Board Blog

Strategic Visioning is a process that engages an entire organizational community in integrating its best hindsight and foresight in aligned action... [I]n methodological terms, it blends traditional strategic planning with best practices emerging from visioning, large scale collaboration, and graphic facilitation. This blend complements the heavily analytical approaches of traditional planning with processes that engage participants in a holistic integration of their intuitive, emotional, intellectual, and physical understandings of the organization.
Going on three years ago, many Common Ground members participated in the co-op's first (?) strategic visioning session (or series of sessions) - exercises designed to elucidate from the membership their directional desires for their co-op. Out of that came this - a document pulling together all the information from all the sessions - that has served as the blueprint for effecting many of the changes Common Ground has experienced.

As Common Ground embarks on its latest journey - an expansion AND a relocation! - it's time to ask ourselves what we're going to do once we get there.

We're visioning - strategically, of course - again this March.

The date has been set, tentatively, for Saturday, March 8. Please watch this space (and/or your email) for more information.

We've come this far in less than three years - who knows where we can be three years from now?

A confession: I've never previously paid that much attention to the changing of the calendar year. It seemed to me an arbitrary reference point, and compared to the astronomical beauty of the equinox or the solstice, January 1st just seemed pretty silly. But I've gradually realized I live in a world of people (whoa!), and many choose this date to do some sort of soul searching, slate cleaning, and resolution making. Sometimes it seems our society is on auto-pilot, so I'm grateful for the contemplative mood New Years inspires, even if it happens on a day established in 153 B.C.E. by the Roman Senate as the beginning of the calendar year simply to correct a previously out-of-synch calendar. I'll keep my musings co-op specific, since most people don't read the CGFC board blog for musings on architecture, design, keeping the water from freezing in the chicken coop, or intersections thereof. 2007 was, frankly, stellar. Jacqueline and her staff have done an amazing job. Membership is up, sales are up, waste is down, and we have a better selection of locally grown and produced, fair trade, and organic products in the store than ever before. What's more, the vibe is incredibly positive. People are bustling in, taking part, asking questions, learning, and growing. That vibe is a precious thing. I believe that when people are feeling positive about the community they are a part of, they can accomplish anything...and we've got a lot to accomplish. 2008 will see the co-op open it's doors in a new location. On some hopefully-beautiful day this summer, with the sunlight streaming in our windows and co-op members old and new gathered together, we'll mark a new era of our own. It has taken an incredible amount of work to reach this point, it's going to take even more work to reach that sunny gathering, and according to those that have gone before us, the work begins in earnest once our doors open. Fortunately, this work is a joyful effort, because the energy, money, and time we put into this endeavor are not frittered away. We'll have something to show for it! The food on our plate will be better for it, as will the soil under our feet and the air we breathe. In the next month or so the members of our co-op our going to be inundated with relocation-related details, strategic visioning plans, and calls for help. So I'll keep this short. My resolution for 2008 is to work hard to keep you informed and gather your input as much as possible as we move forward. It's going to come down to brass tacks of raising money pretty soon. But that doesn't mean it has to hurt.

"Learn to handle hot things. Keep your knives sharp. And above all, have a good time." -- Julia Child

Peace, -Clint Popetz CGFC Board Chair P.S. The New Oxford American Dictionary declared "Locavore" to be the 2007 word of the year. How cool is that?

Much of the recent chat around the co-op - analog (in the store and at meetings) and virtual (on the blog and in email) - has revolved around Common Ground's impending move. Location. Timeframe. Finances. Staffing.

Size.

Size, no pun intended, is a huge issue for the Common Ground base. If there's something co-op members don't seem to want, it's having the co-op get "too big". What does that mean, exactly?

Discussion about the co-op's size can be broken down into three basic areas - a) size in terms of physical space, b) size in terms of membership and customer base and c) size in terms of scope and mission.

Physical space: Currently, the co-op store itself occupies less than 1000 feet - remember, that doesn't include office space or storage. Proposed physical growth, with the planned move, will result in the store doubling in size and occupying about 2100 square feet for retail operations. 2100 square feet, especially when compared with our humble 900 square feet, sounds HUGE. Enormous. How on earth will we be able to fill it all up??

Let's use another local business as a point of reference. 2100 square feet, retail, is less than a third of what Strawberry Fields currently occupies. For you young whippersnappers out there, 2100 square feet is about what Strawberry Fields occupied in 1996 (they had just the northern third of their current building), before its two expansions.

Suddenly, 2100 square feet doesn't sound so humongous.

Expansion to this size will effect some amazing change in the co-op - there will be a wider variety of product choice, more cash registers, and hopefully some other interesting features that'll appeal to members and non -members alike. A better selection of products will enable the co-op to stay competitive, thus ensuring our longevity in Champaign-Urbana. We all want to see the co-op succeed, and physical expansion will play a large role in that success.

