SUBMITTED AGENDA ITEMS:
Owner Workers
· Last meeting we discussed alternate ways to compensate owner
workers. If we were to offer coupons or gift certificates in place of
the current discount method, we would gain a measure of accountability,
plus we would be more equitable.
o Currently, there are people that spend much more than others, in effect,
getting more compensation for the same amount of work.
· I was surprised as to where the money comes from to fund the
owner worker program. It seemed that after this long, there would be a
little more clarity. I was told that there is some uncertainty surrounding
how many owner workers are available for each department.
o Actually, each department knows clearly how many owner workers they
can have each week. The only uncertainty is that HR created more shifts
that were budgeted for in this program.
· I was referring to the non-hourly, support workers.
o Then that is correct. We really do not know how much each program costs
and there are no clear budgetary levels for support workers.
o I was told that support workers are receiving a discount on owner sale
day in addition to their fifteen percent discount.
§ That is not the case. Staff do get their owner discount in addition
to the owner sale day discount. This was done because there was no incentive
for staff to become owners. They did not get the same benefits that other
owners did, so this was done to make the program more equitable.
Chat with the Board
· Our Board member for June did not show up.
o We had discussed reminder calls a few days before the event.
§ Donna will get Jill the Board's contact information.
· Is there an icebreaker comment that we would like to use?
o We discussed using the tradeoff between owner sale day discounts and
patronage dividends.
o It may be interesting to have some statistics about how much of a dividend
could be issued if we removed the owner sale day discounts. If we can
give them a hard number, they can make their own comparisons between what
they save on owner sale day and this hypothetical amount.
o I am inclined to support the owner share program. You can control exactly
how much savings you get.
o I think that the dividend is an emotional issue for many people.
§ Maybe if we educate people about the benefits of each program,
it will not be such an emotional issue.
o We will use the patronage dividend issue as the icebreaker topic.
§ A sign could be attached to the front of the table that states
the 'topic of the month.'
· We could hang a flier in the store that lists all the upcoming
'Chat' dates.
o For next month, think about possible topics that we could list on this
flier.
Owner Survey Results
· Michele responded to some of the stronger comments in the community
outreach section of this month's Thymes.
· The tabulated results have been sent to the managers, but nothing
as of yet has been sent to the Board.
o I think that since the results have been published in the Thymes, and
Michele has sent them an electronic copy, I don't think we need to send
anything additional to the Board.
o Perhaps we could send an agenda item to the Board to make them aware
of the various resources and possibly have them discuss the comments.
o Michele included a comment on the construction of the survey. There
was a mention of partnering with an OSU class to draft next year's survey.
§ The contact person is Chris Bentley. We do have this on our workplan,
but we will need to make sure that this is in the fall.
o Creation of the ballot questions begins in October.
· Josh will make send an agenda item to the Board detailing the
various resources and requesting discussion of the Owner Survey.
Budgetary Discussions
· Cutting the free magazine program has not generated a single
complaint. We should probably discontinue this permanently.
· Staff recommended that we keep logo bags for owners. They feel
that it is one of the best selling points they use to sell owner shares.
· Next year we will save a large amount on postage. We are required
to send an announcement for the annual owner meeting. Next year this will
coincide with the spring mailer, so we will cut our postage in half.
· We should be able to cut back spending on the owner meeting.
Food costs should easily be reduced.
· Michele has promised surveys. We may want to request money for
these surveys and possibly for educational materials.
· It would be good to increase the 'Chat with the Board' budget
a little bit.
o I was hoping that these 'Chat with the Board' sessions would give us
an idea of how owners and non-owners feel.
· Donna will draft a budget for us to review at the next meeting.
A finalized budget is not needed until our August meeting.
Meeting adjourned: 1:00pm
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