Questions à aborder lors de la visite de la Park Slope Food Coop

SE TERMINE LUNDI
Selon le plan de match, @alyssalapointe et Benjamin communiqueront nos questions à Park Slope si j'ai bien suivi à compter de là.

@ben45

Je vous copie-colle l'échange d'emails avec la coop:

Thank you! Looking forward to hearing back :)

On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 2:37 PM, Ann Herpel wrote:
Dear Ben and Alyssa,
Thank you for your email. Glad to hear that a group is moving forward to establishing a food coop in Montreal. Joe is on vacation until Tuesday September 6 so we will get together next week to discuss your request. We will reply as soon as possible. It is highly likely that I will be on vacation that weekend so I probably will not be involved in your visit. I spoke to Allen on Tuesday night and he told me that you were planning on visiting and offered to be available during your visit to help in any way that he can.

Look for our response next week with further details,

Ann Herpel
General Coordinator
Park Slope Food Coop
782 Union Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215
p: 718.622.0560
f: 718.622.5685
e: [email protected]
Work week: Tue - Sat
foodcoop.com

"Good Food at Low Prices for Working Members through Cooperation Since 1973"

From: "Ben Prunty" [email protected]
To: "Ann Herpel" , "Joe Holtz" [email protected]
Cc: "Lapointe Alyssa" [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 5:01:40 PM
Subject: Montreal to build new parkslope-esque coop?

Hello Ann & Joe (I wasn't sure who I should contact),

I hope you are both doing well.

Thanks again for your support for the Transform Montreal conference earlier this year, it was very much what we hoped it would be. In fact, I am writing to you on behalf of a group that is interested in starting a Montreal food coop, that I understand would have a mandatory labor model, like Park Slope. It's very exciting.

They're hitting the ground running, and quite smart about it, and so they're hoping that in the early phase of their development, that they'd be able to visit the coop to take a tour, and to learn about how the coop functions in the day-to-day but also on the governance level. Joe Holtz also mentioned that the coop would likely be willing to allow an external group to apply to the low interest fund for new coops (the group is unsurprisingly interested in learning about that as well lol, if that's true)? They're aiming for the weekend of October 9th, if that works with the folks on your end.

They want to use this trip to understand the ins and outs through volunteering their time at Park Slope as if they were a member, and they would be willing to help with multiple departments in order to come to a better understanding of the operations as a group. Of course, you understand the coop much better, and know how they could best come to understand how it all works while also not increasing the workload on your side too much. I'm not sure if this kind of integration is the sort of thing that you folks do, but we figured it made sense to ask.

One of their major logistical costs for the trip is also finding accommodation, what I'm wondering is if you think members of the coop might volunteer to host them on their visit? Or if you know of any groups that do that sort of thing in new york for activist and coop types. Thanks for any help to this end.

I'm just writing to connect you to the group (not all of them speak English fluently, but many do), but Alyssa (ccd) will be the contact point for the tour and what not if it's able to happen. Alyssa would also love to chat with you at some soon point if you're available.

They're an energetic bunch and seem pretty open to creative solutions, if any are to be found.

Thanks again, as always,

Ben Prunty

PS. it is also entirely possible that multiple efforts could come out of this, meaning that multiple new coops could spring up in Montreal, as the energy is pretty wide spread, and there is interest from multiple neighborhoods. Very exciting either way.

--

collaborator, connector, social innovator
Linkedin | Twitter
FB: Transform Montreal
C(MTL):(438)881-5879

act together | build community | prefigure | think BIG

--

collaborator, connector, social innovator
Linkedin | Twitter
FB: Transform Montreal
C(MTL):(438)881-5879

act together | build community | prefigure | think BIG

Je vais appeler Ann cette semaine et l'informer qu'un email lui sera envoyê avec nos questions.

Bonjour groupe, je n'ai pas tenu ma promesse et n'ai pas contacté Ann cette semaine. Mais je le ferai dès demain. Seulement, tant que je n'ai pas une liste sur laquelle tout le monde s'entend, je ne peux pas vraiment lui poser de questions. Faudrait-il partir une proposition formelle à cet effet?

Coucou, encore moi! Des nouvelles de Park Slope:

Hi Joe and thanks for the welcome!

I will have more precise information after our next meeting, on the 14th. At the moment, I believe we aim to get there sometime on Friday night to leave sometime on Monday. It might depend on our choice of transportation.

