These are the meeting minutes of the Brattleboro Food Co-op Board of Directors meeting which took place on Thursday, May 8, 2025.
Directors Present: Kevin Brennan, Calvin Dame, Denise Glover, Lee Halpern (Zoom), Anneka Kindler, Michele Meulendyk, Evan Silber, Sheena Tesch, and Johanna Zalneraitis (Zoom).
Directors absent: None.
Staff Present: GM Anthony Santorelli, Board Administrator/Sustainability Coordinator Sarah Brennan, and Director of People and Culture Emilee Hobbs.
Other Shareholders Present: none.
President Michele Meulendyk called the meeting to order at 5:18 pm.
Participants took turns reading the communication norms aloud.
The Board reviewed trends in shareholder statistics and shopper survey results. Food for All enrollment continues to rise over last year, in keeping with both our efforts to publicize the program and area-wide food assistance trends more generally. Discussion also touched on the active shareholder count (it’s not clear why that number dropped since last month) and employee shareholders (currently, subsidized shares are only offered to new employees).
Michele noted that the packet includes an update to B.5 Continued Operations: Anthony has designated Director of People and Culture Emilee Hobbs as his back-up in light of his upcoming departure.
Board members shared recent Columinate training experiences: Sheena (Financial Training for Directors) and Denise (Constructive Approaches to Handling Complaints about your GM). Discussion touched on fresh, compelling ways to message the value of becoming a shareholder.
Anthony shared news since the packet went out:
Michele noted that the B.1 Financial Planning monitoring report will include the 3-year plan.
Meeting participants shared what they would tell a shareholder about this meeting. These comments are shared in the staff newsletter and in Food for Thought.
Board members shared observations about what worked or didn’t work about the meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30.
Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Brennan, Board Administrator/Sustainability Coordinator