Citizens Co-op has still been struggling to recover from the needless firing of workers over a year ago and the negative publicity generated by that act. Currently the Board is well functioning, and includes one of the fired workers. What has been missing is customers and volunteers to get things back on track.
The annual general meeting of members of Citizens Co-op will be held on Thursday, Sept. 24, in Meeting Room A of the Downtown Public Library. The meeting will begin promptly at 7 p.m. and will need to end at 8:30 p.m. This year there will be five seats up for election; three of these are producer rep, member rep and worker rep, which are one-year terms, and two are at-large seats, which are two-year terms. This year we want to emphasize paper ballot voting with the hope that those members who cannot make the annual general meeting will stop by the store and vote. Since some members may not be able to get into the store, we will send an absentee ballot electronically upon request. The election begins at the meeting with a chance to meet and talk to candidates and will continue until 8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4.
Any member is entitled to vote, but there is only one vote in the case of memberships held by more than one person. Any member may nominate another member to be on the ballot. The Board is currently meeting once a month and we are also volunteering in the store to reduce expenses and learn more about how our Co-op functions. Prospective Board members should be able to devote at least 5 hours per week to the Co-op.
There’s a potluck food-rent party speak-out and social to be held at the Civic Media Center to raise funds for both the CMC and the Co-op, sort of an end of the month full moon (almost) rent party. This will be Saturday evening, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. There are positive changes happening on the block and in the neighborhood with Wild Iris Books, Sequential Artists Workshop, and a new Tamale shop going in where Display was on the corner.
Come visit Saturday evening or, if you are around, for ArtWalk on Friday, Sept. 25.