STANDARD BUSINESS:
Announcements & Affirmations: none
Calendar and Timeline: The next meeting will be April 3rd at 12:00pm.

SUBMITTED AGENDA ITEMS:

February 20th Dinner w/Board
· It was a really positive dinner and it seemed like the speaker tied in nicely with the co-op's vision.
o Local vendors, or other groups that are affiliated with the co-op, might be a good idea for future dinner speakers.

Growth Brochure
· The growth brochure went out Monday the 5th.

Board Members in the Store
· The board Okayed the meeting from 4-6pm each Friday during March.
· Esther wrote up a summary of owner comments.
o Having food available encouraged owners to come talk.
o There was one owner who was very aggressive with Mark. We were able to talk it through with him, however, his aggression deterred other people from approaching.
· Unfortunately, the growth brochure had not been sent out at the time, so we were unable to discuss it specifically.
o Many of the owners seemed positive about growth prospects. Several mentioned particular sites in the north areas.
· We will try to get similar summaries from other board members that participate.

May Owner Meeting
· The board decided to hold the meeting on May 22nd.
· It was also decided to view the proposed movie before opting to use it as the focal topic.
o Chris currently has it. Esther will remind her to pass it to other board members when she is finished.
· Notification of the May Owner Meeting will be sent along with the ballot and annual report.
o We are required to send reminders within three weeks of the meeting. Donna and Rivka will send these additional reminders. Next year we will not have to send out this additional reminder due to the rescheduling of the election cycle..
· We will serve dessert. Donna will make arrangements with Tamra.
· In addition to the movie and price comparison presentation, we will have a meet and greet with the new board members and a question and answer period.

Ballot Questions
· After much discussion, the board opted to use last year's questions instead of ORC's proposed questions.
o It was decided that the ballot questions detrimentally confused the issues of patronage dividends and outreach spending.
o Next year we will take additional time to draft these questions so we can avoid a similar situation. Three months preparation should be sufficient.
· We will revisit the future ballot questions in a few months, after the new board has taken office and the results of this year's survey have come back.
o When we come back to this, we should define a very specific intent that can help guide the drafting of future questions.

ORC Work Plan
· Donna and Michele have started working on a calendar and work plan. They should be ready to present something by the April meeting.

Owner Dinner Spending
· At the last meeting, spending information was requested about the owner dinners.
o The last owner dinner cost around 300 dollars.
· We can review this information and determine whether the amount we spend is worth the very few owners that we are able to engage in these events.
· A single and larger event may be a better use of resources. There are existing models that we may be able to incorporate.
· Perhaps we should try to break down every item that we spend money on and then estimate how much we have for them.
o This may be difficult since this budget is for every program we run for owners. Since there were no new programs requested, it is predicated on what was done last year.
o Perhaps we can track all spending that is directly attributed to the ORC. Then we will have hard data to make future decisions. Additionally, we can try to break down last year's spending to determine what is attributable to ORC.

ORC Charter
· The charter states that we shall maintain two board members. After the new board takes office, BDC will appoint another director to the committee to fill out our numbers.
· We should note that this meeting is open to all owners, regardless of whether they announce they are coming.
· Our primary function is defined as being a conduit between owners and the board.
o It seems that the board members' presence in the store on Fridays has been successful at achieving this.
o At the next meeting, we should review our present activities and decide whether to continue them or pursue other options.
· Perhaps, as our committee becomes more stable, and the calendar is developed, we can review this charter quarterly to insure that it reflects what we are doing.

Next Meeting Agenda Items
· Review calendar proposal.
· Review committee spending, past and future.
· Initial preparation of committee notebook.
· Review board member Friday 4-6 sessions.
o Esther will request that board members prepare a typed summary.

Meeting adjourned: 1:05pm