Are you a Co-op Shareholder?

Are you a Co-op Shareholder?

If so, I hope you will be pleased to hear that this year’s Shareholder gathering – the Brattleboro Food Co-op Annual Meeting – will be held In-Person!

Finally, after three years of Zooming, we will have the opportunity to break bread together.

So, mark your calendars for Saturday, September 23, from 9 am – 1 pm, where we will enjoy live music, good company and conversation, and delicious, healthy food.

For those familiar with the BFC Annual Meeting, you might ask, why September? Not November?

Yes, that’s right, September.

Typically over 100 people attend the Annual Meeting, and the chance for natural ventilation and even an outdoor event would be much more possible in September than November.

I won’t bore you with the myriad logistics tied to the date of the annual meeting, but despite these, the Board took the leap, and we shifted from winter to fall.

We’ve secured a wonderful and flexible site at Potash Hill in Marlboro, VT, and we will have free bus service for those not wanting or able to drive up Route 9.

Whether you are a new BFC Shareholder, a long-timer, or somewhere between, you are welcome and encouraged to attend.

The year we are reviewing, July 2022-June 2023, has been an exciting new beginning with our current General Manager, Lee Bradford, hired in April of ‘22.

The Board and Lee are proud to share the key activities and markers of the year.

And we are excited to invite you to peer into the future together with us.

The Annual Meeting gives us the rare opportunity for collective dialog, so informative to your elected Board of Directors.

As a catalyst for dynamic conversation, we will use the World Cafe model.

What will this new era for our Co-op need to include in order to be a thriving community marketplace in the coming ten to fifteen years?

We hope to engage with this and a variety of other significant questions.

Registration for this year’s Annual Meeting will open in August but mark your calendars now to save the date.

As usual, voting for the Board of Directors will start at the Annual Meeting, where you will get to meet those running in person.

If you have thoughts of running for the Board, it’s not too late. Contact the Board with any questions, feedback, or suggestions; email [email protected]

By Jerelyn Wilson