Hi, Cooperation Nation. I'm Emily. Hi, I'm Alessandra. And this is Smooth Co-operators,
a Belfast Community Co-op program. We are here to talk to you about cooperatives and
particularly the Belfast Community Co-op. We were so excited to record our first podcast
and it went really well and it's exciting to share it with our cooperative community. And we are
now going to be laying out the next seven episodes. So we'll be going through the cooperative
principles one by one, talking about them, talking about how they apply to cooperative business,
and about how they apply to our cooperative business. To refresh your memory, the cooperative
principles are a set of principles and ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first
set out in 1844 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, and they
formed the basis for the principles which cooperatives around the world continue to operate.
The implications of the Rochdale principles are a focus of study in cooperative economics. The
original Rochdale principles were officially adopted by the International Cooperative Alliance,
the ICA, in 1937, and they were updated by the ICA in 1966 and then again in 1995 as a part of
the statement on cooperative identity. The first cooperative principle is voluntary and open membership,
which means cooperatives are voluntary organizations open to all people, able to use their services,
and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership without gender, social, racial,
political, or religious discrimination. This was very important to the original Rochdale
pioneers because they felt like they were shut out of other opportunities for businesses,
and they felt like if they were inclusive, as long as people were using the services that they
wanted anybody to be able to participate. So this also ties in with anti-discrimination,
which has included a lot of co-op bylaws and included in our co-op bylaws. To discriminate
socially is to make a distinction between people on the basis of class or category. Examples of
social discrimination include racial, religious, sexual orientation, disability, and ethnic
discrimination. And to fulfill the first cooperative principle, a cooperative should not prevent anyone
who is willing to participate from doing so. However, this does not prohibit the cooperative
from setting reasonable and relevant ground rules for membership, such as residing in a specific
geographic area or paying a membership fee to join, as long as all persons meeting that criteria are
able to participate if they choose. So there are different motivations and benefits for joining a
co-op. So it is voluntary to join a co-op and members will need good reasons to participate.
Every person's reasons will be unique and will vary from one cooperative to another,
but they'll often be a combination of the following. Financial reasons. Most co-ops are
able to provide members with financial benefits. Quality of life. People enjoy serving the community
through a cooperative because doing service makes one's own life better. Included here would be
the benefits people get from being with other people, staying active in the community, and having a
sense of value in society. Giving back. Many people have in some way benefited from the work of a
cooperative. Altruism. Some people join for the benefit of others. And a sense of duty. Some people
see participation in community as a responsibility that comes with citizenship. In this case,
they may not describe themselves as volunteers, but owners. Cooperatives do not operate in isolation
from their community, but are integrated into their community. So it is important that people who
live in the communities are a part of their co-ops. Let's talk about how principle one applies to
the Belfast Community Co-op. Open and voluntary membership. So what that means is that if you are
in the Belfast Community Co-op area, Waldo County specifically seems to be a large draw for the
co-op. Although realistically, we have owners from all over the country as far away as Alaska. That's
really exciting. It just means that our community is larger than we thought. And I love thinking
about that. So our rights and responsibilities as Belfast Community Co-op owners. First off,
we do require an equity investment. That means that you have to put forth money to be a part of
this particular co-op. What we require is a $200 equity investment. As of right now, once that
$200 is fully paid, you are considered fully vested. You are fully invested in the co-op.
Payments can be made in $15 increments annually. So Emily, now that we know that membership for
the Belfast Community Co-op is open and voluntary, how would somebody sign up to become a member? If
they wanted to be one. So it's fairly easy. We do have a sign up form and you can either fill that
out at the register on any day that you're in the store to shop or you can go to our website.
It's Belfast.coop and there is a join the co-op page which has a form on it and you can sign up
from the comfort of your own home. Awesome. I had mentioned earlier that sometimes there are
qualifications to sign up for the co-op. What would qualify somebody or what would they have to do
to sign up? Once you fill out the form, really the only requirement is the economic participation
part which is the equity investment. So at that point you would either pay your $15 annual
installment or you could become fully vested right at the start by paying $200. Fully vested?
