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Hi, I'm Emily. Hi I'm Alessandra and this is Smooth Cooperators, a Belfast Community

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Co-op program. We are here to talk to you about cooperatives and particularly the Belfast

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Community Co-op. Today we're going to tell you a little bit about ourselves. We're going

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to discuss the cooperative business model. Give you an overview of cooperatives principles

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and values as well as a little history of our co-op and a little bit about our current affairs.

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All Sandra, why don't you tell me about how you came to the co-op and what it means to you?

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Well, we're back in 2011 and I moved to Belfast and immediately started to shop at the co-op

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because I was looking for local food, organic food and whole foods and I could buy and bulk

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there which was really attractive to me. I had a bunch of kids to feed and I wanted to be able

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to feed them a simple but wholesome diet. I met a couple of people and realized that if you

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worked at the co-op that there were some perks including getting some discounts on your

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food and I thought for a young family that would be a really good choice. So I applied to work

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there and they ended up hiring somebody else and I was disappointed but I was like, well,

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but it just wasn't meant to be kind of continued on with my life but the longer that I lived

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here and the longer that I shopped there I realized that I was really drawn to the cooperative

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business model, to the community mindedness and so in 2011 I applied again, same year, same year.

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Oh, did I move here in 2010? I think so.

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I moved here in 2010, audience, people?

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I applied in 2010 and applied in 2010 and applied again in 2011 and I remember going to the

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front desk and asking for an application and going home and photocopying at 10 times.

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And when I brought it back I brought it to the customer service manager and I was like,

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hey, just so you know, I'm going to drop this off once a week for 10 weeks until you hire

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me and I was indeed hired later than month. And I was a cashier. I worked a closing shift

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which was so fun, called ourselves the A team and we just love talking to our customers,

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loved counting our drawers and keeping the store clean and it was a really excellent time

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to be introduced to the community. I got to talk to people who were community members

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and get to know them and I got to know the people who I worked with really well.

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I'm in the person who trained me to be a cashier is the one and only Doug Johnson,

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who is now the general manager of the Belfass Community Co-op. So I do feel like I got

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some pretty good training in. So then I worked at the co-op pretty consistently until 2014.

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And then in 2014 I ran for the board of directors and I was elected. And at some point

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in time the workload became a lot, being a full-time mom, being a part-time cashier

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and a part-time board member and I chose being a board member. So I left you or also

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pregnant at the time. Well, Walter was born in 2012. So I took a break.

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Yep, sorry, my time left off. But I had a tiny baby.

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During all those things. So I decided that the work on the board of directors was really

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formative for the store and really interesting. I was really drawn to just all the concepts

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of governance. That was the time when the board was considering adopting policy governance.

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Yeah, we had not got to be on the ground floor of that. Yeah. And it was explained in a really

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interesting way. And seeing how the board meetings worked at that time, I could see the change.

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I could see the updates from changing to a governance model that wasn't really named and didn't

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really have a structure. To a governance model that was defined. And we had our meetings in the

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basement of the Waterfall Arts Building, which is where we're recording this program, now,

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which is exciting for me. So then I was on the board for six years. And during that time,

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I helped hire a new general manager. I was the board president for a little while. And I was

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able to take advantage of a lot of training opportunities through what is now called

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illuminate, which is a cooperative consulting business. Then I left the board in February of 2020

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after serving two full terms. And I didn't know at the time that what would be happening was COVID.

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My last board meeting was a virtual board meeting. And then I left. And I didn't have anything

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to do with the co-op for a couple of months. And finally it was clear that I needed to stop going

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to school and start working again. And the only place that I wanted to work in town was the

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Belfast Community Co-op because of the cooperative business model because it gives back to the community.

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And I started back as a cashier and then became a floor manager. And now I'm the outreach coordinator.

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Congratulations. And I work in the marketing department. And the great fit. This is a little

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bit of outreach that we're doing here on this program. I'm really enjoying it. Emily, what's your

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history with the co-op? Oh, my history with the co-op actually goes back a little bit further,

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mostly because when I graduated college, I wanted to do something that, well, I was young and

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idealistic. So I wanted to save the world. And how do you do that? But local foods. I just thought

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that was the key. And I thought farming was going to be my life. My spine told me it wasn't

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an actual literal spine. My actual little back said, I don't think that was going to happen for you.

