The Co-op Food Stores

added 06/23/08

by Margaret Drye

A standard rule of thumb about surveys says that even a three percent return rate is a great response. If we think of our recent board election and by-laws vote as a survey, while we got a better response than in recent years, we didn’t get a “great” response.

Of the roughly 32,000 Co-op members eligible to vote, 345 voted in the most recent election. That’s about one percent. Only 126 people attended the annual meeting (that’s not even half a percent), and that number includes the 40 Board members and working staff who had to be there.

This is not an uncommon problem. My sister, who works for a union in Cleveland, reports that one year they held their annual meeting at Geauga Lake Amusement Park. Over 20,000 attended (including friends and family), but they still couldn’t get a quorum for the business meeting part of the day! Even a meeting at the Cleveland Indians ballpark failed to draw a goodly amount of members.

I’m easy. Offering food is usually all it takes to get me motivated for a meeting. This year’s dessert buffet was definitely worth the trip: layer cakes, baklava, cheesecakes, strawberry shortcake with homemade biscuits, fresh fruit, chocolates, and more, all wonderfully created and served by the commissary and catering staff. It was a feast.

It wasn’t only the great spread that made this year’s meeting worth attending. Our keynote speaker, Michael Shuman, is not only a well-known author, he was also addressing an intriguing concept – how local businesses can compete with and beat global competition.

So, if great desserts and an inspiring speaker didn’t bring you out, what would? Is it the time of day (evening), the time of the week (a Sunday night) or the time of year (early spring) that is a problem? If we changed any of these variables, would it help?

Should we take this response as a vote of confidence? Can we interpret these results to say that 99 percent of the members think things are going well enough that it isn’t worth the time to attend the meeting or vote? Even if we dared, it wouldn’t be very fulfilling. Our principles and policies say that we govern on behalf of our members, and it’s hard to do that in a vacuum. And while the short question and answer sessions at annual meetings can be frustrating because there usually isn’t time to explore an area of concern in depth, at least they are better than nothing.

We are, after all, a cooperative. We’ve all invested money in the Co-op in order to join. We continue to spend time shopping there. Could I ask for one further piece of cooperation?

You may have read in the last Co-op News that there is now an online Discussion Board with postings that all members can reply to. There is also a place to send comments. If you participated in this year’s voting and/or annual meeting, we’re glad you got involved and we appreciate your input. If you didn’t, could you please take a moment to send us a response on how we could improve/change/expand our annual meeting?

As always, all Co-op members are also welcome to attend our monthly board meetings.

Think of this as a survey. Even if only three percent of our members reply, that will be “great!”

Margaret Drye is vice-president of the Co-op’s Board of Directors.

What Do You Think?

Have some thoughts about this article? We’d love to hear from you! Please email us your suggestion or question. If you want to check out other ways to communicate with the Co-op online, visit our discussion board.