2015-08-16 Food Coop Meeting

The following are notes from the meeting. Thanks to all who could make it. If you have questions or concerns, please address them to this list. (Attending were Nick, Maria, Carol, Josh, John, Peter, Kevin… ?)

Forms

• Josh volunteered to revise and print the investment forms
  • at least one item is added to accommodate reimbursements
• Josh agreed to contact Michael about changes to the debit/credit page on the database
• The Bulk Room tracking sheet seems to work well as a substitute for the paper forms
  • product lookup is a minor problem
  • Peter volunteered [and already created a version] that fills in price based on product entry
  • [since the meeting there has been some work and discussion to greatly improve bulk room product lookup]

Coordinators

Azure, Bulk Room: Carol
Treasurer: Josh
Workshift: Irma
Membership: Brit
Veggies, Produce: Lara
Meetings: John (temporary)

Roles

• some discussion of how to divide tasks
  • workshift coordinator
    • adds members to the worksheet list
    • reminds people of their shift weekly
  • membership coordinator
    • puts new member on the mailing list
    • creates a family/member in the database
    • (hands-off info to others, if necessary)
  • party coordinator
    • almost tongue-in-cheek
    • agreed that the job most aligns with meeting coordinator

Discussion of produce delivery

• some clarification of how it occurs
  • remaindered veggies are gathered by Jamie farms and delivered to USTU
• BOXES/CRATES
  • crates are rotated with farmer
  • buyers should clear out their crates, fold them, and (if open) put them in the bike room/bulk room on the steel shelves
  • USTU folks will continue to help when crates are left folded near the door of the bike room.
• brief discussion of desire to have more fruit
  • all present generally agreed with the idea

Other items

• John will help Carol in securing the shelves in the bulk room
• Azure delivery is 8/26, Weds, Noon
• POT LUCK: the FoodLobby? will join the USTU Sunday dinner on August 23.
  • Bring a vegan or vegetarian dish, drink, salad, or dessert

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2015-01-31 Food Coop Meeting

Food Coop 1/31/15 meeting, 10:30am
Present: Carol, Josh, John, Irma, Nick, Leslie

Update on domain name and hosting
Jocelyn will no longer be overseeing it
Peter has password and we have access to
If anyone has other updates please fill in (here)

Discuss on supplying bulk room with non-Azure items such as locally roasted coffee beans.
Nick would like to know how many folks are interested in coffee??
Nick will offer picking up and delivering coffee on a monthly basis.
Location: Bicycle Coffee Company, near Santa Monica and Western
$47.50 for 5lbs , organic, sustainably grown, in-house roasting
Great, start doing it. Josh will reimburse Nick after he makes the purchase.
Transfer 5lb sack into our 5 gallon containers to keep fresh
Please let Nick know if you’re interested
Nick recommends folks visit on Friday’s when coffee is free. Friday’s between 8am to 5pm.

Update on financial records and bookkeeping
Josh will be overseeing finances for now. Please check in to see how’s he’s doing. Carol thinks too much work for one person.
Josh explains that we currently don’t access to bank account. There is a debit card but no one really knows about it. Josh will follow with Lois to be able to make deposits locally instead of going to downtown site.
Lois tracks food coop deposits so money is kept separate from CRSP. We need more information on how all this works.
Lois would like food lobby to be more independent… transfer it over to USTU
John and Josh will talk more about getting food coop’s own bank account.
There needs to be constant tracking of sales sheets. Currently that’s not happening well enough, which makes managing finances very difficult.
Inventory keeping and spoilage are also major issues for us.
The laptop is really slow causing technological confusion. John will place his imac in bulkroom to help with speed. It’s a large unit.
Sales tracking digital sheet has only been used for about 3 weeks. John would like to use the old paper tracking sheets onto a google tracks
John has found mostly minor mistakes on track sheets, nothing major
Using SKU numbers as an option (stock keeping unit) to help with tracking inventory
Josh will look into it see if a feasible an option
Keeping sku’s on labels will better help track items
Price changes occur frequently – hard to keep up

Better marketing to help move product
Sync monthly meeting with Azure delivery
We’re not registered as a buying club
Sample Sunday-
Make a batch of coffee and highlight new items
Food Challenge- have folks pick 3 items from bulk room to create a delicious recipe.
Have a stone soup potluck

If possible, we’ll schedule next meeting
Schedule next meeting during azure delivery (ask Carol)

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2014-09-21 Food Coop Meeting

2014, Sep. 21 Food lobby meeting

Present: Carol, Nick, Peter, Josh, John, Sandy, Lara, Conci. Sketchy
notes by Peter.

Lois: has hundreds of contacts in adjacent zipcodes in her database,
and is willing to send a recruitment email. Anyone want to draft one?

Also: it would be nice to outreach to Bresee?