Is that like when I wear my really cool outfit to work and I have that sweet handmade vest on? I love
your vest. No, fully vested means that you are actually fully invested in the business. That
means that I've paid up my full equity payment of $200. Yes. Cool. I've heard from people in
the past that they were had like lifetime ownership or they felt like they hadn't been fully invested
in the past. How come they're not fully invested now? The amount of investment that is required for
the co-op is decided by the board of directors and because our business has grown and changed over
the course of its 46 years and had different iterations of a board of directors, they have
decided different economic levels of investment for the owners. So at the beginning we've had many
different structures. At the beginning there was a $25 fee. I don't even think it was called equity
at that time. Over the years it evolved into $80 per person and that was a lifetime membership.
And then I think as the people who worked at the co-op and the board began to understand the
cooperative model a little bit better because there is a learning curve when you start a business,
especially a cooperative business which you mentioned last time, is not taught in business
school. They changed their mindset on what it meant to be invested in the business and what
the business needed from its owners. When you and I started working at the co-op, the equity
structure was $60 per person. You paid that over the course of three years and then beginning
in the fourth year you paid a $25 annual membership fee. I remember that. Yeah. At the very end of
2018, so I think it was implemented right at the beginning of 2019, the board decided to change the
equity structure so that it is a $200 equity investment and they did away with annual membership
fees because the fees were not refundable. So something that's interesting about a co-op is
that when you invest in the co-op and you decide that you no longer want to be a participant,
the board can actually purchase back your equity. So they're buying those shares back from you as
long as the co-op is in sound financial health. So right now, if you pay your $200,
you're a fully invested member. But if the board decides that the economics change or there's a
change in the business structure, they can change the level of participation that's needed. That's
correct. So it kind of sounds like making all of the decisions about the cooperative is much
more complicated than the membership itself because when you're a member of the co-op,
it seems to me like you go in, you give the cashier your owner number and the benefits kind of start
at the cash register. I can think of some of the benefits of being an owner, getting a discount on
a case pre-order. So there's like a very delicious drink that we like to drink that's like a turmeric
drink. I can just order six of them at a time and then I get a 15% discount because I'm an owner.
It's lovely. What are the other benefits of being an owner? There is patronage dividend,
which is profit sharing. When the co-op does well financially, they have a portion of their
profits actually returned to the owners. It is based on how much people spend at the co-op.
Yeah, I remember being told that I had patronage dividend to redeem this year and it's kind of
like a store gift card. That's right. And actually the patronage dividend allocation is really
interesting because the co-op can actually retain a portion of that allocation and can put it back
into the business. So it's like reinvesting on behalf of the owners. It's also pretty interesting
because if the co-op decides to do patronage dividend to allocate funds back to the owners,
they are not taxed on that portion of the profit. Another incentive of being a cooperative business.
Absolutely. You touched on the pre-order discount, which is for all of our owners. If you order a
case of something, we're talking a bag of rice, a bag of flour, even a case of your favorite drink
from the cooler, you can get a 15% discount. The other thing that you're signed up for automatically
as an owner is something that we call owner rewards, which just means that you are earning
1% on everything that you purchase and 2% back on anything that is local that you purchase. And so
you can rack up those points at the register and then you can use them as long as you have something
that's over $3. So if you have $3 or more, you can spend those down in owner rewards. But if
you're purchasing something that is less than $3, you'll have to wait until you have a larger shop.
And it seems like one of the other benefits of being an owner is that you get to run for the
board of directors. Absolutely. So that's one way to participate in your community and you get to
help make decisions for this business that you own that is also benefiting your community.
Additionally, if you are not prepared to run for the board of directors, but it does sound slightly
enticing, you can actually just do committee work. So you can join a board committee. We have
three standing board committees. There's the owner engagement committee. There is the board
development committee and the finance committee. Now, each of those has a specific job. Owner
engagement is to reach out to owners regarding board issues and get out in the community and
talk about the governance and what's going on at the go up. Board development actually works on
monitoring policies and making sure the board is participating in trainings and keeping everybody
up to date, which I think is very exciting education. Love it. And finance committee goes
through the monthly financials with the GM and they do look over any financial decisions that
are being made. And if you have a finance background, that would be a really good fit for you.