Membership and customer base: Co-op members have a special relationship to the store and to each other. Because Common Ground is currently a members-only outfit, there's a certain amount of commitment going on when someone joins and decides to shop on a regular basis. They also start seeing each other in the co-op and around town, often developing acquaintanceships and eventual friendships. It's that conviviality that so many members like, that feeling of belonging and community.

Why should our awesome organization remain one of the best-kept secrets in C-U, especially when more involvement by the community is a win-win situation?

Common Ground's planned expansion will include everyone in the community at large - the store will be open to members and non-members alike (and with a bigger space, we can accommodate everyone's needs). Obviously, there'll be some people who shop without becoming members - and we'll be happy to have them, as revenue from these customers will hugely benefit our bottom line (we're a business, after all!). But there are going to be others, hopefully many others, who will bring their areas of knowledge, their skill sets, and their ideas to Common Ground, investing as members. They'll come come to C-U from all over the country and the world, and they'll find us (no longer a secret, see) and join us. They'll reap the rewards of membership, and enjoy the community... and some of those non-member shoppers are going to give in and join. Increased shopping benefits the co-op; increased membership benefits all of us.

Scope and mission: All this talk of business and money occasionally creeps people out. I know that when I was working at Common Ground back in 2005, I desperately wanted the co-op to stay its funky self. It was a little corner of town that so few people knew about... yet was on the cutting edge of disseminating information about food issues that mattered - Common Ground's been ahead of the curve on local food, fair trade, and informing consumers about the activities of the companies whose products we carry, and continuously strives for fairness in its business dealings while meeting the needs of its members. I began to realize, as I began my work doing outreach, that everyone needed to know what we were doing, that expanding the store and its capacity to serve the community in this fashion was essential to educating the public about our food - where it comes from, how it got here, who grew it/made it and how they grew it/made it - because everyone eats, and everyone needs to know these things (or at least needs to be able to shop in an environment where they know why they need to know these things). Food is a lynchpin; shouldn't Common Ground exist as a resource for everyone?

Physical expansion - in an area that is nowhere near critical mass for natural/organic/local food sources - is the best way for Common Ground to continue on the path of feeding and educating not just the membership, but the entire community. We already offer a shopping experience much richer than any other grocery store in the area - an increase in physical space, membership, and scope is going to make it even more so.

It's time to add to Common Ground's dimensions - literally and figuratively.

- Lisa B-K

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed a day of great food and good company. If the most strenuous thing you have to do today is read this blog entry, all the better! This post will be a bit like the Thanksgiving spread I faced at my uncle’s house yesterday; so much good stuff to choose from, so I settled for a little bit of everything. A cornucopia of thoughts, if you will; feel free to chime in, disagree with, or comment on any of them.

We’ve been talking a lot about financial issues lately. This makes sense on any given day—we are a business, after all. It makes even more sense right now, because we need to raise enough money to finance our relocation. What might not make sense are the documents and terms surrounding that discussion: pro formas, cash flow, margins, overhead, profit and loss statements, sources and uses budgets. I majored in Finance at UIUC, and this stuff doesn’t always make sense to me. From the active posting on the blog in recent weeks, it’s clear that it makes sense to some of you, and—even better—that you’re willing to jump in and clarify when it doesn’t.

I would encourage all of you to go to the meeting on December 6th from 6:30 to 8 PM at the IDF. We’re going to discuss the finances of the relocation, including how much it will cost and where the money is going to come from. There will be numbers thrown out there, but you don’t need to be a Finance major to decipher them; Jacqueline makes sure they are presented in a really accessible way. You’ll find that this talk is pretty interesting, and it is vitally important to the relocation…and it actually does make sense.

On a related $$ note: what I do know a lot about is the money I spend, and I’m guessing that most of you keep close tabs on that as well. Happily, in our store, we get to vote with our dollars. Most recently, I’ve decided to say goodbye to my toothpaste (Tom’s of Maine) and lip balm (Burt’s Bees) because those companies were bought out (by Colgate and Clorox, respectively). While part of me dreads the next sad product update in the Bytes, I’m really happy to have that information delivered to my inbox, and it’s important to me to be able to allocate where I spend my money.

I’m thinking about this specifically in response to a recent member comment that we now have many more “highly priced, highly packaged items” in the store than we used to. Ben Galewsky wrote a great response, and you can read both comments here. He posited that a range of products is necessary to meet the needs of the entire co-op community and that any concerns over product selection could be broached to Jacqueline and the staff. I would agree—our staff is incredibly receptive to member comments and suggestions. Don’t leave off talking with Jaqueline, Jessy, Gladys or Tricia, but remember that where we spend our money speaks, too.

