[HCoop-Discuss] Financial situation

[Michael Potter]

On Sun, Apr 29, 2007 at 01:45:25PM -0700, Franklin Gordon Bynum wrote:
> On 04/29/2007 01:29:50 PM, Adam Chlipala wrote:
> > Only a small portion of our
> > membership has any interest in "cooperative values."
> 
> That, I'm afraid, is a much larger problem than our being temporarily  
> strapped for cash.  That's not to say we can do anything practical  
> about it.

I agree. The primary reason I joined was because I wanted to be part
of a co-op. The practical thing we can do is distribute costs equally
among members. If some are simply looking for the best price and don't
care about cooperation, then they'll leave. 

The problem there is if too many leave, we'll never be able to afford
paid workers. This may actually be a good thing, since having paid
workers may only be sustainable with hundreds more members, and at
that point the only way to hold things together will be with a
top-down management style. This was the undoing of the popular grocery
store co-op in Berkeley some years ago. They got big, went corporate
and fell apart.

Does the van-pool really need paid drivers, or will volunteer ones
suffice?

-- 
Michael Potter
mpotter at hcoop.net