So I'm hearing that these are some really great reasons to join the co-op and these are pretty
unique to this business structure. But why do you think people join the co-op? I think it can be
really personal. I think that after the conversation you and I had in the last program, it was
interesting to hear that how much you love the cooperative business model. I also do love it,
but that is not why I was particularly drawn to the co-op at the beginning because I was interested
in making sure I was investing in my local economy because I didn't know particularly a lot about
the cooperative business model. And so I think it can be really personal for everybody. It could be
just that somebody loves a local business and they feel like they want to support it. They want to
shop there. They could just sign up because they want to get a discount on their favorite dried
mangoes. Dried mangoes are delicious. So it kind of seems like some people move to a new place and
no matter what the co-op is, they join it because that's like part of their lifestyle. And that
also seems like we have some people who maybe shop at the co-op all the time, even once or twice a
day. And they're not owners and that's another personal choice that for whatever reason they don't
feel like they want to become financially invested in this place even though they shop there for
really frequently. I think that you had somebody come through the ownership department like someone's
form and they had been shopping here for years, maybe over a decade. Two people who've been shopping
since as long as you and I have been working for the co-op in the same day signed up to become
owners after at least a decade of shopping, which was really exciting. I think that what we've done
in outreach and education has opened people's eyes to what the cooperative is. That it is not
necessarily a feeling, but it is a business that they can benefit from. Because I wondered too of
some people if they're frequent shoppers, maybe they have that feeling. The workers treat them
like an owner because they're a community member. Do you know what I mean? That there's something
unknowable about that sort of familiarity where you kind of treat somebody like your chosen family
and then you kind of turn them on to the fact that there are these benefits they could be taking
advantage of, but you forget that they're not an owner. Does that make sense? I know that's a
weird thing to say, but it's like you can act like an owner even if you're not an owner. You just
don't get the benefits. There was plenty of people who came through my line when I was a cashier who
were not owners, who I was still excited to see and I would see them on a daily basis. I was thrilled
to be able to provide them with customer service and make them feel like they were part of the
community, even though they weren't invested in the business. Well, they are invested in the
business, just not in this traditional way that we're sort of laying out through the bylaws,
through this business structure, just by spending their money here or their time here or maintaining
relationships here. They are invested and I think that that's something that we have that other
bigger grocery stores don't have is that we do treat people who come here like friends, like
family. We go out of our way to say like, hey, we see you. We know that you're here. A little while
back you mentioned that one thing that's unique about cooperative business is that the board can
buy back people's equity shares. You're the ownership coordinator, so you do deal with all
different aspects of ownership and some of that means that you are helping to return that equity
on behalf of the board of directors. What are some examples of why people stop being owners?
The biggest one that I see is people move out of state. It seems that proximity is really helpful
in being an owner, so if you are not in the area and not utilizing the business, you can take your
equity and perhaps invest it in a co-op that's closer to you and I have seen that a lot. Unfortunately,
death is probably the next biggest one. We have people from all walks of life and that is the
natural endpoint. People who are part of the estate can request their equity back and it can
be approved by the board of directors and you can find out more information about that on our website.
Sometimes people are simply upset with the co-op because it is not making them feel the way that
they want to feel. Again, as long as the co-op is in sound financial health, we can buy those equity
shares back and the board will approve it. If you have any questions about that, email ownership
at belfast.coop. Yeah, it's such an interesting thing that it can be fluid in that way but it's
sort of if you don't use it then you'll lose it where we really want people to be owners who are
invested. That's what's best for the business and for one reason or another if you become uninterested
in the business that it's actually best to not be an owner anymore because when you're an owner
you get to vote for the board. It's a responsibility, kind of you have to vote for the board because
those are the people who are representing you. We have a representative democracy and so if you
are say in the business is channeled through your representative you want to make sure you're
getting the right representative for you. Wow, do you know what I think that I just heard we're
talking about for the next episode Emily? I know it. Principle two, Democratic member control.
