Welcome to all of you cooperators out there. I'm Emily. I'm Alessandra. And this is Smooth
Cooperators, a Belfast Community Co-op program. We're here to talk to you about cooperatives,
and particularly the Belfast Community Co-op. Today we are going to discuss the second cooperative
principle, Democratic member control. Ooh, no, it's really exciting. Something we happen
to know a little bit about. What does that mean, Emily? It means that you are on the
board for a lot of years, and I've been working for the board for a lot of years, which means
we get to watch democracy in action, and we get to participate in our voting system on
the back end. Yeah. Making ballots. So what is democratic member control? What is that
principle? What does that mean? Well, let me tell you. The International Cooperative Alliance
says that cooperatives are founded on the ideals of democracy. Every member plays an
integral role in making decisions that affect the organization as a whole. The cooperative
makes crucial choices, adds or reforms policies, and elects new representatives as a group.
All of the members have equal voting rights with one ballot per individual, and elected
officials hear every person's voice. So if I'm understanding it correctly, the owners
from their pool of owners vote for specific owners to represent them, and those owners
are called the board of directors. That is correct, which is fun, because it's also known
as a representative democracy. We're going to talk about what we have in place at the
Belfast Community Co-op for democracy, and how you can participate. Every person has
one vote, but not on every decision. The shareholders or our owners have delegated their power to
the board of directors, as we were saying, which they elect through our democratic process
of voting. Some decisions do require a vote of our owners, like changing the bylaws. Other
decisions the board can ask for owners' input. Additionally, there are other times when owners
can request a vote. And our bylaws actually specify that the board shall call a special
meeting or ballot vote if presented with a written petition signed by 10% of our member
owners. So there are several ways that we participate in a democratic process.
That's kind of like an overview for all co-ops. Absolutely. Because pretty much every food
co-op that I know of has a board of directors that are elected by the owners. Except for
specifically, I did just have what our bylaws say. So every co-op's bylaws will be worded
differently. But my next question was going to be about our co-op. Because that was kind
of an overview. And then you mentioned before that we've been involved with the democratic
process at the co-op for a pretty long time. And I think if I remember correctly about
your role that you're involved actually every year, how does that process start the process
of electing like a new director? We have kind of an annual cycle that the board operates
on and it starts generally early fall. Directors start thinking about people that they know
that our co-op owners who they think might fill a board seat nicely. They'll also talk
about certain skill sets that they'd like to bolster on the board and brainstorm potential
candidates from that. We also do a thing where when we are signing up our new owners, we
ask them if they're interested in board work. And so we do have a running list of people
who have said yes. Generally the board will reach out to these people to see if they are
interested. So that's kind of the first stage for them. And then it goes to our board development
committee, which is a great committee that I happen to be on. I really enjoy it. It works
towards training the board and educating the board and making sure the board is following
the bylaws and monitoring the board policies. They actually make the nomination packet.
When somebody is interested in running for the board, they will receive this nomination
packet. It has a bunch of information, quite a lot of information about what it means to
be a director, what the responsibilities of a director would be, expectations, and lays
out meeting schedules and committees and other events that they will need to participate
in trainings and retreats and whatnot. And then it asks specific questions about why
somebody would want to serve on the board of directors for the Belfast Community Co-op.
So that generally goes out in December so that people can start filling those out and
submitting them. And then we encourage any candidates to attend board meetings, make
sure they are familiar with the process, and ask questions of the directors so that they
know that this is something they want to do because it is a three-year commitment. Then
we do link our voting to our annual meeting. The annual meeting is generally held at the
end of February or the beginning of March. So at the February board meeting, the candidates
have to be approved and the ballot has to be approved, which is kind of the same thing.
Can you remind me what a ballot is? So the ballot is the actual piece of paper or document
that lists the candidates and it has instructions for voting on it. We also include in ours
candidate statements so that you can have all of your information in one place. If there
were any other decisions that the board needed to make at that time, such as changing the
bylaws, that would also be included on the ballot.
What I'm hearing from you is that people decide they're interested in running for the board.
They fill out a nomination packet. That packet is given to the board and then sometime in
the February meeting they look over the ballot. What happens after that?
Well, once the ballot gets approved, it can then be distributed at the annual meeting
when voting begins. The information about the candidates is given to our marketing department
so that our owners can be as informed as possible on their choices.
And so people would be told about these candidates through social media, through e-news, and
probably in the store.
