GREAT RIVER CO-OP SEEKS PROJECT MANAGER.  CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.

From Mother's Day until Father's Day, NOFA New Hampshire is offering $15 memberships for first-time members.  Benefits include quarterly publications, discounts on workshops, and reduced prices on bulk purchases.  Details at www.nofanh.org.

About 30 people attended the Great River Co-op’s second annual meeting Thursday evening, April 25, at the Congregational church in Walpole.  Member-owners reviewed the co-op’s accomplishments over the previous 12 months, learned about future plans, and snacked on Sawyer's Artisanal Cheese, made in Walpole, and spiced coffee cake from McGuire’s Bakery in Alstead.

Robert Kasper, an attorney in Walpole, has been elected to a three-year term as a member of the co-op’s board of directors.  Rob was a founding member of the co-op and the board welcomes him, his commitment, and his energy back to the co-op's leadership.

Kim Mastrianni, the board’s president welcomed the group.  Board member Matt Andrus, co-owner of the Townspeed company in North Walpole, reviewed the co-op’s accomplishments over the past year:

• Using funds from members and a grant from the USDA, we completed a market study conducted by CDS Consulting Co-op, the premiere consulting firm for co-ops in North America.

• Using grant funds from the private, nonprofit Food Co-op Initiative, based in Minnesota, we were able to hire Holly Gowdy as a part-time project manager.  She was instrumental in helping the co-op establish an initial working relationship with farmers in our area.  Holly’s a farmer and needed to reclaim her time, although she’s now a volunteer with the co-op and helps in planning special events.  We’re very grateful to Holly for the work and ideas she invested in the project and she’s made a big, positive contribution to the co-op’s progress.
• We completed a member preference survey with the help of co-op member Barb Jackson, a professional market analyst who donated her skills and time to the project.  Thanks, Barb!
• We formed a relationship with Tedd Benson, who is working to provide a building that will be the home of the Great River Co-op.
• Kim Mastrianni has conducted an exhaustive and ongoing financial analysis of various business models and funding scenarios.  This has given the board a keener sense of the size of the store and staff that our market area can support.

John Lippman, vice president of the board, thanked people who have been crucial to the co-op’s progress but who now are stepping aside to meet the increased demands of their professional lives:  board members Sally Greene, who also has been the board’s secretary, and Steve Fortier, who was the board’s first president; and Holly Gowdy, the co-op’s project manager.

Kim outlined the co-op’s major plans for the coming months:

• When Tedd Benson gives us a projected lease rate, we can test various financial projections and operational models.  The goal will be to find a size for the store that we can afford to build; and still make the store big enough to carry a variety of goods to attract shoppers and create adequate cash flow.  The success of the business will depend on the accuracy of those projections.
• These projections will tell us how much capital we have to raise to open the store; how much operating capital we should have on hand to make ends meet until the store can pay its own way; and when that should be.
• The board is speaking with candidates interested in becoming the co-op’s new project manager.  The job requires someone with skills in community organizing and fund-raising.

• The board is in the initial planning stages of a fund-raising campaign that will begin when we know just what our capital needs will be.  Most co-ops raise the majority of their capital through gifts and loans from members.  We’ll need to do the same.  Some of the funds raised will be used to pay the project director while the bulk of the funds will be left on deposit toward funding the opening of the store.
• We’re planning two special events in the months ahead to introduce the co-op to people who would be able to make significant financial contributions to the project.  Plans are being finalized and will be announced when the details have been worked out.

Kim also noted that the co-op is reaching a point where more of us will need to be involved in planning the store, raising capital, and recruiting additional member-owners.  Working groups are being formed around operations (planning the store and finances); event planning; fund-raising; and member engagement.  Anyone with expertise or interest in these areas and able and willing to invest a few hours in moving the co-op forward can contact Ben Daviss at 603-445-2200 or ben@greatriverfoodcoop.com.

Ben reported on a conversation he had on April 25 with Betsy Black, the regional representative of the Cooperative Development Fund.  The fund is a lender that specializes in supporting food co-ops, including those that are new.  Betsy says that when reviewing a loan application, the fund looks at the usual things – financial projections, business plans, and so on.  But it also pays special attention to the amount of volunteer time and financial support that members have invested in the co-op.  Therefore, it’s crucial to the co-op’s future that members participate in the fund-raising campaign and volunteer time to do the necessary work in the months ahead.

If you visited Keene's co-op during its opening or saw the front-page article in the Keene Sentinel, you know the kind of excitement and community spirit that a co-op creates.  Now it's our turn to bring that energy to the Great Falls area.

The co-op in Keene opened successfully because hundreds of people supported it financially and with their time and effort.  If the Great River Co-op is to be that engine of community spirit, jobs, and economic vitality in our region, the co-op needs its members to contribute their energy to make it happen here.