Which is very exciting. Yeah, it is exciting. There are not so many opportunities for that in our
day-to-day life because even the representative democracy that we're a part of that like is our
state and is our country. It's less knowable because it's so huge. It feels more removed. Yeah,
and this is this feels very present. Well and it is because you are running into the people who
are representing you as you are shopping. Yeah, which is really fun. Yeah, because they shop here.
Yeah, cool. I was thinking that for the next part of the show that we would talk about our store
and we would talk about renovations and maybe groundbreaking. I would love to do that. I would
like to slip in one more benefit of being an owner. Yeah. Which is that not only do you get to vote
for your board of directors you get to vote for the common-sense organizations. Oh, that is huge.
It is huge. We have through this program this common-sense program where you round up change at
the register. We have been able to provide local nonprofits with just really meaningful amounts
of money that have a huge impact for them. And a lot of education because our marketing department
makes posters every month which can lead you to websites or social media to find out more about
these local nonprofits that people that they're either new or people haven't heard about. And so I
think that they get support in that way. And for the last 11 months we've raised over $5,000
each month for the local nonprofits. We should do a whole episode. We should because I would that
the Belfast Community Co-op does not actually we don't have a hand in how much they are receiving.
It is purely community support that is just going directly from the shoppers. We are gathering it
in a little basket and then giving that to the organization. Yeah, 100% of the community donations
go to the organization. The co-op gets so much but none of it is financial. So we don't do any
tax write-offs. You know, we don't get any notoriety from those organizations. It's the community
that gets it. Yeah, that's you guys out there. You're doing it. Yeah, making a big impact. Thank you.
So on Monday, last Monday, May 15th, you and I kind of wrangled together and put on a little bit of an
event. We did. And that event was the groundbreaking event. It leaves me speechless to think about it.
I cannot even tell you how excited I am. How excited I was that day to welcome all of these people
into our parking lot, which is not, it is what it is. It's a parking lot. But we heard from Doug
Johnson, our general manager. We heard from Mike Hurley from the city of Belfast. And we heard from
his first names Ken. He's amazing. He's from Warren Construction. Thank you. Yeah, he was amazing. I
did, I tried to do a headcount at some point. Oh, good. And we had about 30 people there. And then I
turned around and it looked like there was at least 20 more behind me after that. Yeah, I think there
might have been like 60 people there. And now we're going to hear a little bit from Doug Johnson at
the groundbreaking ceremony. Co-ops are built by the communities that they serve. This co-op has been
held together for the past 47 years by a number of dedicated individuals that have kept this place
going. A lot of them are here today. A lot of them have been part of this project. And I want to
recognize them and recognize how hard it is to keep a store going in a community. As we prepare for
this next stage in the co-ops development in the next cycle of our life, I want to recognize that we
are standing on the shoulders of giants, that there are larger than life individuals that have
brought this co-op to life and that we are continuing their tradition with this new stage of the
project. Thank you everybody again for coming out. Thank you for all that you've done to support me
and our team and our workers and our board of directors. Thank you so much and onward. Belfast
Community Co-op, owned by you, food for all. Thank you everyone. It was a really great turnout. The
weather stayed nice. And we actually started construction that day. Yeah, I think before,
so the groundbreaking was at one and before the groundbreaking ceremony was at one and before we
even started, the demolition crew had filled an entire dumpster with old basement materials that
are no longer going to be needed because the basement is the first place that we're working on.
