Board of Directors Meeting Minutes: September 2025

These are the minutes of the Brattleboro Food Co-op Board of Directors meeting which took place on Thursday, September 8, 2025.

Present

Directors Present: Kevin Brennan, Calvin Dame, Denise Glover, Lee Halpern [Zoom, late], Anneka Kindler, Michele Meulendyk, Evan Silber [Zoom, late], Sheena Tesch, and Johanna Zalneraitis.

Directors absent: None.

Staff Present: Interim GM /Director of People and Culture Emilee Hobbs, Board Administrator/Sustainability Coordinator Sarah Brennan.

Other Shareholders Present: Elizabeth Spector [Zoom] (partial), James Hoyne [Zoom].

President Michele Meulendyk called the meeting to order at 5:19 pm.

Welcome

Board President Michele Meulendyk welcomed all participants. She noted that this meeting would be shortened to allow for an Executive Session at the end. Board monitoring reports have been rescheduled for October.

Shareholder Input

1. Shareholder guests Elizabeth Spector and James Hoyne introduced themselves.
   
2. Shareholder Stats/Customer Experience: Emilee shared highlights from the shareholder stats and customer experience reports. Discussion touched on the following:
   1. Shareholder Counts: We saw big jumps in both Working Food for All and Employee Shareholders. The “Shareholders Joined” figure probably does not reflect the employees granted shareholder status. Many other co-ops offer shareholder status to their employees as well. Our Shareholder Services Coordinator meets with new shareholders.
      
   2. Working Shareholder Activity: The recent decline in working shareholder hours could reflect the time of year (August is a common vacation time), or the August figures could jump next month as many people report their hours late. We share our C2C partners’ events on our socials when asked; there are opportunities for additional cross-promotion.
      
   3. Customer Satisfaction: Perhaps due to what is emphasized in daily stand-up meetings, cleanliness scores have gone up while “greeted by someone other than a cashier” went down again. Managers need to lead by example there. Our next emphasis will be Product Availability. It’s possible that we’re still hearing grumblings from the UNFI outage in July.
      
   4. Departmental-Level: We are exploring shifting staffing hours in the Deli and elsewhere to provide better service at certain peak times; this might coincide with closing the Deli a little earlier and implementing better backup support options for sudden busyness at checkout. The Wellness Department should be on a better trajectory with the Manager back from being out on leave. We are focused on Bakery now. We may need to investigate whether Meat and Seafood expiration dates are being tracked accurately.
      
   5. Parking and Whetstone Pathway: We need to monitor and enforce the “parking for shoppers only” policy. The Safety and Security team has observed this has been the best summer in years; we have not been in the 911 “top 10” list for some time.
      
   6. Other Board Input: The Pie and Tart event generated a lot of excitement.

Approval of Minutes

Anneka moved, and Denise seconded, to approve the minutes from the August 4, 2025 meeting. Discussion: none. The motion carried unanimously.

GM Updates

Emilee provided additional detail on items shared in the packet as well as news since the packet went out:

1. Process: Work at the Flat Street storage space is coming along very well. With the rain over the weekend, we discovered some leaks that the Town is addressing. Our pest control provider will take on that space as needed. Parking lot lines were repainted over the weekend during the night—no customers were inconvenienced.
   
2. People: We received a note from Marlboro Music Festival: they’re very happy with us. Our staff there is very happy with their leadership and four of them will stay on to cover catering jobs this fall.
   
3. Technology – Refrigeration: We’re signing agreements with NCG to provide specific departmental expertise and in-person support for the refrigeration project. It’s a $20 to 25K investment. We have put down a $268K deposit for the frozen/perishables/produce cases. They’ll be delivered to Turner Piping’s warehouse in about 24 weeks. We’ll likely begin with Produce, then Frozen/Perishables. We’ll do the Deli last. NCG’s onsite support will be crucial. We don’t have a timeframe for when we would hear if our HFFI proposal succeeds, and whether it would be a grant or a loan. Some expected changes: Beverages will be moved from various end cap locations to where Grab and Go is now. The Deli will have cases open on the front for increased Grab and Go as well as self-serve pizza. Customers will have a better view of pizza and sushi being made. We’ll have a walk-around salad bar and a different set-up at the end of Frozen (facing Seafood).
   
4. Technology – Front End: A cash register replication allows for an immediate restart in the event of any aspect of a register failing.
   
5. Cost of Goods: These were higher in July and August, in part because of holiday pre-buys. Mudith is doing monthly check-ins with managers rather than waiting for end of quarter. We also had some IT equipment failure expenses.

Board Committees

1. Shareholder Engagement: Anneka reported out from her Board tabling with Denise. Comments touched on prices, the Annual Meeting, and improvements in the Deli’s offerings.
   
2. Annual Meeting Planning: Sarah shared the floor plan for the event. 42 shareholders have registered.
   
3. GM Search: Kevin noted that the full Board was updated recently [via Executive Session on August 27] on the process by which the Search Committee recommended one finalist to the Board. The Board interview with that finalist – Emilee Hobbs – is coming right up.
   
4. Finance Task Force: Kevin reported on a conversation with Mudith in which he learned that the FY26 net profit will likely be adjusted upwards by about $14K, to nearly $60K. This is due to the CPA’s recommendation that the expense of a server upgrade hit FY26 instead of FY25.

Executive Session

1. At 6:32 pm Denise moved, and Johanna seconded, to enter Executive Session for the purpose of discussing a personnel matter. Board members, Emilee Hobbs, and Sarah Brennan were present.
   
2. At 8:45 pm, Michele moved, and Denise seconded, to exit Executive Session.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Sarah Brennan, Board Administrator/Sustainability Coordinator