August Board Minutes

in

Regular Board Meeting Minutes

August 20, 2024

 

Present:  Wendy Wiebe, Maggie Jones, Kay Coburn, Cathy-Ann Glockner, John Kingsmill

Regrets: James Hiebert

Staff Present: Ashley Elliott (HR Director, IGM), Sean Silverson (Finance Director, IGM), Reuben Crookbain (Butcher Manager)

Chair: Wendy Wiebe

Recorder: Sadie Yancey (Board Administrative Assistant)

 

Meeting brought to order at 4:02pm on Zoom

 

Adoption of August Meeting Agenda:  M/Cathy-Ann S/John,  one amendment. All in favour.

Declaration of Interests: Wendy now works for the Ministry of Agriculture. She expects there to be no concerns of conflict of interest from the Co-op’s perspective. Directors expressed no concern.

Approval of June Meeting Minutes:  M/Kay S/John, no amendments. All in favour.

Approval of consent agenda, including: 

  • Governance Committee minutes 
  • Finance Committee minutes – July and August meetings
  • Member Engagement Committee minutes

M/John S/Cathy-Ann
CARRIED. All in favour.

 

Effective August 10th,  Mikale Leymann resigned from the board. The elections process for the ED role was already in progress and will continue so that a new ED will begin after the AGM. 

Business Arising

  1. Manager of the Month – Reuben Crookbain, Butcher Shop Manager
    1. Reuben shared with the board information about the Butcher department – including information about department staff, the top selling items, changes to their production space, and successful efforts to have a more consistent supply of the most popular products. 
    2. Reuben responded to questions from directors. 

4:29pm Reuben left

  1. Review member feedback.  
    1. There were several operational emails, and one concern about a director’s eligibility that the board determined to be baseless.  
  2. Finance Training for Directors 
    1. Directors were invited to participate in Columinate’s fall session of Finance Training for Directors, as directors have done in prior years. 

MOTION To approve $150USD for one director to participate in Colluminate finance training for directors

M/Maggie S/John

CARRIED All in favour. 

  1. It was suggested to reach out and find the price for a private session, as we will have 3-4 new directors after the AGM.  ACTION Sadie to request this information and cc Maggie for follow-up.  
  2. Review suggested changes to Policy Manual
    1. The suggested changes were circulated ahead of the meeting and directors were invited to comment on the document.  There were no comments or suggestions shared by directors in the document or in the meeting.

MOTION To approve the proposed changes to the Policy Manual, as recommended by the Governance Committee, including changes to: New member policy, Member Personal Information, Board responsibilities, GM Recruitment, GM Responsibilities to the Board, GM Emergency Succession, Risk Management, Board meetings, Director Conflict Resolution, Board Committee Principles

M/Kay S/Maggie

CARRIED All in favour

    1. ACTION Sadie will update and circulate the updated Policy Manual
  1. Board Development Committee Discussion 
    1. Governance proposed a change to committee responsibilities to better distribute the work of the board. They reviewed the change with the board and there was general agreement. 
    2. ACTION Governance will prepare updated Terms of References for Governance, Board Development, and Finance Committee and present at the September meeting.  
  2. Quick update on board election
    1. The BAA shared that the election opened on August 14th at 10:30am. In the first week of the election 221 ballots were cast, and 270 were opened but not cast.  The Election and AGM will be promoted in the newsletter this week.
  3. Member engagement – Article Topic
    1. The chair of the ME committee requested feedback on ideas for board blogs.  The board discussed the potential to share more about the process and challenges of GM Recruitment. There is general agreement that such a post would be useful, and it would be beneficial to complete this before the AGM. 
  4. Strategic Plan 
    1. The Operational portion has been drafted and requires board review to approve the Activities.
    2. There was general agreement to review at the September Board meeting. ACTION Ashley will circulate the document to the board.

IGM Report – Presented by Sean Silverson and Ashley Elliott

  1. The staff party is happening and directors are welcome to attend!  
  2. All staff received a new micro-learning on Total Compensation this month. 
  3. Ashley will be taking the Insights Discovery training in September so that she may facilitate these trainings for our staff in the future. There is an option for the board to participate in the training later in the fall. 
  4. Sean shared the highlights from the July financials, as circulated.  As with the last number of months, sales and net income continue to be strong, with July sales approximately 11% above the same month last year. 
  5. In early August, paid $500k balloon payment on the Vancity equipment loan.  
  6. Questions from member attendees – There were no non-board members in attendance.

 

Next Meetings:

Sept 17th- 4:30 pm in-person

Oct 22nd – 4:30pm in-person with the new board.  

 

The meeting adjourned to in camera session at 5:13pm