Minutes of March 25, 2009 Open Meeting
22S. Linn St. (NPC’s new administrative offices)
Present: All board but Balakrishnan (family emergency); GM Hartz, staff member T. Carbrey

Sarah called the meeting to order at Approx. 6:30 PM.

Approval of minutes
Hank moved and Richard seconded that the board approve the minutes of Jan. 21, ’09.  Voting:  6-0 (passed).

Member Open Forum
No one addressed the board.

Reports
President
Sarah noted the plan to charge 5 cents per new bag – both paper and plastic – beginning on April 22. Feedback from members regarding this change has been very positive.

She also announced that the board held an executive session on Feb. 18 to discuss real estate.

GM
Matt announced that NPC has bought new administrative space at 22 S. Linn St.

He asked the board for a formal motion authorizing the purchase of flood doors for the VB store (this request had already been informally approved by the board via e-mail). The flood doors will protect the store up to 3 feet from ground level and will protect the store from flash flooding.  Continuing flooding will still require sandbagging as well. The door will deploy in 20 minutes.  A 100- year flood-proof flood wall would cost $1 million.

Robyn moved and Hank seconded that the board approve the expenditure of $22,000 for a flood door system for the VB store. Voting:  6-0 (passed).

Matt presented the February financial report and summarized the financial situation in general:  sales are down, but costs are also down – especially labor costs and marketing expenses.  The falling commercial natural gas price has also helped.  Inventories are being reduced somewhat to maintain liquidity and cash reserves.  Only one person has been hired in the last 170 days.  Existing staff who want 40 hrs. (up from 36) can get them, and 2 temporary hourly employees soon will be hired also.

Finance
Hank said there was nothing further to add to Matt’s report.

Governance
Caroline proposed an addition to the board’s Catalyst policy regarding Open Forum submissions:
Errors of fact will be corrected in a short Editor’s note, if the submission’s author does not do so after being informed of the error(s).

Robynn moved and Richard seconded that the board adopt the proposed addition to the Catalyst policy regarding Open Forum submissions. Voting:  6-0 (passed).

Robynn withdrew her motion (tabled in the Jan. 21 open meeting) regarding compensation for the board president.

Management Relations
Robynn said there was nothing to report.

Member Relations
Jen said that United Way officially recognized NPC for the recent $15,000 donation, and people are viewing NPC very positively.

Planning
Richard said he wanted to compliment Matt for his diligence over the last 18 months in the effort to find and secure new administrative space.

The remaining work at the VB store is cosmetic only. Plans for CV store renovation have been shelved for now. Richard said the committee has not met, as there has been nothing to discuss.

Mission Statement Monitoring Report: Fair Pricing
Matt summarized the report. The board then discussed the report.
On grocery, NPC has lost some ground compared with HyVee, but on dairy and frozen is still very competitive. The data in it will be useful in the budgeting process for FY ’10, e.g., in margin adjustments. Additionally, a new supplier will add some clean conventional products (cheaper than certified organic) to the stores.
Sarah asked for the comparison of the prices of a sampling of specific products (as was done in last year’s report); Matt agreed to send an Excel file with this data, and Caroline asked for a copy for the board files. 

The Consumer Price Index is showing that food prices nationally have risen approx. 4-11%, depending upon category Fe,’08 to Feb. ‘09; however, NPC has not increased its margins and is not making any extra money because of these necessarily higher prices.
All prices were checked between Tues. March 17 and Wed. March 18; grocery, dairy, and frozen products were compared with those at three local Hy-Vees, Wal-Mart, Super Target in C.R., and the Bread Garden.  Meat, seafood, supplements, body care, wine, produce, and prepared foods were not measured because NPC’s product lines focus on quality and do not correlate directly with other stores’ product lines in those areas.

The board commented upon the excellent appearance of the VB produce section and the very much improved produce section at CV. The board consensus was that the managers of the two sections be notified of the board’s appreciation of their efforts.

Strategic Planning and Member Forums
Sarah summarized the arrangements, plans, and agenda for the forums.  The 3 topics to be considered are:
Support for local food production
The Co-op in 5-10 years
The Co-op as a community
To start discussion, questions have been written for moderators to pose to the groups.  All member suggestions will be recorded and the results of the forum discussions will be put on the NPC web site.  Two dozen acceptances for tomorrow’s (March 26) meeting have been received.  Sara will attend all 3 meetings; Matt will miss one due to an NCGA meeting he must attend. Caroline, Jen, Robynn, and Richard each will attend one or more meetings.

New Business
Caroline reported on the recent meetings of the Johnson County Board of Adjustment and the City Council. 

The Bd. of Adjustment members voted unanimously to grant the petition of Susan Jutz regarding her farm after hearing the comments of a large number of persons in favor of encouraging local food production and community supported agriculture arrangements with growers; board members stated that they had been educated that evening on a topic about which they had previously not known anything.

Sarah noted that NPC could be helpful in educating local governmental bodies and finding knowledgeable persons to serve on them.

Robynn raised the problem of strategic planning, the desires of the members for outreach initiatives, farm and garden deveopments, etc., and the costs that would be entailed; members need to talk about possible plans in light of what they will cost and whether they want NPC to spend money on them. The board discussed this briefly.
The City Council had a resolution on its agenda enabling the Iowa City Farmers’ Market to be moved out of its present location in the Chauncey Swan parking ramp. In view of the size and strength of the opposition to this idea, the Council voted it down.

Theresa Carbrey made a report to the board about the possible use of the land belonging to Doug Paul that has been tentatively offered to NPC members for small individual garden plots. About 20 people have paid $25 each to get garden plots and are hoping this will work out.

Richard reported on the update of the board’s insurance policy; the board agreed to raise the coverage a year ago, and this change is now being implemented.

Robynn invited everyone to the May 21 official opening of the new NCGA offices (in the space formerly housing the Cottage Bakery in Iowa City).

Jen moved that the meeting be adjourned. Voting:  6-0 (passed).
The meeting was adjourned at 7:36 PM.


____________________   ________________________
Sarah Walz, President         Caroline Dieterle, Secretary