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But I ended up moving to Colorado for about a year and a half where I worked at a natural food store,

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not a cooperative. But I gained a lot of knowledge about health food and food systems. And I came back

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here to the Belfast area in 2008. And I actually applied at the co-op and did not get a job.

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I could see both of them coming. So then I tried to do other things like I worked at Johnny's

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for a little bit. And I loved, again, local food systems. I was very into it, had a baby,

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needed a job that wasn't particularly farm-based in many regards. And my dear friend had just recently

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moved into the area. And I kept visiting her and loved the co-op. It fit with my

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ideals for shopping local and keeping my money local, which was incredibly important to me.

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Actually, I did not understand the cooperative business model. But I knew that I wanted to

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support local economy. And that was my driving force behind applying at the co-op again,

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as well as the fact that I had a really good friend. It was you who was in Belfast. So I actually

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got hired in 2011 in the fall. And I have literally been at the co-op ever since. I started as a

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cashier. I moved on to a floor manager. I started working in what was called the membership

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department. Now it's owner services. And I also, and I still do that. And I also, in the

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administrative assistant for the board of directors. And I have been since 2015. So I have seen

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the board evolve with policy governance, which has been really, really lovely. I got to be part of the

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GM search team. So I got to see that whole process. And I've been in almost every board meeting since

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then. And really learning how a cooperative works. And really the inner workings of our cooperative.

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And I find it very exciting. And as a fun fact, our lovely general manager dug also changed me

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to be a cashier. I just did some quick math. And I think that's 90 or so board meetings. Yeah.

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At three hours each. I did miss one for bronchitis. But I have been there pretty steadily.

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It's really dedicated. Yeah. And I end the whole COVID period where we were only virtual.

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Was really interesting. And we got some really fun technology out of that. And we adapted. And I

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thought that was very well-difficult. I was really proud of everybody for sticking with it. And

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figuring out how to make it happen. And still making really important decisions for the co-op in the

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community. Well, not being able to really relate on a face-to-face basis. It's pretty impressive.

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So it's pretty safe to say that we have a lot to talk about when it comes to the co-op because we've

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been around for a long time. It's become like some part of our really solid and rooted relationships

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kind of revolve around the co-op. Absolutely. And so we've had these important conversations

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in and around the store, in and around the boardroom. And so many people have said, oh, that's so

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amazing that you know that. You know, you should talk about that or you should give this presentation

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or you, you know, have to share this knowledge in some way. And here we are, finally, actually doing that.

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It's really exciting. Recording it and sending it out into the world to share it because

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from my perspective, the cooperative business structure isn't talked about enough.

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There are people who believe that the cooperative business structure is really a radical

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economic model. And part of me feels like that's too lofty of a phrase. And the other part of me

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knows that the cooperative business model isn't taught in business schools in the United States.

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It's not taught in high schools. It's not taught in colleges. You cannot get a master's

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in cooperative business. And so that does make me think that there is something about it

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that the great institutions of capitalism don't want people to know about cooperative business.

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They will teach sole proprietorship businesses, partnership businesses, corporations,

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S corporations, but they don't teach about cooperative business. So to me, that means that

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it's the people's job to talk about cooperative business. If we see that it's a good thing for

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our communities and for ourselves as workers. And so I think that we're going to take this opportunity

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on this program to talk about cooperatives as individual businesses, to talk about cooperatives,

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how they share the same values and the same principles. But also to talk about our local

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co-op, which is the Belfast Community Co-op as we go through big transitions, which include

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renovating the entire store and opening up new parts of our store next year. The cooperative

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statement of identity says that a co-op is an autonomous association of persons, united voluntarily

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to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly

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owned, democratically controlled enterprise. Basically the first cooperative business was recognized

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in 1752 in the United States. It was a mutual fire insurance corporation started by Benjamin

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Franklin. I did not know that. Co-operation though is not new. Humans have been cooperating together

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since we decided to live in groups, not everybody can hunt, not everybody can cook. So we all need

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each other in some way or another. Over the next several decades from 1752 on, there were a lot of

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agricultural cooperative businesses, but they really started to take hold in the late 1800s. The

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raw-style pioneers are known as the first cooperative, the first consumer cooperative business.

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Co-operatives really began to take shape in the late 18th century as people moved from

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farms to cities. They were no longer able to grow their own food and they relied on privately owned

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stores. I have a quick question to provide their nourishment. What's a consumer cooperative? A consumer

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cooperative is a group of people who come together to amplify their buying power in the economy.

