SUBMITTED AGENDA ITEMS:

Review of Nov. Financial statements
· Payroll continues to be kept in line with the diminished sales.
· Other operating expenses were up for the month but we are still nearly 10,000 under for the year.
· We are still negative on the bottom line but this should come up in December as corrective entries are made.
o Depending on where the bottom line is after the year is closed, you will have to begin to make a decision on patronage dividend.
o Since we will need cash to make capital purchases I (Dana) cannot recommend a patronage dividend at this time.
· The gleaner and donation lines are related. Gleaner write-offs are credited to cost of goods and then are shifted to donations. This isn't a complete amount so there is some left behind. In effect, the amount is split between the two lines.

Review the Full '07 Budget
· The budget that is presented to the board must be finished.
o Any changes that are going to be made to the budget have to happen right now.
o All the changes from the previous meeting have been made.
· The north store has not yet reached capacity, but this does not mean we should ignore the capacity issues.
o We do have options for alleviating the capacity issues at north.
· The biggest concerns next year will be cash flow and meeting the margin.
o There is 200,000 budgeted for capital acquisitions, but we did not spend the entire capital budget last year.
o March and April are big sales month. They will be good times to look at setting aside money for future spending.
· Kevin will change the cover page for the final draft and it will be sent to the board.

Patronage Dividends
· The marketing manager has inquired about the schedule for determining patronage dividends.
o The auditor will be getting copies of our financials. We are hoping that the auditor will be finished by mid February.
o The problem is that the spring mailer will be due in mid March. This does not leave much time to make the decision.
· There are some co-ops and even other grocery stores that only offer the sales specials to owners or members.
o Our market study said that we will attract our core buyers, regardless of price, but need to reach out to attract outside patrons. It seems that the cap specials and other sales are good ways to attract non-owners throughout the community.
o It seems that there are a very limited amount of possibilities for attracting owners outside of the programs that we already have in place. This is one possibility.
· Outreach and owner benefit are becoming increasingly intertwined to our financial success.
o Perhaps we need to explore avenues that are completely foreign to us, and the bulk of our customers, so that our message will reach new people.

Meeting adjourned: 6:00pm