The Board is undertaking a number of initiatives to poise our co-op for the future. Last year, the Board updated the Ends statement, which articulates a powerful and succinct mission that guides our efforts. The Board also updated the co-op’s governance policies to clarify roles and responsibilities and put in place prudent protections. Another key Board initiative is to review and update the consumer-owner share system, which hasn’t been updated since the co-op opened in 1988.
Owner share investment provides the financial and governance foundation for our co-op. WSM has 18,000 consumer owners. The Board thinks that it’s important to maintain an affordable share price so that we can have the broadest ownership possible. At the same time, we think that it’s important to take into account changing economic factors like inflation, which has doubled prices since the current share price was set 28 years ago.
Weaver Street is the only food co-op that we are aware of in which owners have different numbers of votes. This not only strays from the traditional co-op model of one vote per share, it also makes our system complicated to communicate and administer. Every election, some owners are confused about how the voting works. Having a complex system makes it harder to improve communication and participation systems. For example, our efforts to convert to online voting have been hampered by our complicated share system.
Worker-Owner Share System
WSM is unique in being a consumer and worker owned co-op. In November 2011, the Board updated the worker-owner share system. The worker share costs $500. Workers are eligible to purchase a share at the end of their first 90 days. The share can be paid by payroll deduction. About 90% of WSM workers who have been here 90 days are employee owners.
Updates to the Consumer-Owner Share System
The Board is considering the following updates to the consumer share system:
• Change to a single share size that costs $150. Currently the share cost varies by household size: $75 for a one-adult household, $135 for two-adult, and $175 for a three-or-more adult household. Changing to a single share cost of $150 is based on taking the smallest share amount and doubling it to reflect inflation.
• All shares have one vote. Currently the number of votes varies by household size, with owners getting one, two, or three or more votes depending on the share size. Changing to one vote per share simplifies this system.
• Offer a low-income share for $25. A higher share amount potentially limits who can afford to join, but this would be ameliorated by having a low-income share for qualified families.
• Grandfather in existing owners at whatever share amount they have paid. Raising the share amount for new owners will not affect current owners. When a current owner leaves the co-op, we will continue to refund the share amount they paid, as we do today. Existing owners would be affected by having only one vote per share.
• Refund the difference in share cost for those who have paid more than $150. Fewer than 250 owners have purchased shares for more than $150.
The Board will discuss these changes at our meeting on Wednesday, September 14 at 6:30 PM at the WSM Food House. Find meeting details here. Please join us for that discussion, talk to us at the Co-op Fair, or send us your thoughts at board@weaverstreetmarket.coop.