Exactly.
Awesome. Now we're to the point where owners can vote. Like, how do people do that?
Historically, most of our votes have gone through paper ballots, but in 2018 we decided
to move to online voting. We went through simply voting, which is a company used by
other cooperatives. We did get recommendations from our community.
So it's a safe and secure way to vote online for the board of directors.
Absolutely. Actually, I know that you have some stories about this, and I'd love to hear
them.
We used to vote with paper ballots before 2018, and in order for the vote to be valid,
we have to reach quorum. And quorum is like a fancy way to say that we have to have enough
owners vote that their voice has been heard. So that's typically 10%. That means that over
the course of the last five years, around 350 or 400 people have had to be voting.
Before 2018, I'm trying to think it might have been like 2016, we did have a lot of
trouble reaching quorums.
There were several years prior to online voting where we had issues reaching quorum
and had to extend the voting period beyond the 21 days that was required by the bylaws
at that time.
21 days?
Yes. We had to have three weeks where the ballots were available so that we could reach
the most people possible.
That's amazing because this year that I'm thinking of, voting had been open for six
weeks. We had not reached quorum yet. And one of our directors stood at the ends of
the registers holding paper ballots, but he was also wearing a very large vote sticker
on his forehead to try to get people's attention.
I remember that.
Because we follow this cooperative principle because it's integral to our business, that
people understand that they're electing owners to represent them, to make decisions on their
behalf of this business that they own.
It felt hard that it was a struggle to get people to participate.
And then I think we had gone back and forth for a couple different years about voting
online, but there's a lot of inputs that need to happen from our database into this voting
database.
There's a lot of maintenance to make sure emails are correct, to make sure that people
who have more than one name on their owner account, to make sure each of those people
gets a ballot because each of those people is indeed a separate owner, even though they
share a number, which is confusing and certainly something that we're trying to unravel by
moving towards one owner accounts.
And finally, we felt like, we have nothing left to lose.
And so we decided to try simply voting.
And in 2018, there were 467 online votes for the board of directors.
And in 2023, which was our most recent board of directors election, 809 people voted online.
And I believe that that was in the span that we reached quorum in the span of one week.
So it really has turned into something that is accessible and that's gotten the message
out there that voting for your representatives is important and we want to hear from you.
And we still offer paper ballot.
We have them in the store.
We have a secure ballot box that you can drop your ballot into.
Some people take them home and mail them back to us.
Whatever it is that you need for the co-op to help you vote, we want that participation
from our owners.
That is the crux of our business is having owners participate.
You want to know something kind of fun?
I'll do.
That there is no rule against our candidates campaigning.
Interesting.
But no one ever has.
So a lot of times when people run for the board, there are enough open seats for everybody
who's running to be seated.
So that just means that our board has to be between nine and 13 directors.
And a lot of times when people are running, there are enough spaces per the bylaws to
fill all of those seats.
But sometimes there are more people running for the board than we can actually seat on
the board.
So that means that one or two or sometimes even three people are going to run for the
board and not get it.
So maybe that would be the time to campaign?
Definitely.
We should also talk about what it means to have a three-year, two-year, one-year seat.
Because our board terms are typically three years.
But there have been occasions where people have moved out of state or people's lives
have been disrupted and they have had to step back from being a director.
And so a one-year or a two-year term will become available.
So if you can fill your three-year terms, but you can also fill those one and two-year
terms.
And I think we set it up that way where we say that we stagger the terms so that we
are always overlapping different experiences.
So it's not everybody leaving the board or being reelected for the board all at one time.
Really so because we have at max 13 seats, we have two years where four people could
be elected for three-year seats and one year where five people can be elected for three-year
seats.
Okay.
Just because of the way the math works.
Yeah, we don't want the board to turn over entirely in the same year.
It's interesting.
So this is really about democratic member control, which is about encouraging our owners to vote.
And it's funny how our conversation has changed over into a board of directors conversation
because you and I have so much experience with that because I was on the board for six
years and you've been the board administrator.
Almost eight years.
So it's like in this moment, what I want to say is that, hey, if you're an owner and
you're listening, come to a board meeting.
See if this is something that you're interested in participating in.
And also if you're an owner and you're listening and you get a very sweet email from the
co-op saying, it's time to vote for your board of directors.
Will you please do that?
It's really important.
It's really fun and exciting that this community-owned business gets to be run by members of the
community.