Also, we plan to send you a list of what information we are looking to gather during our stay. This might make it easier for you prepare.

Again, many thanks for taking the time and we look forward to meeting you. If you want, we can chat at any point you’re free. My number is 514-813-4431 (though I have lost my voice at the moment… :-\ )

Best,
Alyssa

On Sep 12, 2016, at 12:43 PM, Joe Holtz [email protected] wrote:

Hi Ben & Alyssa,
I will be here that weekend and spend time with your group. I will be out of the neighborhood for a family event on Saturday October 8th from 10:00am to about 3PM.

3 questions: How many of you will be coming, when will you arrive and when will your return trip start?

We will try to find homes for you to stay in once we know the above information.

best regards
Joe Holtz

PS: Also, once I know the above information I will start to figure out a schedule of sorts of who you will spend time with and when.

Allo! Voici le email qui a été envoyé à Park Slope dimanche après-midi. La ligne est à l'eau, on attend que le poisson morde!

Hi Joe,

We are very excited to come visit you soon! Finally, there will be 9 of us. We will arrive on Saturday October 8 in the afternoon and leave on Monday October 10, probably also in the afternoon. We are extremely appreciative of any referral you might have for free/cheap accommodation during our stay. Because it’s quite a busy weekend being Canadian Thanksgiving, those of us who won’t have the chance to have a free place would prefer to book their accommodation before Sept 27th for cheaper options. We hope this gives you enough time to ask around...

Also, as promised, here are some of the questions our group wanted to ask you during the visit:

• The history of how the coop started (initial funding, the location, equipment purchases, etc). How did the initial founders choose their first food providers?
• How does the coop actually function? 1) work teams 2) board of directors 3) general assemblies 4) membership
• How do you choose your providers? (is it a vote of the assembly?)
• Which positions are essential for salaried positions?
• Can we have more info on the Linewaiters Gazette?
• Can we get more information on how you operate the cash registers?
• Can we get more information on how you decide who is not required to do the mandatory volunteer work?
• What other services are offered besides just regular grocery services?
• How do you train new members?
• How do you deal with conflict resolution?
• Other than the Louve, are others trying to copy the model? Some have tried and failed, do you know why?
• What did you give to the Louve as tools to start their new coop?
• What are the essential labour components (volunteer and salaried)?
• Do you have a free space, or do you give out free food? Or do you have a community kitchen?
• What were the major challenges and criticisms throughout the history of the coop?
• Would you have done anything differently if you could redo it?
• Is there a virtual platform, or project management program used to manage the registers, inventory, and labour of the coop?
• What impact has the coop had on the local community?

Finally, we have thought about asking you to send us a few documents in advance, if possible. Maybe they will provide some of the answers we are looking for and thus help us be more efficient.

• Your bylaws (Including mission, vision, and values)
• The financial information of the coop (budget and maybe initial business plan if still available)
• An e-version of your booklet for members

We also know La Louve in Paris was fortunate to get a lot of help from you guys in starting their coop. Are there any additional documents you provided to them that you think could be useful to us?

We very much look forward to learning from you!

Best,
Alyssa for the Montreal Gang

Bonjour,

Voici la réponse de Park Slope. Donc on attend toujours pour l'hébergement grétisse et les documents. Mais on a une bonne oreille qui nous écoute je pense! :smiley:

Hi Alyssa,
Sorry to be so slow in getting back to you. Ann and I have been away most of the week at a national food coop meeting.

Your questions are excellent and I look forward to answering them.

I will send you some documents this coming week. For our bylaws and mission statement and membership manual among other things please ask everyone who is coming to explore our website at foodcoop.com
I will send out an email to our staff to try to find places to stay.

I will let you know how that goes.
I look forward to seeing you on October 8th.

Best
Joe
Sent from my cell phone

Toujours pas de réponse pour le logement @alyssalapointe ?

Voici la réponse de Park Slope re: logement

Hi Alyssa,
So far I have found a place where two people can stay as guests and maybe 1 more in another place .
I will be more certain about that soon.
I will write again later in the week.
In terms of inexpensive places I have not heard anything on that. There are two bed and breakfasts listed in a recent issue of our newsletter which is available on line on our website. I do not know what they charge.
best regards
Joe