New space, new members, new challenges

As proud as I am of what we as a co-op have accomplished (I still go to revel at the new store almost daily), it's important to keep looking forward and working to meet the challenges of the years to come.

Besides, Jacqueline and her staff are working like crazy to make this shiny new store function smoothly, and sipping a beer on the sidelines while they toil would be more than a little insensitive...

If I had to come up with a theme for the next year, it would be identity. As board members, we're charged with representing our members and their values as we examine issues and plan for the future. That means we need to have a strong connection to who are members are and what they care about.

That's challenging for any board, but in our case, the last three weeks have seen our membership grow by 18%. That's over three hundred new members, and counting, in three weeks. That's wonderful. It means new faces, new equity, new ideas, and a bigger community of people who believe in what we do. It's beyond what we hoped for, and it means we're doing something right!

It also means that the board needs to help facilitate our sense of shared identity and values. What do our new members want? How have the interests of older members evolved over the years, and through our transition to our new space? For an organization, as in our personal lives, in order to get what we want we have to know ourselves.

That process never ends. It was work along those lines that led us through the strategic visioning process in 2005, which was the foundation for the changes that brought us to where we are today. This topic can sound corporate (strategic!), hokey (vision!), and dull (meetings!) But when you get down to it, it's too crucial to neglect, and more fun that you might guess.

So over the coming months you can expect to see the elements of this work taking shape, from a member survey, to focus groups, and through a strategic visioning event this coming spring. I hope we'll have many people taking part in this process. But there's an even more active way to get involved:

We will have three empty seats on our board, and it's critical that we find new board members that have a passion for our mission and a desire to work to further it. Serving on the board is a wonderful way to help your community and to learn about how organizations like the co-op tick.

The qualifications for a board member are very simple. We need people who can communicate (and listen!) well, who plan to be around a while (board terms are two years), who can attend a monthly meeting, and who have a desire to think, discuss, and write about issues important to the co-op. These are things like cooperative values, food security, food justice, local farms, environmental practices, fair trade, etc. As a board we work to educate ourselves, both on these issues as well as how to be good board members, for example on areas of governance, leadership, and accountability. People become good board members by being board members! Again, it's an ongoing process. And no one is born an expert at it.

If you're interested, ask a staff member at the store for an application packet, which includes much more information on how the board works. Applications are due by October 1st. We'll have a forum to meet the candidates in the store during that following weekend of our grand opening, and elections will run in the store the week after that.

Thanks for your continued support and interest in Common Ground!

Peace,
-Clint Popetz
Common Ground Board Chair