1. Attendance and Apologies

Attendance (MC): Caroline Brakewell, Bruce Diekman, Stephen Catt, Catherine O'Keefe, Jason Levett (Unlicensed), Emma Lees, Jenny Millman (Deactivated) (late arrival)

Attendance (Members): John Schembri, Tom Bartels, Ran de Silva, Estefania (late arrival), Ran (late arrival), Marnie Harris (late arrival)

Apologies: Kelly Dent (Unlicensed)

2. Approval of Agenda

That the agenda be approved.

Moved: Stephen Catt

Seconded: Bruce Diekman

Carried by consensus

3. Consent Agenda

That the consent agenda be approved.

Moved: Stephen Catt

Seconded: Bruce Diekman

Carried by consensus

4. Finance report

• /wiki/spaces/FinanceWG/pages/151289860

That the Treasurer's report be approved.

Moved: Catherine O'Keefe

Seconded: Bruce Diekman

Carried by consensus

• Ran de Silva also advised that we'll need to pay $600 this month for finalising the annual accounts for 2017-2018. Note - this was updated via email on 03 Oct 2018 to advise the amount is actually $800

5. Manager's report

• /wiki/spaces/Manager/pages/149258244

That the Manager's report be approved.

Moved: Jenny Millman (Deactivated)

Seconded: Bruce Diekman

Carried by consensus

Discussions arising from the manager's report:

• Catherine O'Keefe to follow up on the poles for the new POS as NMI will return in 2 weeks. They must be kept informed as to the progress.

• The MC approved the opening of the co-op on labour day (01 Oct 2018) with tastings and extra promo and focus on membership sign up from volunteers 11-5
• It was noted that MC approval was sought very close to labour day, particularly considering staffing arrangements had already been made - in future more notice is required for approvals such as these

6. AGM planning

Discussion on how to plan for our AGM in November

• Need accounts, notice, treasurers report, financials
• Need 21 days notice
• Need to pick a date and venue
  • Need space for parking, and room for approx 20-50
• Open to family
• Potluck - bring a plate of food and label ingredients.
• Needs an EDM & agenda. Agree on topics for discussion. 
• MC should be the ones organising the AGM
• Extend invite to other co-ops in Inner West. Volunteers, members and other like-minded connections such as health related.
• Consideration of live entertainment/music 
• Invite a senior speaker like Jenny Leong to discuss vision for the future, she can share information about the future

Action items:

• Catherine O'Keefe to investigate venue. Preferred option the Commons, backup the Sea View Centre. Preferred date 25 Nov 2018 
• Catherine O'Keefe to update board kit
• Jenny Millman (Deactivated) to prepare draft agenda incl. potential discussion topics. 
• Bruce Diekman to prepare text for the newsletter, which needs to go out by 12 Oct 2018 
• Stevie to add notice to the next newsletter
• Ran de Silva to reach out to Jenny Leong to see whether she'd be open to attending as a guest speaker 

7. PoS update

Update from Ran de Silva on how the development of the new PoS system is progressing.

• All shop staff are now trained and familiar with the new system
• The Groceries, Produce and Volunteer coords are experiencing additional work and effort as a result of the new system.
  • Reconciling the volunteer system has tripled in time effort as we must keep both systems up to date. Filemaker is still the source of truth for volunteers and memberships.
• Review of planned development work is essential if we are to realise the intended benefits of the new system.
• Reporting in the new system is very basic, there are no reports for stock loss, new members, volunteer hours and sales by item. 
• End of day sales is not yet integrated with Xero, this is limiting our ability to realise efficiency gains with our accountant, they are still entering information manually
• I reached out to Justin Litch (treasurer from Flametree) to understand how they are going with PosWise, we are scheduling a catch up over the coming weeks. I did mention to him we have some development work we would like to do and it may be an idea if we could group our requirements together and potentially share the development cost. 
• Jenny's list of issues (including bugs) have been resolved, except for one issue where the system closes down.
• Some issues with functionality. Maurice, Catherine and Jenny to Review issues document and look at what's outstanding. Catherine would like the stocktake to happen so we can use POS as intended and relieve Laurel. Catherine, Laurel & Maurice to meet and discuss stocktake approach.
• Estefania mentioned need to optimise POS for members and volunteers. It causes frustration for members. Jenny will look into this with Maurice. We still need to integrate the system with zero.

8. Glass washer discussion

Discussion on whether we should be washing donated jars in our glass washer, and the extent to which we are currently, and would in the future, be liable. 

Advised by Catherine O'Keefe:

• The insurer has been notified and says that the jars require checking and washing in the dishwasher and a notice has been approved by the insurer to read as follows:
• 'These jars have been donated and have been washed for you to use. Please be aware they may have been near nuts'

Discussion:

There are staff concerns (voiced by Ran) that all donated jars must be washed in the dishwasher. Currently customers add jars without letting us know. Staff concerned that hours have been cut already. Can we trust volunteers to run through dishwasher? Is there a place to store dirty jars? There is a lack of space. Then fresh food deliveries in the morning additionally make it hard to dry any glass which has been through the dishwasher.

• Stephen Catt to look at a new process with volunteer working group. In the meantime the jars are taken away and sign is added to explain that glasses have been taken away and customers can ask for clean glasses stored out back.

9. Policy on recording of MC members' volunteer hours

• Brought by Stephen Catt

Taken from the VEWG minutes: Discussion of policy on MC members’ volunteer hours which was referred to VEWG by MC through Stephen Catt. Noting that (a) MC members were entitled to be on PXD without recording their hours, and (b) generally MC members were reluctant to claim the actual hours that they volunteered (generally exceeding 8 hours per month), it was agreed that it was appropriate for MC members to record their volunteer hours for non-MC related work (eg ordinary volunteer shifts, working bees, stocktake, etc) as casual volunteer hours in addition to their PXD entitlement. Steve to report to MC

10. Freezer proposal

• Brought by Ran de Silva
• See: /wiki/spaces/Manager/pages/149225474

There were concerns from MC members around the timing of this with our current cash situation. However, Ran de Silva noted that if we don't buy at the special price in September it will go up.

Feedback from Ran suggests a freezer would help and that it's not a big deal and provides new options for customers. If members are donating we should take advantage of this. Need to differentiate from Taste Organic with packaging. Good revenue driver. Things like Tempe. Focus needs to be on revenue and this could be a generator.  

Questions around budgeted 10% contingency and a history of running over on contingency. Previous projects include the dishwasher which was within budget, but the shed overran. Ran de Silva stated that an additional $500 is available and can be deposited. FWG agree to the proposal on the condition that no AH funds are used.

The MC approved the proposal, on the condition that all the funds, including the $500 contingency is received (in the AH account) prior to any work starting or payments being made). 

Moved: Jason Levett (Unlicensed)

Seconded: Stephen Catt

11. Project review 

Not discussed during the MC meeting

• See: /wiki/spaces/MC/pages/295046

12. Review outstanding tasks

Not discussed during the MC meeting

• See: Outstanding tasks - MC meetings

13. AOB

n/a