And so all of the electrical and plumbing down there are getting an upgrade. Right now the crew
is going through and making sure that we're meeting OSHA standards. So that just means that
there's no loose wires and you know the ground is level and they have an easy way to start setting
up all of the new things that they're building because basically the basement will hold
preparation spaces for our meat department, for our prepared foods department. There will be a new
break room downstairs, a couple of employee bathrooms will be downstairs and some storage
for center store for like all of our grocery items. But they have to make sure, you know,
they have to make sure everything is structurally sound. They have to make sure everything will
fit. There's so much to take into account and we have Warren Construction, which is a Portland-based
construction group who has like a lot of background in commercial building. They're superintendent,
whose name is River, he's on site and he's so on top of everything. It's like so fun to have somebody
who's so interested working on this project because I can ask him questions like, oh, what are you
doing over here and how's that going? And he, I think, can like feel and see the investment from
the workers and from the owners. And so I think that's exciting because he gets to share what it
is that his work is because it's impacting our work. We're interested and we just want the best
for the whole project because we're all, there's already investment from everybody. It's really
cool. I'm so excited and it makes me want to don a hard hat and be a little construction worker for
a little while. I will say at some point after the ceremony, we stayed on the ceremony site and
we're mingling. There was a lot of board of directors there and community members, but I glanced
over at the entrance to the co-op and there were about six people standing there in hard hats and
all people who are actually working on the actual renovation. Yay! And they were not posing for
anybody. This was not staged. They were standing next to the co-op wearing their hard hats,
getting down to business and doing the work of the renovation. There's so much to do. It just
maybe want to burst with excitement. Yay! And we will be open the whole time. I think that's going
to be a question that we're going to answer for, you know, the next 10 months or whatever. The plan
is to be open, to be open, to be open. We will just continue to meet the community's needs. We are
adjusting a lot of things inside the store and outside the store and there will be temporary
closures when we have to turn the water off or we have to change the electricity over, but all of
those will be able to be anticipated and so everybody will know about them beforehand. Yes, we will
gently guide you through any disruptions. There will be in co-op service. Yay! And I'm so glad that
you were excited because I was sleeping terrified. I was so nervous about the whole thing going down
and happening. I think because there's been so much build up to it. Patrick, who was there from
Woodholz Studios back in, I don't know, 2017. I think I saw a presentation from him as an architect
for the first time. So Woodholz Studios used to be Caleb Johnson Studios. They are an architect firm
that also does commercial and retail spaces down in Portland. I've just seen this guy
for all of these years coming up with these dreamy ideas that we want to move forward on to
provide services for our community and for our workers and for the next generation, that planning
ahead to accommodate the next people that we don't even know will be in Belfast. There's excitement
and anticipation when I would see the plans. And now we're doing the plan. And he's there helping
and checking out structure. He's just this, like, I don't know, to me this, like, character... He became
a little larger than life. Yeah! And now it's real. So it's like you become this larger than life
character. You have all these great ideas and these fun design concepts. And then we choose a design
concept that we're going to move forward with. And all of a sudden you become this, like, very
thoughtful professional worker. And we're, like, working together to make this sort of dream happen
so we can keep having this space available. It feels really wild. Every worker that's in the
co-op is going to be walking into a new and hopefully exciting challenge, like, every week,
maybe every day. You know, and there's some kind of exciting accountability that comes with that,
because we all have to be observant. We all have to share our ideas. We all have to understand
that things are going to change. There's something about COVID and the pandemic that kind of, like,
prepared us for that, because, whew, every day was a new day. And we were like, let's keep in
business. Let's, yeah, sure. We'll try something wild and new. And I think we're going to have to do that
again. And I think we have a really great team to lead us through that unknown aspect of things.
So butterflies in the stomach, a little bit of excitement. We're moving forward.
And we really appreciate all the support. And we'll be open for business.
What's happening next? Well, we have a June board meeting coming up on the 28th.
Our board meetings are held at 6pm. You can find out more information about that on our website,
belfast.coop. If you're looking for other information about us, other events, you can check out our
Facebook page, you can check out our Instagram. We do have an e-newsletter that goes out every two
weeks, which is full of information. And I love getting mine. You can sign up for it online.
It's right at the bottom of our website. All right, folks. It's been a pleasure being with you today.
We hope that you'll join us next month. Thank you so much. For Democratic member control and updates on the renovation.
Bye. Bye.
You've been listening to Episode 2 of Smooth Cooperator from the Belfast Community Co-op,
hosted by Alessandro Martinelli and Emily Berry, produced at the facilities of Belfast Community Radio.