Yelm Food Co-op Newsletter
2008 Annual Owner/Member Meeting

September 2008

Our update for this month is short and sweet and as always we appreciate that you take the time to read these newsletters.

Annual Membership Meeting

Your chance to have a say!

Our annual membership meeting will be held this year on Sunday, Sept 14th at 1:30 p.m. at the Yelm Adult Community Center on 103rd Ave.

Our agenda will include reports from the Board Officers and the Store Manager, details on funding options for our growth and expansion plans, plans for a Member Loan program, the start of our Food Stamps program and our continuing need for working members/volunteers to run the store.

As an Owner/Member of the YFC, this is your chance to have a say in how your store is run and to lend your ideas and assistance as we move forward into the future.

Staffing and its challenges

We need help running the store!

Sales grew wonderfully through June of this year, but have taken a downturn since then and results for August show us trailing the totals for June. We are hoping the drop off in July and August were just summer-related and that we see an upsurge and continued growth through the end of the year.

Unfortunately this downturn has forced us to make the painful decision of laying off our Back Office Manger, Debbie Burgan, for the rest of the year. She has thankfully agreed to continue some part-time volunteer work to keep us going in bookkeeping and management of the finances. However, we don't know how long she will be able to continue doing that.
That leaves us with one paid staff member and a small group of working member/volunteers to keep the operation going.

Co-ops survive only with the help of their membership. Help can come in many forms and one of them is finding a few hours a week to work in the store and help us keep it open.
Although this work is unpaid at present, working Members get 20% off all their non-sale item purchases after working only 10 hours in a month. In addition, we pay mileage for the 2nd shift in any week and there is a discount of 20% on all purchases of AlpineAire's freeze-dried food products from individual meal pouches to full packages of enough food for 2 people to live for one year.

Stop by the store and fill out an application and get set up for a training day. It's easy, fun and you get to work with a lot of great people and serve lots of wonderful customers! Co-ops serve the community and this is your chance to serve your Co-op.

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It's important to remember that you are an owner/member of this YFC which makes it your store as much as anyone else's. Your support is what keeps us in business and keeps us all with the benefits of having a co-op in Yelm and not in a distant city.

Make us your first stop on your shopping trips even if we don't have every single item you want. Encourage everyone you know to shop with us, to become an owner/member and to help out. And find some time for us in your busy schedules to help us keep the Yelm Co-op growing and moving into a grand and glorious future!

Sincerely,

Tom Dewell
Yelm Food Co-op