[HCoop-Discuss] useful reading

[Michael Potter]

On Sat, Jun 02, 2007 at 11:14:22AM -0700, Adam Megacz wrote:
> 
> This may prove enlightening.
> 
>   http://www.megacz.com/otherpeople/what.happened.to.the.berkeley.co-op.pdf
> 
>   - a

My parents were members of this Berkeley grocery co-op in the
70s. That co-op made a number of mistakes, mostly avoidable IMO.

Hcoop is too big now to run by consensus, and has been relying more on
the board to make choices. This has been working, but in the future
there could be some dispute about where the boundaries of power are
between the leadership and the democratic choice of the members.

Defining a few boundaries now, while things are peaceful, could be
helpful later. I mean finding answers to questions like, "How much
money can the board spend without calling a vote or at least calling
for objections from the membership?" It's doubtful anyone would care
if $5 or $50 were spent, but $500 or $5000 is more significant, and
somewhere in there is a line all can settle on. 

Also there's the matter of the pledge system for dues vs. tiered
service levels. The pledge system is working for now, but will it
always? There are differing views on it, and that can lead to
trouble. Having a poll to see where members stand, or if they even
care, could keep this issue contained in the future.

-- 
Michael Potter
mpotter at hcoop.net