At our last Super Second Sunday event, we set aside part of the time to phone members who have not shopped in a while. From those phone calls, we have 16 members who have “come back” and started shopping again. Special thanks to these 16! If you haven’t shopped in a while, please join them and start buying. At the current time, lapsed members are allowed to shop without signing up for a shift (although we’d love to get you back in a shift as well). The bottom line is we need to increase our sales, and you can help us do that.
Remember to place your order online by Monday evening to ensure your items will be available that Thursday. You can still walk in and “shop the shelves,” although we may be out of some items you want. Ordering online is the best way to ensure your items will be available to you. So, right now, look at your grocery list and figure out what you can order in advance (cans, jars, TP, etc.), then sign into the store and order them. You’re purchases will help keep us afloat.
The Finance Committee is meeting at the store. Our agenda is to review our Quickbooks file for the 2009 year, develop preliminary financial reports for the year, and map out our next steps. Our goal is to have sound financial documents for Members and the upcoming Board elections.
Join us for an information session: Sunday, January 10, 3:30-5 pm
Our by-laws call for the formation of a new board in the next few months. The Core Group, which has been functioning as the defacto board since our inception in 2006, has run its course and it is time to hand the reins to new blood. This more members who participate, the the more successful the process, so join us if you can.
You’ll learn about:
The board seats and the responsibilities each entails.
How the nomination and election process works.
The liabilities and assets that the new board will be responsible for.
The 6-week transition period between the CoG Core Group and the newly elected CoG Board.
The possible creation of an advisory board of food and activist luminaries.
Bring your questions and your comments.
When we’re done, stay for our Super Second Sunday event, this month: “Soup and Soul.”
Below are our hours for the last two weeks of the year. Remember to place your order online by 8:00 Monday evenings to ensure your items will be in stock (and in your box) that week. If you can work a shift these weeks, please sign up on our holiday schedule here (we have people on vacation, and a few non-routine shifts so we can use extra coverage).
Okay, so we don’t have any turkeys at the CoG, but we do offer great prices on other Thanksgiving trimmings. Organic canned pumpkin and baking supplies always jump to mind, plus a wide variety of spices and broths, cooking oil, and an enthusiastic recommendation from member Moira Kenney to put a bottle of Reed’s Spiced Apple Ginger Brew on your holiday table.
If you write reviews on Yelp!, help new members find us by writing a review of CoG. We have a couple members who’ve written reviews, but it’s been a year since our last review. Log in now and promote us: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-cooperative-grocery-emeryville
All CoG members, and anyone else interested in joining our co-op, are invited the last Sunday of every month to join us for a general meeting.
The format has been evolving, but basically the general meeting is an extension of the Core Group meetings. It is a chance for the larger membership to discuss the topics of the day. Core members always attend to provide updates and answer questions.
The Second Super Second Sunday on October 11th was a great success thanks to the hard work of the Education/Outreach Committee and the generous donations from the Cheeseboard and Redwood Hill Farm Goat Creamery. Both members and non-members enjoyed our poetry, game show (hosted by the fabulous Janelle), tasting, and cheese making extravaganza. Here are some comments from a couple of the participants:
Susan Schaller speaks for many CoG folk, thanking the Cheeseboard for their generous gifts, especially the cheese. A cheese collective in Vermont helps the Berkeley Cheeseboard collective who helps the CoG, and community grows. Please help us, all you readers, move this wonderful community-building CoG forward.
Janelle Orsi commented “COG people are a seriously fun-lovin’ group. Everyone rose to the cheesy occasion with their creative and poetic performances and earnest participation in Jeopar-cheese! And I still can’t believe Yuki made fromage blanc before our very eyes!”
Here are a few of the poetic creations from our night of cheese.:
How can a cheese that smells so bad
Taste SO GREAT?
And why does cheese get even better
The more it sits and waits?
And why is cheese so delicious
When it turns green and blue?
The concept of cheese is kind of gross….
But I don’t care! Do you?
Janelle
Achoooo!
A sneeze.
Not on the cheese,
Please.
Water into wine,
Milk into rind –
It’s a miracle, man!
It’s blowin’ my mind!
They say we ain’t got culture,
But that’s absurd.
Where do they think we get the curd?
Ain’t talking about those
North of the Euphrates
But from mooing
And bleating
Four footed ladies.
Chevre, cheddar,
Monterey Jack
And Jill having a snack
Like that! Get back!
Slicing and dicing
On crackers and bread
Achooooo!
That’s what I said.
David Skolnick
The whey, the whey, the whey
Is clear
My dear
For you
If you but remove the curd
Or so I’ve heard
Like a bird
Picking worms
From the soil
After the milk
Comes to a boil
Then softly squeeze
Until at long last…….
Cheese.