President’s Remarks, 2008 General Membership Meeting

Once a year, in this annual report, members of the Viroqua Food Cooperative step back to take a broader look at our mutual project. This is Big Picture time, when we look back at how the year went and look forward to try to guess what the next year might hold in store. Though we on the Board and especially Management are constantly paying attention to the state of the cooperative – plans compared to actual performance, shifting economic trends, opportunities for improvement – this is when we present that to you, the members.

We have now completed three years of operations in the new building. Our fairly aggressive financial plans from the expansion called for almost breaking even by this third year. We almost made that target! It’s quite possible that, had it not snowed so heavily last winter, forcing us to close early, miss sales, and spend more on snow removal, we would have met our goals. Plans call for making a healthy profit next year.

Of course, you’re probably wondering what effect the recent financial uncertainties in the national (and even international) economy will have on us. It is too soon to tell. Fortunately, cooperatives throughout the country are paying more attention to this, doing research, analyzing trends, and sharing this information with all co-ops. It is still up to individual co-ops to keep tabs on their local conditions, prepare for various scenarios, and tap into available information being provided by others. We at Viroqua Food Co-op will do our best at all of these tasks.

The State of the Board

The Board is currently being challenged by a lot of turnover in its members. This is a new experience for our Board, which has enjoyed relative stability for many years. Just this year, the Board will have lost five veteran members! These people all worked hard during, and some even before, the intense period of the expansion to the new store. To our credit, we also during that time created and honed tools that will help the Board to maintain a high level of quality regardless of the newness of its members. Policy Governance is one of those tools. The Board states its expectations clearly in a set of policies covering all of its responsibilities, then effectively monitors those policies to ensure that its expectations are being met.

Another critical tool is Board Training, which largely we get through participation in an ongoing training program run by Cooperative Development Services. Through this program our new Board members receive basic training, we get a consultant-led retreat, and we can participate in on-line seminars on various topics of interest to Boards from around the country.

Though these tools will help the Board maintain quality as it takes on its new members, it will still take some time for new members to adjust to how things are done, officer’s roles, etc. After these fall elections, we still have three Board positions open. These positions will be filled by appointment. Existing Board members are responsible for recruiting, cultivating, and vetting members who are interested in joining the Board. This is something we need to improve at, especially in light of the recent difficulties in keeping a full Board. If you are wondering how you could better serve your community, consider an appointment to the Board. Talk with current Board members. Attend a meeting to observe what it entails. They will consider your qualifications and what you might have to offer toward fulfilling the responsibilities of the Board.

Aside from filling and training a largely new Board, the Board has finally begun to fulfill one of its key roles – dreaming. The Board serves as the imagination of the members. It dreams up the future, then distills these ideas into the Ends policies of the cooperative, answering questions about our purpose, values, and goals. Doing this takes practice, and we’ve just begun to practice. The challenge is to do all of our other tasks efficiently and well, freeing up the time and comfort it takes to imagine and dream deeply and well.

Evaluating the General Manager

Another major role of our Board is to evaluate the performance of the General Manager. This year we shifted from our previous practice of conducting a year-end evaluation survey completed by Board and the G.M. to one in which we use the results of our year-round monitoring of policies. The Board has created a set of policies that describe our expectations for the G.M.’s performance in key areas. We monitor one or two of these per month so that, by year’s end, we have looked closely at each area of performance at least once, and sometimes more frequently. The results of that monitoring process are compiled and seen as the overall evaluation of the G.M.

We are very fortunate to have such an enthusiastic, competent, hard-working General Manager - Jan Rasikas. With the VFC from the get-go, Jan served as a manager for a while, left for a couple of years, served on the Board for a while, then returned to her favorite place nine years ago. She learned apace as the Co-op struggled to meet the demand for its services from our previous cramped store. Her work ethic and diligence saw us smoothly and relatively inexpensively through the expansion project. She has shown a strong commitment to building an excellent team of employees, getting training for them, and offering opportunities for advancement. Her reputation in the wider co-op world is sterling, partly because of her role in the “phenomenon” status of the Viroqua Food Co-op, but also because she shares her insights and expertise with other, smaller co-ops. Thanks, Jan, for nine years of putting your heart and mind into your work for the benefit of us all!

Congratulations, members of the Viroqua Food Cooperative! Your Co-op is thriving, and should trend toward financial profitability this year. Your Board is beginning to spend more time imagining the future and the values and goals that represent you. Your management and staff keep learning and improving and putting their best efforts into ensuring a healthy business. Things are good! We’ll keep a wary eye on the swirling economic waters ahead, of course, and keep you informed of its effects

Thanks for reading this annual report, and thanks for being an informed member of your cooperative.