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Council Meeting and General Membership Meeting Notes 5/3/09

May 6, 2009

Council Meeting

  • T-shirt event recap: It was a great success! We had fun, made a bunch of t-shirts, sold some shares, and got some funds to put towards the store.
  • Yard Sale planning:We are having a yard sale on Saturday, May 30 in conjunction with the WBNA's neighborhood-wide yard sale. Ours will be held at the future store site - 1577 Westminster. We are looking for people to donate items to sell, as well as hangers and display racks. We will also need volunteers to bake goodies for a bake sale. Look for an upcoming email with more details.
  • Share report: we sold three shares at the t-shirt event and now have 103 shares in total.
  • Storefront committee report: We have been in email contact with contractor and architect – the final price quotes are being worked out and we should have an official number to add to our “sources and uses” for the build-out any day now. Once we have this number our “sources and uses” is complete and we can contract out for the Pro Forma. General consensus that we should hire Bill Gessner, who works for CDS. Once we have the pro-forma we can hire the lawyer to do the member loan program. Still no official approval from HUD, though everyone is hoping that groundbreaking will happen in June. Lastly, Bridget and Michelle went to a class, offered through Center for Women in Enterprise” on “How to Obtain Bank Financing”.

    • General Membership Meeting

  • Update on store: We expect to break ground in June – we are working on the final price quotes from the architect and contractor and are awaiting final approval from HUD. In the meantime we have been researching our equipment needs and possible sources, as well as financing options.
  • Details on finances: Our current sources of financing include grants from United Way and Food Coop 500, fundraisers such as bake sales and the T-shirt event, and member equity (from shares sold). The next sources of funding are: community Loans, member Loans, and bank loans. In order to get these loans started we need to create our Pro Forma. The Pro Forma will outline our financial projections for the next 10 years. Ideally this would be done by a certified accountant familiar with coops. We need to pay the cpa to do the pro forma. Once the pro forma is done we can hire a lawyer to create our member loan program.
  • VOTE: The council asks the general membership for permission to use up to 50% of the member equity towards some of the expenses outlined above. This will enable us to continue our fundraising via the member loan program. Deb makes a motion to use up to 50% of the member equity for this purpose. The motion passes unanimously.

    • T-Shirt Event

    Apr 9, 2009

    We're having a fun event on May 2nd, 10am-2pm, at the WBNA.

    Come by and silkscreen the clothing of your choice with the Urban Greens logo (you can bring your own or buy a t-shirt at the event).

    Listen to live music, find out about buying co-op shares, enjoy baked goods & coffee at our bake sale, and buy raffle tickets for some great prizes. There will be potato printmaking for kids!

    The silkscreen will be priced on a sliding scale ($15-$25), but it's free for anyone who buys a share.

    If you're on Facebook, you can see who's coming and RSVP on the event page.

    Council Meeting News

    Mar 6, 2009
    • The Cooperative Council met on Sunday, March 1st. Members present: Bridget, Craig, Deb, Hillary, Kristin, Michelle.
    1. The membership and communications committee has been busy. They sent out the e-newsletter and are now working on an updated info brochure, which will be translated into Spanish. Next up, updating the website.
    2. The storefront committee has been working on the layout for the store, figuring out what kind of equipment we will need (shelves, refrigeration, etc), and working with the WBNA and Spurwink to get construction started as soon as possible. Right now this is looking like May or June.
    3. We have been planning a t-shirt making event, set for early May. More info coming soon!
    4. Also on the agenda is starting up our member loan program. We hope to get this going soon!
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