Adewole is interested in joining: can he help with our web issues?
(talk to Josh or Peter)

Currently, wiki is not editable. (temporarily) Ask Josh or Peter if
you need to edit it.

Note: not everyone who should has been putting people into the
database. This is really easy; do learn.

Maybe we shouldn’t do Monday, since we don’t have enough people to
regularly open it? It’s hard to know if it will be open, so no-one
comes.

Are there extra people in the veggie box shifts? It’s not clear. Maybe not.

Could we have people “on call” who would open up at other times? Have
one person per day of the week? Not including Carol, she’s the go-to
person anyhow? We could get it going, see how it goes??

We could try having a list of people who are willing to come down and
open up the room; with notes like “if Monday, try this person first”.

• DECISION* – will remove Monday shift; shift these people to Sunday
  and/or other work, and add to “ON CALL” list.

currently ON CALL list:
Carol
Sandy
John
Peter

Other jobs:

 Inventory -- just happened for first time since 2011.  This involvesweighing everything. Why do we need to do this? It would help us
keep our sheets balanced. But not that much if we don’t also keep
track of how much of each item we sell.
 Cleaning
 Inspecting containers -- checking for moths in the cracks.

Finance: it was too much for claire & carol; a time bank angel showed
up to help (yay!). She has made us spreadsheets! Claire has managed
to get checkbook balances done!

2013 net income: $406

  profit margin: 6%
  markup: 20%(the difference in the two is due to spoilage, like rancid cashews, or
unrecorded sales.)
In 2014, we sold about $6000 of food; and threw out $800 of it)

2014: balance is $1830
deposits through April: $754
estimated investments April - now: $1366
estimated balance now: $2729
Azures orders so far: $1943
spoilage so far: $250
other orders: $200

current estimated net: $336

Question: is this income enough for our vision? Perhaps not if we
wanted to, for instance, pay rent, or pay someone to set us up a POS
system.

Discussion about doing inventory. Is it necessary?

Also: it would be nice to have other ways of being involved for people
who only, say, shop once a month? A bit of brainstorming, no
conclusions.

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2014-01-23 Food Coop Meeting

NOTES

Food lobby meeting: 1/23/14, 7-8pm

Present: Irma, Carol

   •what's working
      oConvenience to bulk room if you have easy access to it
      oAccess to Azure Standard
      oRegular fresh vegetables
      oReduction of packaging and plastic bags!
   •what's not working
      oNot living up to what we promote about the food coop
      oNot enough working members to cover all shifts
      oDiscrepancy with income and expenses
      oWe don’t have a workshift coordinator.  *Thank you Becca for Monday shifts and thank you Zoe  for 2014 produce schedule.
   •How can we continue to predictably supply ourselves with bulk food without over-extending the energy of a few people.
      oCarol will investigate more about a buying club and what we need to do to open a bank account.  How can we predictably supply ourselves
   •Do we need more outreach for more members?
      oWe don’t know.  Only two of us at meeting.  Bike racking
   •How do we want to promote what we're doing
      oBike rack for next meeting
   •Thiago, Nichole and Peter have WordPress passwords and instructions to pass on to Brit.  Please forward this information to Brit as soon as you can.
	 
   •Misha is not responding to emails.  We need to fill the work-shift coordinator position. 
      oRecommend having 2 work-shift coordinators.  One for bulk room and another for produce.
   •Suzy and Carol created the new member sheet form in 2013.  This Form was sent to Brit by Carol.

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2013-12-05 Food Coop Meeting

NOTES

Food lobby meeting: 12/5/13

Present: Claire, Carol, Lois, Nichole, Thiago, Irma(notetaker)

Closing the Food Lobby CRSP sub-account and opening a new, independent Food Lobbyaccount. Who should have access to this account?
This item will be biked racked for next meeting. Lois will work on this next week and hopes to have more information to us shortly. Claire will send an email about meeting up with folks to discuss this item in more detail.
Something to mention- Azure is allowing other non- food co-op folks place orders on the truck order we get delivered. This is good news in that we will not have to meet our minimum orders since the order will be supplemented by the additional orders.

Food Lobby/bulk room financial report for 2013. Attempting to answer why we are breaking even when we should be taking in more than we spend due to mark-up in prices.
Thiago thinks it might be that he’s ordering extra food items and there might be more spoilage.
Nichole is willing to set up a work party to inventory everything in bulk room. Thiago and Irma volunteered to help.
Carol is concerned that the bulk room is rarely open on Sundays. Which may contribute to items getting stale or spoiling. Would like to add her concern to next co-op meeting.

Permission requested by Special Event committee to go into the FL database and email everybody about the Dec. Special Event.
A little late for this item.