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Are there cooperatives that are not consumer cooperatives? There are cooperatives that are not

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consumer cooperatives. So there are agricultural cooperatives. There are worker cooperatives. And

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we certainly will take other programs to dive into all of those different models because there are

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also cooperatives where they're housing cooperatives, where people collectively own the land and

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own the buildings. I'd love to give a shout out to my credit union. It's a cooperative. Hey, so when

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people came together to support each other in the newly industrialized times, they also came up with

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some cooperative principles to align themselves for what makes them different. How do they all work

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together? And those cooperative principles which we will dive into individually and other programs

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are open and voluntary membership, democratic member control, member economic participation,

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autonomy and independence, education, training and information, cooperation among cooperatives

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and concern for community. I love it. The last thing that I was going to talk about today are all

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of the different businesses that particularly folks from the United States will be familiar with

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that maybe they didn't know were co-ops. So Ace Hardware is a co-op? The Associated Press

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is a cooperative business? Credit unions, like you said before, are cooperative businesses? Ocean spray

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is a grower cooperative? Land of Lake's dairy is also a grower cooperative. RRI which is recreational

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equipment, equipment incorporated is a co-op. Sun kissed growers is a agricultural co-op and

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tillmook is an agricultural co-op. And while electric co-ops are not as common as they were

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during the depression, a lot of states still have co-ops that you can buy into that will distribute

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your electricity. And that is a brief overview of cooperative business. Now Emily is going to give

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us specific overview of our cooperative business? Well, our cooperative was actually started.

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Its origins are in a buying club or actually many buying clubs depending on who you speak to.

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The primary buying club that you hear about is one that was started out in Liberty, Liberty or

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Montville, again, depending on who you talk to. The folks who were doing that at the time got

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very excited about putting the goods that they were getting and distributing into a storefront,

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which made it work really well because if you are ordering bulk items, which is what these orders

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would be, you are getting 50 pounds, 25 pounds, entire wheels of cheese, etc. Of all of these goods

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that you want. But that doesn't necessarily mean that one you have the place to store it or that

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you want to spend all of your money on 50 pounds of flour. So being able to break it up and

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distribute it throughout the community worked really well for a while, but putting it in a storefront

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meant that whatever wasn't claimed of each part of what was being purchased wholesale could

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them be sold to people who were not actually part of the buying club. So it was a very loose business

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at the beginning. Nobody was really named as a manager, everybody volunteered and people would drive

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to Boston to pick up the food and people learned how to cut wheels of cheese and bagged up bulk.

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And I think it's very sweet and easy to romanticize what that was like and I do enjoy thinking about

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it a simpler time indeed, indeed, with a lot of work. But it became popular and so when they had

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you know the original storefront was very small. It is still very small, it's still there on

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upper main street. But it was a very exciting time in 1987 when they moved from the original storefront

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down to what is currently the green store. Once they started operating out of that business or business

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location the cooperative was able to grow a little bit more, they could bring in more products,

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they got their infamous crock pots which started the Delhi, they would have daily soups.

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Of course they got their cat, Krasby which is kind of a major historical figure in the

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bell-fest community co-op history. Again it was growing in popularity and in size and so in the early

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90s they opted to move into the location that we have now. Looking at pictures it was also really

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exciting. There was an entire florist section where they sold cut flowers in the new, when they moved

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into their new store. Yes, because they had so much space. Because they had so much space, which is

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very funny to think about now because I feel like when you walk into our store now it is very tight

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which is because we've grown because we've grown because people do want to shop there. So there's

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a lot of things that have happened to our store between when we moved in 1993 and 30 years later in

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2000, 23 which I know a lot of people listening will remember the various changes and there's a

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lot more changes to come in July 2022. So this was just last summer the board did approve the renovation

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project and so we're gonna get a face lift, an entire store face. How many years had the board been

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trying to come up with a project to improve the store? Since before you and I worked at the co-op

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and that's just from talking to former general managers and owners talking about oh yeah well

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they were gonna renovate this or they were gonna renovate that but then they put it off or the

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plans fell through for whatever reason and so in our time being at the co-op really I think plans

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started in 2016. That's when I remember we were having owner forums and discussing what we wanted

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the future of the co-op to be. I know the board was taking a very serious look at what they wanted

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the future of the co-op to be doing a lot of visioning and there was some pretty grand plans in that.

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I remember it was a four story brand new building with affordable housing and community space,

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a teaching kitchen, perhaps even a rooftop brewery. Oh yes all of that. But as the years went on

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and like structural analysis was done financial analysis was done

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really that that grand plan wasn't feasible which I think it made a lot of people very sad.