And actually, as I was looking through some papers prepping for this, I found this really
great paper by Michael Healy, who is part of the Columinate team.
He wrote this back in 2005.
He talks in this paper called Democracy and Cooperatives.
He talks about democracy not necessarily being equated just with voting, but with actively
participating and discussing.
There's this really beautiful passage from this that I would like to share.
As consumer owners of food stores, we must unlearn the lesson fed to us since infancy
that we vote with our dollars.
If we are nothing but consumers, the implication is that we have nothing but dollars with which
to vote.
And like it or not, whoever has the most dollars gets the most votes.
But in a cooperative, we are not just consumers, we are also owners.
As such, we have not merely votes, but our voices to add to the conversation.
Cooperatives provide a place in society in which we can learn to use and practice using
our voice.
If you are looking for a way for your voice to be heard, on the board of directors page
of our website, there is a contact the board form, and I know that our board would love
to hear from you.
So use your voice.
Also if you come to a board meeting, like Alessandra just suggested, there is a place
on the agenda for public comment.
Again, it would be a wonderful time for you to make your voice heard.
Positive or negative, any input that we get from owners helps make our cooperative better.
And just as like a shout out for democracy, I just want to say that I like really believe
and hope other people can be open to maybe changing their mind about this because I feel
like governance is really fun.
I feel sitting in a board room, the understanding where people are coming from, how they make
decisions, do they make them fast or slow, do they need more information, do they need
more time, are they interested in learning new things, did they really come to the table
wanting a couple of different ideas to be put forward.
All of those things are so interesting to me and so fundamental to what it means to
get along as humans to be a good listener at the board table is such an amazing gift
to be able to let somebody who's not used to talking but has a lot to share, to make
sure that you provide a safe space for them to share their really interesting insights,
values, decisions.
It feels like it's a place of strength for our co-op.
Board meetings are two and a half hours.
Sometimes they're longer than that.
And that's a long time to sit down and hold space with each other and kind of like put
our egos to the side and make decisions for the co-op.
To hold the co-op in this way that we are the stewards but also that the co-op is our
elder.
It's been around for longer than a lot of us have been around.
It's here to teach us lessons and we're here to take care of it.
I think that again that group decision making that happens in the boardroom is a really
fundamental aspect of why the co-op is so wonderful because we make decisions together.
We try to make decisions really mindfully.
Amen.
I would like to start out the next part of our show by saying the co-op will be open
during the renovation.
Right now an amazing group of contractors is digging up the road.
Very soon they'll be digging up parts of our parking lot and they'll be redesigning the
entrances to our store.
We will be open during all of this time.
The parking will look silly.
There will be dump trucks.
There will be cranes.
There will be all kinds of amazing things happening at the store.
And also we will be selling groceries and we will be selling food.
Our priority is to make sure that our owners and customers and shoppers can come in and
buy the food that they need and have a pleasant experience.
All of our cashiers and stockers and marketing staff and produce staff like everybody is
working super hard to have the store be fully stocked and clean and we're just going to
be open.
And if we're not going to be open we'll tell you but we're going to be open.
Why don't you tell us about what's going on in the store?
Well yeah so we're still doing things in the basement.
We dug a lot of really big holes to move water lines and electrical lines and sewer
lines and like all kinds of upgrades to the building that haven't been upgraded since
it was built in the 60s.
So that feels really smart and a great use of our space and our time is to make things
really safe and really streamlined in the basement.
And now we're filling in those holes because we've laid the pipe that we need to lay and
we're filling in the holes and pouring the concrete pads for building out the framing
for the spaces that we are building to use.
So some of those spaces are so exciting.
Production areas for prepared foods, preparation areas for the meat department to just have
more space to place where they can make the sausage.
Yes, literally making the sausage.
A lot of that is like behind the scenes sort of we knew it was happening but it wasn't
something that everybody who came to the store knew was happening.
But now this week since Monday Pendleton Street has been sort of a disrupted area because
we are digging giant holes outside of our building to improve access to the sewer system.
So the pipe that we had was a smaller pipe again back in the 60s.
We just had a different volume out of that building.
And so we're upgrading the size to the sewer for Belfast so that that runs smoothly.
We also have a grease trap.
Most restaurants and food stores have a grease trap because it just catches the solids before
they go into the city's wastewater treatment facility.
So the grease trap we were using was undersized really for our purposes.
And the new grease trap that we have installed is beautiful.
It is huge.