I’m also thinking about this with regards to equity and member loans. If I want my dollars to talk, then I want them to say loud and clear that I support the co-op. I’ve worked many a Saturday morning doing outreach at the Urbana Farmer’s Market, and I recently had the privilege of working the co-op booth at the Parkland Community College Health Fair. One of the most common questions I’ve heard is “How much does it cost to be a member?” In most cases, I barely have a chance to say “$30” before the inquirer jumps in with “Per week? Per month? Per year?” They are astounded when I tell them it is a one-time investment. Really, being a member doesn’t cost anything; it’s an investment that is fully refundable. Our equity level is the lowest you will find in any co-op, and it hasn’t been raised in over a decade. I guess I’m willing to pay more in equity, or try to make that minimum member loan, in order to see our co-op through the relocation. Makes sense to me.

In Ben's post on "People not Profit" there is a comment by a member who raised some good points, and asked some good questions, and to which I would like to respond. She writes:

First, haven’t we been making some profits this last year? Does this not count because it’s going to paying old debts?

We are indeed running a profit for this year. It by no means covers the unpaid tax debt of 05/06; we had to take out a loan to cover that debt. By "running at a profit" I mean "slightly more money is coming in from revenues than going out to cover expenses." Very slightly. About 1.5%. It's makes extremely good business sense to run at a slight operating profit for a consumer co-op. Retail sales are a volatile business. If we attempt to run at exactly zero profit, and we have a bad couple weeks of sales, we could end up unable to pay our bills. By running a slight profit, we are able to build a running "rainy-day-fund" which helps keep us in the black. But there's a more important issue here. My understanding of the objections most people have about "profiit" is related to the question "Who profits?" Let's say sales are healthy (they are at the moment!) and stay that way for a year. Let's say also that the co-op has no debts to repay. We can then make decisions about things that really need fixin', like broken cooler doors and bulk bins, and re-invest that profit into the store. Or we can purchase new equipment to provide new services. Or, if there's simply no place to spend the money to help the store, and we have plenty saved for the next rainy day, the money can go back to the members in the form of patronage dividends (one of the legal advantages of the cooperative structure.) The important point here is that no private individual profits off of food sales, as is true at non-cooperative grocery stores. Instead, the entire co-op profits. And in the end, that means the community profits. The money funds no trips to Bermuda. It builds a better store. The "People not profits" idea has its heart in the right place, but uses a word that's loaded with multiple meanings, and elides a consideration of how businesses work. So maybe the "People not profits" mantra should become "Bulk bins not Bermuda?" I don't know. Another member point:

Second, it’s a bit disingenuous to not acknowledge that part of the reason prices are higher is that overhead is higher due to hiring managers and other paid workers where the coop did not have so many in the past.

It is true that the co-op spends more on management and staff than it used to. I think that the overwhelming response to that change has been positive, as reflected in comments by members to the board, in the survey results, in the growth of our membership, and the increase in sales. But I want to take a moment to reflect on where we would be without management right now. We would be several months away from closing our doors for good. The co-op spent about a decade talking about how to relocate under its previous form of management (or more appropriately, under its lack of management.) Everyone wanted to do it, but no one knew how, and the structure wasn't in place to make the decisions necessary to make it happen. In the two years since we moved to a management structure whereby managers make decisions under board oversight, and in particular in the year since we hired our first General Manager, we've gone from musing to being ready to move. And we are now in a position of no longer being offered continued tenancy in this space. I know with confidence, based on the immense amount of work that has taken place to prepare for this move and based on my experience as a volunteer and a paid staff member under the previous structure, that the co-op would have closed its doors in the summer of next year without empowered management. The final point to which I would like to respond:

We need to have more discussion about more specifics, like the profit question, that people are unhappy about.

I agree wholeheartedly. The question is: how? Engaging the membership in dialogue is hard, and we're constantly looking for better ways to do that. For example, Jacqueline held a forum a while back, heavily advertised, with the sole topic of discussing the profit question and pricing. She prepared a document on where each cent of your dollar goes each time you shop, and on how prices are set. She came ready to listen and to answer questions. I believe 5 people showed up, and Jacqueline and I were two of them. The board and management will continue to engage the membership on issues such as these. In fact, it's the primary job of the board to do so, and that's why this blog exists, and why I'm spending my Saturday morning posting to it! I hope my comments help further understanding on this issue, but I also hope the discussion doesn't stop here. We'll be having a membership-wide strategic visioning process in January, and it's my hope that we can get a large turnout of members for that day-long event, and that together we can do some soul-searching and, well, visioning on how to best proceed in the future. I'd like to thank MJ for her comments, and encourage others to use this forum to add to the discussion. Peace, -Clint CGFC Board Chair