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I might be looking at one of them. So what we've come up with what has been approved and what

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will be done is not the ideal but it is what is feasible and is also what is rational and

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reasonable and needed. We are doing renovations to the store, a store that was built in the 60s

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and has not had any major upgrades since then. These are safety issues. They're common sense issues.

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Yes absolutely. Everybody wants to have safer electrical. You just don't think about it but you

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don't really do want it. Yeah. Better plumbing. We love a roof not to leak and I think really

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everybody who works at the co-op has a really soft spot in their hearts for the new hydraulic lift

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that will be located at the back of the store. It sure beats hauling boxes up and down the stairs.

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Yeah or using a fork lift to lift a pallet to the second floor. It's all doable and has been done

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for decades now and yet we don't have to continue doing that. We can make this upgrade and improve

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the safety and efficiency and lives of our workers and that's really exciting. And it's one of those

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things that I remind myself that one of the reasons why the store wants to be a great employer and a

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great place to shop is because the better run we are, the more that we can provide space for farmers

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and producers to sell their goods but the better we can do for our community. Absolutely. The more

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resources that we have, the more resources we can put back out there to the people who need them.

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Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm very excited. And so I should also tell you, hand in hand with

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planning the renovation the board had also planned a capital campaign and as I'm sure everybody is

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aware because everybody was contacted and by everybody I mean all of our owners that campaign ran

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from January 16th through April 16th. It is now concluded. We were asking for $1.5 million in

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owner loans and donations and we have hit our target and exceeded it and exceeded it. I feel a

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little giddy about it because you and I were both on the capital campaign team doing the work.

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Yeah, hi I'm Alessandro I probably emailed you. Hi I'm Emily I was your loan closer.

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It's so much money but I think more than the you know the money is helpful. That helps us

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spend less with the bank. It helps us feel more secure when we have to pre-order

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refrigeration that won't be here for you know many many months. But I think the community support

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that we felt with people who said like absolutely I want to loan you money. I cannot wait to invest

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in this community anchor of downtown. That is really the part that helped me feel like my job and

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my commitment to the co-op were really meaningful and really wonderful. There are so many stories

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from owners who are just excited that what this means is that the co-op is committed to continuing

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to be here. Yes, it's true. And makes me feel a warm and fuzzy. As some maybe our

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Bengorgalli news readers read we will have a ground breaking ceremony on May 15th. It won't be

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super visible on May 15th that we are starting construction because construction is starting

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in the back of the building and in the basement of the building. But we will slowly be working our

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way up to the sales floor. We do intend to stay open the whole time that we're working on the store.

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At the end of it the cafe will reopen and shop for me which is our online shopping program where you

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can pick your groceries up curbside will be expanded and improved because that's a service

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that a lot of folks in town like to take advantage of. I don't know if you guys know this but we're

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very excited. We love the co-op. We do. It's crazy that we love it so much but we just do.

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Well we've talked a lot about the history and the cooperative model but realistically a lot of the

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draw of the co-op is the community. Most of my friends in this area I have met because of being

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at the co-op. People recognize me. They'll be like I know you but where from and I'll look at

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them and say the co-op and they say oh yeah. My favorite joke is that my last name is from the co-op.

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It's not an ideal place. In the sense that nothing is ideal but it is a good place.

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If you go there it becomes your place and I think that I could wax poetic about the co-op

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but realistically that's not what we're here for 100%. We also want to give you information. So

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as Alessandra just said we have a groundbreaking on May 15th. It's at 1 pm. We do plan on using

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our time here on the radio to give you updates about what is happening in the store as the

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renovation moves forward. This will be a monthly program. We'll have more information next month

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about how the episodes will get laid out. The next board meeting is May 24th. It will be held at 6pm.

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We are doing both. It's a hybrid meeting so you can join either in person or via Zoom.

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I'm not sure where it is going to be held at this point but you can find that information on our

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website. And social media. Look up BellFast Community Co-op. You can find our website. You can find

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us on Facebook. You can find us on Instagram. We do have a newsletter that goes out every two weeks

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so you can go on to our website and sign up for that and all of the information about how to get

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involved or updates on the renovation or questions that you have can go through the website. I'm

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going through our E-News. How handy. Yeah. It's like someone put that together. It's been a pleasure

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being with you today. We hope that you will join us next month. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye.