by Jeannine Bindl, Board Member
Here we are already, the end of harvest season. Thank you to everyone who participated in our Owner Appreciation festivities and our first hybrid Annual Meeting!
On October 11, Co-op Owners, Staff and Board joined together for our 2022 Annual Meeting at the Middleton Performing Arts Center. This is the first year we have had our in-person Annual Meeting and separate from La Fete de Marquette.
Annual Meeting topics included a year-in-review from our General Manager, a financial update from our Finance Director, and an update from Sarah Larson, Co-op Board President, on the past year as well as forward looking priorities. We also had the opportunity to meet and hear from a few of the Co-op Owners who are running for the Board this year.
The change in format and space this year provided the Board with the opportunity to engage Owners in a new way. We hosted in-person and virtual breakout groups to discuss the proposed Mission and Vision of the Co-op.
For reference:
Proposed Mission:
Cultivate and empower community, customers, employees, and suppliers through cooperative principles and practices.
Proposed Vision:
Willy Street Co-op is a local community partner that nourishes a sustainable, accessible, and equitable food system where everyone can participate.
The vision statement is supposed to be our north star, where would we like to see ourselves in the future? The mission statement represents the path we want to take towards that north star.
Within these breakout groups Board members solicited feedback on the content of the mission and vision statements and asked to help us better understand if the proposed mission and vision accurately represent what you, the Owners, would like to see from the Co-op:
1. What are we doing well?
2. What should we be doing/improve upon?
3. What should the co-op discontinue doing?
If you were not able to provide feedback on the mission and vision statements at the annual meeting, we encourage you to provide your feedback to the Board at board@willystreet.coop.
This next year will be a year of looking to the future and the Board needs to hear your voice and feedback on the future direction of the Co-op.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, thank you to the Board who has served in FY22. We appreciate your service to our cooperative, and welcome to our new Board members. Voting ended on October 26 this year and we swore in a new Board of Directors to oversee the Co-op in FY 23.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or comments regarding Co-op governance, the Board is available at board@willystreet.coop or all-board@willystreet.coop. Thank you, Owners, for your continued support and direction.
