Last chance to be part of the Co-op Conversation!

Read on for details! 




Dear Co-op Members,

Thank you for your interest in the Olympia Food Co-op’s member engagement process, the Co-op Conversation. For those of you who have participated in the first two meetings, we thank you for your time and commitment and let you know that you are welcome to attend the general meeting on March 24. If you have signed up for the third meeting, you will find details of the event below. 

The main purpose of this email is to share information with you in the hopes that you will pass it along to friends, neighbors and co-workers who are also Olympia Food Co-op members. We are hoping to have a broad spectrum of co-op members participate in this member engagement and we hope you will help us spread the word. Feel free to send this email on. You can also direct people to our website at www.coopconversation.org where they can learn more about the event and what it will mean for our co-op’s future. 

With our thanks,
The Member Relations Committee
Olympia Food Co-op
Coopconversation@olympiafood.coop


Join the Co-op Conversation!
The Olympia Food Co-op has grown and evolved over time to meet the needs of our membership, yet it’s been many years since our organization came together to decide upon our collective future. As the Co-op expands to better serve our community, it is time to check in with the membership, staff, and the board to understand where best to put our energy and focus, and to build mechanisms for increased communication organization-wide, in order to foster unity and strength as a food co-op.

This engagement process is called the Co-op Conversation and it will be taking place on Saturday, March 24 at the Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. in downtown Olympia. This general meeting of the co-op membership, staff and board will look at themes that have been developed at two prior meetings of co-op constituents. The March 24 forum will be conducted with Open Space, a self-organizing meeting technology. Participants are encouraged to ask meaningful questions about topics such as the Co-op’s organizational and communication structure, community reconciliation, business ownership and expansion.

We are asking the entire co-op membership to attend the Co-op Conversation on Saturday, March 24 at the Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. in downtown Olympia. To accommodate schedules, we will have a morning session from 9 am to 12 pm and an afternoon session from 1 pm to 4 pm. All co-op members are welcome to attend either session. Childcare is available at both sessions. Snacks and drinks will be provided. To accommodate requests for childcare and accessibility and to help us plan for seating, we ask that participants sign up at 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YP52W22

We encourage anyone who is interested in the Co-op Conversation to visit www.coopconversation.org to read about the process and study background materials on the co-op’s history, decision making process and organizational structure. These materials include the Olympia Food Co-op’s vision, mission and goals.

We value every voice and hope you will share yours on Saturday, March 24.

Bike Hut Coming Soon to Westside Store!

Here are the plans for our long-awaited bike hut at the Westside store! It will provide covered parking for 8-10 bikes and 1-2 bikes with trailers. We'll be breaking ground on this project in the next month!

Defendants Win Anti-SLAPP Motion in Lawsuit Against Co-op Board

Today, Judge McPhee dismissed the lawsuit brought by five Co-op members against 16 current and previous Board members. He ruled that the lawsuit was an illegal "SLAPP" (or strategic lawsuit against public participation.) Furthermore, he ruled that Washington's anti-SLAPP law is constitutional. You can read the full press release from the Olympia Food Co-op and the Center for Constitutional Rights here. There are also numerous news articles about this decision, including one in The Olympian and an AP story in the Seattle PI.

Win $75 + $25 of free Co-op groceries for taking our survey and passing it on!

We know that we have asked you to take a lot of surveys about our new logo. This final survey will be the third.

But your opinion is very important to us! We can't make this decision without your input. This final logo survey features re-designs of our previous top-two logos, and an additional, entirely new logo option. The re-designs are very different from the first versions, with particular focus on making the words "Olympia Food Co-op" stand out.

We also need your help to get this survey out to Olympia-area non-members. We want to know the opinions of people who are not Co-op shoppers, so that we can compare them to the opinions of current members.  It's easy for us to contact members - via this blog, facebook, and the many email addresses that we have on file - but difficult to reach non-members. Please help by forwarding the survey link to local friends and family. If you are part of an organization with an email list who wouldn't mind, ask them to send the survey link out to their members. We would very, very much appreciate it! Here is the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Co-opLogos

Since we are asking so much of you (and your friends and family), we wanted to make the deal a little sweeter by offering an opportunity to win free Co-op groceries. You have two chances to win a Co-op gift certificate:

• Anyone who takes the survey can choose to be entered into a drawing for a $75 Co-op gift certificate! (There is only one entry allowed per person, and Co-op staff are not eligible.) 

• For every Olympia-area non-member who you refer this survey to, you will receive one entry for an additional $25 Co-op gift certificate. When non-members take the survey, they will be asked to give the name of the member who referred them to the survey - so make sure they know your full name!

Thank you for taking a few moments to take our survey and pass it on. It has been a long process to reach this point, and we in the Outreach committee are very excited about making a final decision and beginning implementation! Expect to see new store signage - and more - later this year.

Sincerely,

Jayne, for the Outreach Committee

Ban the bag!: "Bag it!" film screening at OFS

As you may have read previously, the Co-op has signed onto the Ban the Bag campaign. 

Want to learn more about the problems with plastic bags and support the campaign? Well, mark your calendars for the screening of "Bag it" on March 10th! Here's the info from Environment Washington, sponsor of the Ban the Bag campaign: 

"Bag It", an award-winning film directed by Suzan Beraza and written by Michelle Curry Wright, documents an average man's struggle with the growing threat of plastics in our society.  Funny, educational and relevant, this movie encourages us to think about what happens to our plastic products after we have used them. And we are bringing this film to Olympia!

We know that bags are a serious threat to our wildlife. This film looks at bags (and plastics generally) pollute our environment and can even get in our bodies, making us sick! You won’t want to miss this great film.

What: A screening of Bag It, with a dialogue after about local efforts to reduce plastic pollution from bags.

Where: Capital Theater in Downtown Olympia

When: Saturday, March 10^th at 4:00

Get your tickets here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/225733

2/16 Proposed Board Agenda

Board meetings take place on the 3rd Thursday of each month at the Co-op's downtown office (610 Columbia St.) from 6:30-9:30pm. Members are welcome!

Agenda

Announcements                                                                                   2 min

Mission Statement/Agenda Review                                                        3 min

Commitments Review/Minutes Review                                                    3 min

Member Comment                                                                                5 min

BPC Report                                                                                          5 min

Co-op Conversation Update                                                                  10 min

Branding Update                                                                                   5 min

Commuter Contest – poster request                                                       5 min

Committee Membership cont’d                                                             15 min

Committee Reports                                                                             20 min

Meeting Eval/Commitments                                                                   2 min

                                                        Total Meeting Time:               1hour 15 min

Lawsuit: New Hearing Date Set for Feb. 23

A new date has been set for the first hearing in the lawsuit filed against 16 current and former Olympia Food Co-op Board members and staff. The new date is February 23 at 9AM, at the Thurston County Courthouse. If you plan to attend, please be aware that there is limited seating at the court.