Does Food Lobby want to donate bulk items for 12/7 anniversary event (Rice and Beans).
Food Lobby will donate but would like to track what is donated, amount and costs. Irma will check in with Jimmy. Nichole will help with bulk room needs. (Irma did not check with Jimmy)
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2013-09-12 Food Coop Meeting

NOTES

Food lobby meeting: 9/12/13

Present: Lois, Peter, Claire, Carol, Misha, Irma(notetaker/facilitator)

Bulkroom “shape-shifters” – a big thanks for those folks who cleaned up and helped get bulkroom in ship shape. Nichole, Thiago, Jonny, Josh

Financial report/bookkeeping intro:
Claire updating. Going through april thru june bookkeeping and it seems we are coming out even. The concern is we’re charging 20% more but we’re breaking even. We should have 20% more. This is not a full report, and Claire will report back once she goes through all accounts.

A few items to consider:
Writing checks. Lara, Lois, Jocelyn are designated check writers. Lois will follow up with Jocelyn and remove Jocelyn from this role and replace with Claire.

Lara and Lois will continue depositing at credit union on a regular basis.

Claire will be coordinating all the different places where the money transactions occur. She will follow up with Lara, Thiago and Lois.

Website updating - 3 sites affected (laecovillage.org, wiki, foodlobby):
Peter will manage and update Food Lobby website
Peter will manage and update wiki. All members are free to update as usual on their own.
Ask Michelle to add a web link to Food Lobby website to the Facebook page she set up.

Introductory discussion regarding future development of Food Lobby as an independent organization:

Food coop has had CRSP as fiscal agent for many years. Lois is concerned about CRSP existence and would like Food Lobby to be its own entity. Lois is asking if there is entrepreneurial energy or interest in having a store front in our neighborhood. Please come to the next meeting or contact the Food Lobby.

Agreement that CRSP does not know it’s future and perhaps the Food Lobby can be an official consumer coop.

Another suggestion, perhaps FL can merge with the LA Food Coop. Misha thinks the LA Food Lobby is the Arroyo Food Coop.

Possible umbrella organizations to consider USTU, Grow Slow Food LA,

• Cell assignments:
  Misha asked if we can remove inactive members from list. Everyone present agreed. Can all members please let us know if some of the members listed are no longer food lobby members.

Peter suggests a ‘member sign-in’ for when members work their shifts.

Bulkroom concerns:
Carol frequently has had to open bulkroom because of NO SHOWS

Often there are 3 folks working the veggie sorting shift, perhaps we can lower the number to 2 and have more folks working the bulkroom.

Lois thinks that Lara would like someone to take over the Veggie shift ordering and money collections. She will follow up with Lara on this issue.

Begin the new entry here

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2013-03-21 Food Coop Meeting

NOTES
March 21, 2013
Food Lobby Coop meeting 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Present: Carol, Suzi, Claire, Irma (note taker)

Bulkroom work party
Carol communicated with Thiago earlier in the day today, and is reporting to back to us. Regarding the bulk room Thiago suggested the dark cabinet should be removed and replaced with useful shelves. This will improve use of space and visibility of stock. Another recommendation is to remove large table and replace with a narrow counter and add more shelving to this wall as well. If possible add another outlet. Thiago would love to hear your suggestions via email.

Emergency supply update
pending

Egg order process and vendor
At the time four food lobby members had committed to picking up eggs- 4 times a month.
Zoe, Peter Herbie, Carol. Recently (Beginning in April or so), Eden Dale, which is one of our suppliers, no longer has chickens, so Peter and Carol announce when they are able to get eggs from other organic egg vendors. So please watch for announcements.

Re-Entry into “work shifts”
Suzi and Carol will come up with a kind reminder to members about their workshifts.

Any issues with keeping areas clean or with sorted veggie boxes
No issues noted- thanks to everyone for keeping our spaces tidy.

Data Entry position
Removed from list

Announcements:
Brit is our new member coordinator (yay! Thanks Brit)

Back burner

• Claire would you like to update on check writing and depositing
• Webmaster- Peter do you have an update from Thiago?

Next meeting scheduled for May 16th
Begin the new entry here

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2013-02-21 Food Coop Meeting

NOTES
February 21, 2013
Potluck dinner 6:30pm - 7:30pm (Kristin and Irma)
Food Lobby Coop meeting 7:30pm – 8:30pm
Present: Carol, Peter, Kristin, Irma (note taker), Autumn

Check writing and depositing
Claire will keep collecting bulk room money and keeping records of everyone’s deposits. It’s necessary to have a back-up person to help write checks and make deposits. Currently Lara is doing this. Claire has spoken to Jonny and Thiago to see if they are interested in this position. Please contact Claire if you are interested in this position. What is the name of the credit union we deposit checks at? If it’s nearby Carol or Peter can help with deposits.

Coop paying rent to USTU.
A possible suggestion might be the bulk room can be a potential Emergency Food to USTU if a major disaster occurs. More community discussion needed.

