by Sarah Larson, Board Member
I hope you all are finding ways to enjoy the season and all that it brings including the crisp fall breeze and the wonderful smells and fall flavors. Fall also brings with it a reminder to lean into gratitude.
With every year there are turbulences that make it challenging to be grateful and see good. If turbulences are the norm, 2020 has been a series of tsunamis. It can feel strange to take time to bring gratitude front and center, but this remains important work and an element of self care. To practice what I write, in 2020, I am grateful for the time the pandemic has given me to pause and be present with my family and to better listen, hear, and see voices from different demographics rise and be heard.
As a co-op, we are continually grateful for the support of our Owners and community and the dedication and commitment of our staff. We are going through a lot of things together for the first time from our first global pandemic to reshaping ourselves as a unionized Co-op.
Thank you for helping our Cooperative make it through this challenging year that has led many businesses to navigate bankruptcy or close. We would not be here without you. For more information on how the Co-op fared in fiscal year 2020, the Annual Report was published last month and is available at: www.willystreet.coop/images/AnnualReports/FY2020-annual-report.pdf.
How can your board do better?
Within all that has happened this year there is a loud and continuous call to recognize privilege and do better. We’ve asked ourselves: how can your Board do better? One way we have identified is taking actionable steps forward to ensure we are constantly striving towards living the best version of our mission. And in doing so, that we are operating and shaping policy that supports this mission in an equitable and inclusive way.
Mission statement
If you haven’t read the Willy Street Co-op Mission recently, it states: “WSGC is an economically and environmentally sustainable cooperative that serves owners and employees. We are a cornerstone of a vibrant community in south-central Wisconsin that provides fairly priced goods and services while supporting local and organic suppliers.” There is a lot we can ask and unpack here, for example:
- What does “economic and environmentally sustainable” mean to us?
- What makes a community vibrant? How does Willy Street Co-op contribute to that vibrancy?
- What values and considerations does providing fairly priced goods and services imply across our stores and the communities they live within?
- How are we assessing our success and working towards the values implied in this mission?
- How and where do these values intersect; how do we overlay equity and inclusion?
- How do we, as a Board, systematically bring these mission-based inquiries into our daily work?
One answer we reached is: identify three core values from our mission and turn them into lenses we apply every day.
The three core values the Board and leadership team have identified are: 1) Equity, 2) Sustainability, and 3) Culture. With these identified, the policy committee has been tasked with shaping these values into value-based lenses that will be intentionally and systematically applied to review our policies and associated monitoring process and inform our governance work.
To date, here is what has happened to move this work forward:
The three core values were identified building off of our Board retreat, management’s strategic planning work, and while considering things like the Willy Street Co-op mission, the Cooperative Principles, and our bylaws.
Research has been done on each value and initial drafts of guidance documents (that provide working definitions and a framework on applying the lens) have been created.
Guidance documents have been reviewed and discussed in two sessions of the Policy Committee; Step Up: Equity Matters participated in one of these sessions and provided valuable insights.
Next steps: These guidance documents will be presented to and reviewed by the full Board. Once approved, the Policy Committee will review all governance policies through these lenses and provide recommendations for improvement to the Board. Guidance documents will be continually revised to incorporate what we learn in practice and to inform ongoing work.
If you have any questions or comments on the work shared please reach out to me directly: Sarah Larson, Board Member and Policy Committee Chair, s.larson@willystreet.coop.
