, organized, productive and fun. The board is trusting that these qualities will reflect in the GMM as well!

GMMs are also usually popular for the opportunities to eat someone else's preparation of great wholesome food (from the Coop, of course!). This time we will be emphasizing desserts. A potluck with desserts from some of the best cooks in the community...that means you too!

Please join us, at 6:30pm this Sunday, April 20th.

Thanks,
Richard Antisdel
CGFC Board Member

Thank you.

Thank you to each and every person who committed to this project, to this community, to the future of sustainable food, to fair labor, to healthy soil, to strong communities.

Thank you to everyone who made phone calls and sent email to their friends, who talked to those around them about what Common Ground means to our community, and what it can mean in the years to come.

Thank you to those who convinced a spouse that the new car could wait, but our relocation couldn't.

Thank you to sons and daughters who asked their extended families to chip in, and thank you to those family members who, though perhaps far from our community, are connected to us by bonds of love and trust.

Thank you to our staff, who designed letters and signs and fliers, and who explained over and over again what it meant, how it works, why it matters, how to do it.

Thank you to our finance committee volunteers, who stuffed and stamped letters, made phone call after phone call after phone call to numbers that had often been disconnected, leaving messages, patiently calling back at later times, helping turn a "maybe" into a "yes," not losing faith after waves of "no."

Thank you to my fellow board members, whose commitment to the project has been unwavering, who sat through meetings and updates and changes and emergencies, who listened, blogged, and emailed.

And an extra special heart-felt thank you to Jacqueline, our general manager. Leadership is an undefinable quality, but you know when you are in the presence of someone who has it. Without her constant effort, her long weekends and late nights, her passion for our mission, her patience, and her determination, none of this could have happened.

We are not done yet! There is still an enormous amount of work left to do to get to our new home. But I believe it's important to pause and be thankful for all that has brought you to where you are, and I hope we'll all do that today.

It's not an April Fool's joke. We raised $250,000 from our members, which has never been accomplished by a co-op our size. But perhaps there are no other co-ops our size whose members have hearts as big as yours.

Thank you,
-Clint
CGFC Board Chair

Over the past few months many people have expressed, in the form of a member-loan, their support for the Common Ground Food Co-op’s relocation effort. Our combined efforts have produced about $215,000 in member loans through March 30th! We have $35,000 left to raise before the April 1st deadline as of this writing.

I have witnessed the excitement in the store the last several weeks, heard from members who can’t wait to have the grab and go deli at the new location, and have been inspired by the donations and investments folks have committed. So...we are within shouting distance of the $250,000 goal. We need you to spread the word to members, friends, and co-workers who share an interest in the co-op to contact us today about the member loan program.

You can find out more about how to sign up and the detail of the program by contacting:

Ben Galewsky
Board Member
Phone: 384-2033
Email: ben@peartreestudio.net

To those who have been in the store recently, there is a little green showing at the top of the carrot. When we raise the $250,000, the carrot poster will be complete and colorful but the CGFC community will benefit by having a wonderful place to shop.

In Cooperation,

Tim McHenry
Board Member