Egg orders
Carol may be able to pick up eggs from North Hollywood Farmers Market. Kris may be able to pick up eggs from Hollywood Farmers Market. Peter will check with Zoe about details/process on ordering eggs. Autumn can help out with egg order pick-ups.

Room clean-up- recommendations
• Monday bulk-room shift can clean up hall-way by sweeping and putting any left over boxes away.
• More care when sorting veggies
• Call out to members for CLEAN plastic bags or netted orange or potato sacks (photo attached to email)
• Residents please put any boxes away whenever possible.

Data Entry position
This is still in question. No update yet. Delete by next meeting if no one gives update or explanation.

Web master
Peter will follow up with Thiago about replacing the bulk room price list on the wiki with link to the google docs.

Announcements
Autumn announced- South LA Food Coop is having a food Justice event this Saturday. 2-4 pm in Leimert Park

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2013-01-17 Food Coop Meeting

Begin the new entry here

NOTES

Food lobby meeting: 1/17/13

Present: Ianne-facilitator,Laura- notetaker, Carol, George, Randy, Claire

Discuss check writing and depositing: Claire

	Claire has been collecting money from bulk room and slips from bulk room and logging it in excel sheet. Lara has been
        doing the deposit at the bank. Claire doesn’t know what else needs to be done. 
	Claire needs to talk to Lara and Michele about who can write checks.

calendar, scheduling, agenda-need new person

        Becca wants to step back from doing these tasks. This month and past month Ianne with Alex has done that. Irma wants to
        help with this. Change going on. Carol has taken over scheduling bulk room shift. Bulk room covered (if everyone takes
        their spots). Carol will orient new people Jan/Feb, then Carol won’t have a bulk room shift. 

Discussed idea of possible merger with LA food coop

	Autum knows them, suggested that someone contact them. They have lots of energy but no location. Alex can contact them. 

Discussed Carol’s proposal for paying rent $50

	Food coop has always been operating at generousity of ecovillage. Maybe paying a token rent would help make us take it
        more seriously, act like a business. This could support ideas to raise money like a bake sale. It would engage people and
        be fun.
 
	Lara suggested $30 for rent. 
	
        Mike Kirk said we have $300 sales, about $60 gross profit. He wants to know if the account confirms this. Claire will
        check the account. 

• Next steps: collect info (Claire) so we can make a decision about this.

Carol’s ideas for improving the system:

	What is role of “planner”? (Becca will know this, she hasn’t responded yet to email Carol sent)
	Egg order: Do we have other possibilities? The history of the eggs is that it hasn’t been dependable and not a simple
        process. Ianne would like to consider a different egg person. 
	
        “Administration” Claire is doing this role. (Money collection data entry)
	Research: who should we buy fruit from? (Jessica). Carol doesn’t know who this is and no one at the meeting does either.
        (delete it)

	“Coordinate a work swap with south central farm” Carol wants to take this off the work shift list. No one at the meeting
        know anything about it. (delete it)
	Room clean up: Carol is suggesting that the produce people clean the fridge (not the coordinator). Yes, we think that is a
        good idea.

	Carol suggests that we leave them in the hall (produce boxes), not put them in the bike room shelves. We need someone Sun.
        eve to look at it. Job open! George will put them in the bike room Sun. night. We need to ask produce people to put empty
        boxes high up and leave the full ones in the hall and George will put them away Sun. eve. 

        Communication: can we take the news letter editor away. Yes! Newlettter publisher? Yes! (get rid of it). 
      
        Data entry? We don’t know what it is. We can put this question out in an email to see if anyone else knows. 
     
        Bulk order book keeping- Claire took this over from Mchelle.

        Researching local food sources (meridith)- delete this, we have it covered by others. 

        Coop ordientation trainer:
 
        External outreach coordinator: Haitus on this one.
 
        Outreach at large- delete, it merged with time bank and Claire is doing it.
 
        Summer party planner- delete

        Education- Melba recipes. Delete as a job, keep it spontaneous. 

        Question: Should we keep the bulk room open from 2:30 to 4:30 or 5:30? Produce comes early, at 2:30, so bulk room should
        be open then for people picking up produce boxes. It has been kept open till 5:30, but then bulk room workers will be
        working much longer then other workers in food coop. We talked about pros and cons of both ways.
 
        For now, we decided to do it 2:30 to 4:30, an hour for each person. We will research if time bank volunteers can do the
        extra hour. We’ll also do a survey of bulk room workers to see if they want to work the extra hours.
 

        New job we need: web master.

       Meeting ended at 8:30 PMNext meeting: 3rd Thursday. Maybe Irma? That is in process who will be planning it. 

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2012-11-15 Food Coop Meeting

 Carol and CJ present. no meeting.  

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