Uncategorized

If you're a Common Ground member, you've no doubt heard about the proposed changes to the co-op's bylaws - the legal document that governs our organization or, as I explained to someone recently, "what's under the hood".

By now all members should have received information about the member loan program that we are relying on to fund our move to Lincoln Square this summer.

I have spoken to several members over the course of the past couple of weeks and have assembled this list of answers to the frequently asked questions:

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

From time to time we receive comments from members about pricing, product selection, and how to make the co-op an inclusive resource for the entire community.

Here is a recent comment:

Our mission statement declares, among other things, that our food co-op "builds community," and I was pondering this last night while making cabbage kim-chi, a spicy Korean dish. We have a bumper crop of various hot peppers from our garden this year, and so I was chopping peppers, trying not to itch my nose, and thinking of the web of food and people that is formed by even the simplest of acts.

Did you make it to the General Membership Meeting (GMM) last week? If not, you missed out on some great food and some exciting news about the future of our co-op. But fear not-- you can read a recap of the goings-on below, and if you have any questions or comments, your feedback is welcome now more than ever! Contact the board (board@commonground.coop) or general manager (jacqueline@commonground.coop) in person or via email or by filling out comment cards in the store. Keep reading to catch up on the latest happenings!