It takes a village (or, in our case, many villages) to make a co-op.  Come to the annual meeting on April 25 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Congregational church on the square in Walpole and learn what we need to do together next.

As the co-op shifts its energy and focus to the next phases of development, the board of directors has recognized the need for expertise in community organizing, planning, and fundraising.  As a result, Holly has made the decision to relinquish her Project Manager position. The board is pleased that she plans to stay actively involved and will continue to assist with organizing events and furthering our relationships with area producers. Thank you, Holly!

With this change comes an opportunity to hire the co-op's next Project Manager.  The ideal candidate for the redefined position will have experience in successful fundraising, leadership and community organizing.  Details of the Project Manager position are posted here and are available by calling Ben at 603-445-2200 or by sending a request to info@greatriverfoodcoop.com.

The co-op also has positions open on its working committees in operations and store planning, events, community outreach, and fund-raising.  If you can spare a few hours a month and enjoy making things happen, call Ben at 603-445-2200 or send a request to info@greatriverfoodcoop.com and we’ll contact you with details.

At a meeting on September 4, the co-op’s members who were there encouraged the board to continue to explore the possibility of opening a small store in a portion of the building on Route 12 that houses the Walpole Scoop Shop.  The building is owned by Tedd Benson and his company, Bensonwood Homes.

The small space would be organized as a consignment store for local produce and food products.  The arrangement benefits both farmers and the co-op:  producers would keep more of the proceeds from the sale of their goods and the co-op wouldn’t need to invest working capital to purchase inventory and mark it up for sale at a higher price. 

As the board worked deeper into the details of that opportunity, however, it became apparent that this small store would have a difficult time paying a fair wage to an appropriately sized staff while remaining profitable.  Because the board is obligated to be a responsible steward of the co-op’s present and future funds, and because the co-op is committed to paying a livable wage to good workers, the conflicting demands seemed irreconcilable.

As Tedd Benson and Kim Mastrianni, your board president, discussed the situation, they arrived at an alternative.  Tedd has offered to build a new, expandable building for the co-op across the driveway from the scoop shop.  The new store, designed specifically for our co-op, would be larger than the 800 square feet available in the scoop shop’s building, yet smaller than the 6,000-square-foot store contemplated by our market consultant – a project that could take the co-op several years to arrange funding for.  Now, depending on member-owners’ willingness to invest financially in this opportunity, our brand new store could be open before next fall.

Just as important, the new store would be designed for expansion:  when the co-op is ready to grow into additional space, the store could readily be expanded to meet our needs.  Our investment in this store is a direct investment in the larger, 6,000-square-foot store that is our ultimate goal; in contrast, a portion of our investment in the 800-square-foot space in the scoop shop building would have been temporary.  Other than equipment that could be moved, any building improvements made by the co-op would be left behind when we moved to a larger space.

The additional size will allow us to carry a larger range of goods, attract more shoppers, achieve higher sales and better cash flow, and increase the store’s chances of being profitable sooner.  At the same time, the co-op could keep the consignment structure that has attracted many of our area’s farmers during our discussion of the smaller space in the scoop shop building.

This new alternative balances the need to achieve greater sales and profitability, have an adequate staff, require a relatively low start-up investment, and be achievable soon – all while advancing the co-op toward its goal of opening a full-line store.  For these reasons, the board is now pursuing this idea with Tedd and developing a financial analysis of the new store.

Please send your comments and questions to edwardslane@greatriverfoodcoop.com and we’ll post them.  Also, If you have particular features, departments, or kinds of products you'd like to see included in the first phase of the store, please e-mail your suggestions and ideas to edwardslane@greatriverfoodcoop.com.  We'll post them and your ideas will guide the board as this preliminary design phase gets under way.

Also, for this excellent new opportunity to become a reality, we all need to step up.  The co-op will need loans and financial gifts from its member-owners.  Member-owners also will need to serve on work teams focused on planning, finance, and store policies and our board of directors needs additional members.  If you truly want a co-op in our community, you need to act and to commit a portion of your time and resources to the effort.

If we work together – embodying a co-operative spirit – the Great River Co-op will become a key resource for health, farmers, food producers, and community in our area.   

• You can share in the co-op’s profits. 
• You can help encourage lower grocery prices by bringing much-needed foodstore competition to our region.
• You’ll shop at a community market stocked every day with meat and produce raised right here.
• You’ll help strengthen and expand local agriculture and protect open land.
• You’ll shop at a family-friendly store that won’t stock sugary cereals at kids’ eye level, stack candy bars by the cash registers, or have what retailers call a “Mommy, I want” aisle filled with impulse purchases.
• You’ll have a say in the products the store carries.
• You can have a voice in governing the co-op.
• The co-op’s profits stay in our community.
• You can help to develop community education programs through the co-op.
• Joining now can make it possible. Your memberships and donations will give the co-op additional capital and demonstrate the community support this initiative needs to stay on track.