It is in the ground and it's going to be easily accessible to be cleaned out on the regular.
And it just feels like a really great, smart, healthy step for like the longevity of this
building and the longevity of this business.
But that means that we're digging up the street to get into the city sewer lines.
So that today is like Wednesday of that happening and this should be the last day.
They're finding so much cool stuff.
They're finding like glass bottles that are from the 40s, 50s, 60s.
And some of these are like bottles for Vaseline and milk of Magnesia.
And some of these are bottles for gin and whiskey.
And it's this interesting thing where both of those things make so much sense to me because
before this building was the co-op, it was a pharmacy.
So it makes sense to me that we're finding pharmacy things.
And before this building was a pharmacy, it was a hotel.
And so that makes sense that we're finding all of these old gin and whiskey bottles because
it was a full bar.
It's called the Windsor Hotel in the early 60s.
It burned down.
And what we found digging up the foundation of the building to lay that pipe for electrical
and water that I was talking about, we found remnants of the burned hotel.
That's insane.
It was crazy.
I couldn't believe it.
And I almost didn't believe it.
And then today I was talking to some of the contractors and I was like, hey, did you guys
dig under the building too?
And they said yes.
So what did you find down there?
And they told me that they found remnants of a burned building.
They didn't know that it was the hotel.
Only I knew that because I have geeked out on that property.
They found remnants of this burned building.
And I was like, isn't that crazy that they used it as fill in the 60s?
And they looked at me and they were like, ah, in the 60s, there were no codes.
They just did whatever they wanted to do.
These guys have worked all over the mid-coast.
They were telling me that they find the most interesting fill in Belfast.
It's very classic that Belfast uses whatever it had to make fill, to build buildings on.
So that whenever they dig around in Belfast, they know they're going to find cool stuff.
Well, that should be the new town motto, built on cool stuff.
Built on cool stuff.
The general contractor that we're using is Warren Construction.
They're out of Portland.
And they worked with the Portland Food Co-op and they've done a lot of really lovely, well-designed
retail spaces.
So that's why we chose to work with Warren Construction.
But when we started to work with them, we said, hey, it's really important to us to work with
local subcontractors.
So everybody that they found for all the projects so far are local subcontractors.
Some of them we worked with before and some of them we're working with for the first time.
And it's been wonderful.
And I hope that they all know how excited we are and how interested we are and how connected
we all are to this building and to the project going well.
It can be a little stressful, I would say, to close down a road and dig it up.
But hopefully we're bringing some excitement and interest and some positivity to what's
a pretty big job.
Definitely.
I know I'm excited.
Yeah.
And so the contractors we're working with, they have a lot of other jobs.
They're very popular folks.
And they said, hey, we can come back to do the other foundation work for Shop for Me
and for the cafe, but it's not going to be for a little while.
Or we could stay here and we could do it right now.
We said you should stay.
You should do it right now.
So beginning today and going into next week, we will be doing the groundwork and laying
the foundation for the new entrance to Shop for Me and for the new cafe seating area.
If you go onto belfast.coop backslash renovation, there will also be updates there.
I'm trying to post as many pictures as I can with as many updates as I can.
Our general manager, Doug, has been doing weekly videos that you can find on Instagram
or on YouTube, a little behind the scenes action.
Any of our social media and eNews has a lot of this information.
You can sign up for our eNews at the bottom of our website, which is belfast.coop on
any page that you choose.
So belfast.coop.
Yeah, that's it.
If people do see disturbances at the entrance of the store, just know the store is open
and that if you are unclear of where to go, there will be someone to provide information.
Head over to customer service or find somebody with a name tag.
We are working so hard to keep the workers all educated and updated about everything
that's going on.
So if you have a question, just feel free to reach out or you can write to info at belfast.coop
with any questions that you have and we'll try to get back to you in a timely manner.
My last update is that the next board meeting is going to be Wednesday, July 26.
Board meetings start at 6 p.m. and you can find more information about that on our website.
It has been a pleasure being with you today.
We hope that you will join us next month when we talk about principle three.
Economic participation, which means if you're going to be an owner of a business, you probably
should shop there and use it because that's what's best for you as the owner of the business.
Yep, learn more about it.
Next time.
This is for the cooperators.
Thanks, guys.
You've been listening to episode three of Smooth Cooperator from the Belfast Community
Co-op, hosted by Alessandra Martinelli and Emily Berry, produced at the facilities of
Belfast Community Radio.