1. Attendance and Apologies

Attendance (MC): Ashton Roskill, Stephen Catt, Bruce Diekman, Caroline Brakewell, Cameron Burgess, Tom Bartels (6.54), Kirsten Lunoe by skype

Attendance (Members): Allie Cooke, Ran da Silva (7.23)

Apologies: none

2. Report from FWG meeting on 16 April

Ashton reported.

The Finance Working Group (Tom, Allie and Ashton) met last night and further, unexpected financial aspects were revealed which make our position even poorer.

Off balance sheet activity has been going on. What we thought was an impaired position of $21k is in fact $49k.

Also deterioration of stock position was revealed after our recent stocktake. Just shy of $30k appears to have been lost.

Overall, we are about $80k in debit.

The question still remains, whether we should keep going?

No decision was consciously taken not to continue to save the co-op. Keep going or pack it in. Comes as a shock. Need an opportunity to take it all in.

Required measures laid out. Key items that need to be addressed immediately to protect the co-op are:
1. Renegotiate all supplier terms towards 30 days. This has a deferring effect on cash flow, allowing us to bank the cash before we have to pay for goods. Wherever possible, we should not be paying for goods up front (before receipt).
2. Current staffing position is unsustainable, but recent analysis by Allie indicates that the minimum we can manage under current rosters is ~$5,200 per week (Allie to confirm).
3. Protect margin:

3.1. Consider winding back staff and volunteer discount to e.g. 15%. Currently, given our nett margin is ~4-5%, we are effectively paying people to take goods. While this is admirable, and to some extent compensates volunteers for their time, while we are in crisis this is not sustainable.
3.2. Get on top of stock receipting – and stock loss procedures; tighten up on areas of leakage – confirm that we have the correct UOM (unit of measurement) and price per UOM in the system, particularly for liquids (e.g. while we are buying oil in 20L tins, we sell this by the kg so the UOM must be kg).
3.3. Get on top of stocking position – this requires us to know what our Open to Buy is per week, for both Produce and Grocery, and for the buyers to prioritise this OTB to the fastest selling and most profitable products.

Stock velocity for produce – increase rate of turnover to reduce waste and shrinkage; recommend running on 2+2+3 day cycles – Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and Friday, Saturday and Sunday; objective should be to progressively discount all produce on day 2 (or day 3) to ensure we have clear shelves by closing time.

Stock management 101:

1. Are we receipting stock properly?
2. Are we accounting for shrink and waste properly?
3. Maybe losing more than we should thru shrinkage.
4. Have we any empirical evidence of theft?

Discussion of cash v. accrual accounting systems. We operate on cash basis; Flametree on accruals. Maurice will give Tom contact no. of person in Flametree.

Discussion of POSWise system.

Discussion of different sources of grocery products.

Alfalfa House is a viable trading concern but we have to act fast. Will need to make some difficult decisions, and need to make them within 2 weeks.