1. Attendance and Apologies

MC: Tom Bartels, Caroline Brakewell, Cameron Burgess, Bruce Diekman, Kirsten Lunoe, Ashton Roskill

Staff: Yue Ajioka, Allie Cooke, Ran de Silva, Tallulah Ebbs, Marnie Harris, Laurel Parker

Members: Monika Baumann, Sarah Baynes, Sam Byrne, Maurice Cabrera, Katy Gould, Cyrus Irani, Lisa Kwok, Emma Lees, Katherine Lustig, Kate Matcham, Killian Quigley, Declan Schuller, Anthony Taylor, Georgia Took, Caroline Trickey

Apologies: Steve Catt (MC)

2. Acknowledgement of country

3. Results & Recognition of Fundraising

Tom Bartels opened discussion.

1. BIG THANK YOUs to everyone who assisted and donated time, perks, money and skills.
2. Net raised $45,000.
3. Has been applied to liabilities consisting of suppliers, employees and tax. A larger amount was applied to liabilities than originally anticipated as between $10K and $20K was not on balance sheet. The issues with the process that led to the offsheet liabilities have been identified.
4. A big thank you to Tom who has done a huge amount of work on financials.

5. We are now in a stronger place to be able to say we can make this work. The business is still borderline in terms of daily profit. We have tightened up processes and this will get us to break even at best. There is still more work to be done with the aim of generating a larger profit each month in order to have a buffer.

6. Another big Thank You to all our perk donors – the majority were from members and their networks, followed by local businesses and suppliers. Store staff Yue and Ran also contributed. (Please refer to list of perk donors & donations at the end of the minutes.)
7. An enormous thanks to Maurice and Thea without whom the fundraiser would not have been such a success. Maurice especially worked tirelessly to pull it together in such a tight time frame.

4. What have we been doing since last meeting?

Tom Bartels led discussion.

1. Solidifying Management Team
   1. New MC members:
      1. Ashton Roskill
      2. Kirsten Lunoe
   2. Maurice has handed over to new Manager, Allie Cook, who has done a great job under difficult conditions.
2. Adding Discipline
   1. Financials – greater planning & forecasting capacity
   2. Roster adjustments: FT store manager, FT stock manager. Rest of team reduced staff shifts.
   3. Stock management – improved practices
   4. Customer experience

5. Where to from here?

Ashton Roskill led discussion.

Next phase will take about 3 months – aim to turnover $120K to $140K per month.

1. Have spent last month stabilising the business, but still precarious, we have to manage each decision carefully weighing the effect on our financials. To this end we have developed a cashflow forecast. We are now marginally profitable – currently only $1,000 per month left over and need to manage store and people very carefully.
2. Two drivers to help improve situation:
   
   1. Increase top line – sell more product, sell more to each customer
   2. Get greater margin out of each product
3. Utilise cash to buy the right stock, carefully buy with better terms and appealing product, trialling new product in small doses. If they work, keep in range, if not, delete from the selection quickly and move on to the next product.
4. We have had some negative reaction from staff as we have had to reduce hours.  Our plan is to maintain a stable platform. As income grows and margin improves we will be able to add staff hours.
5. Current slim margin of profits achieved by:
   1. reduced staff costs
   2. starting to reduce slow moving products
   3. starting to see an increase in basket size.

We will continue to work on our foundations with the 3 R’s.

1. Rethink: analysing and questioning what we do and how we do it.
2. Reconnect: reconnect with members
   1. Volunteers are critical to our business model
   2. Having a committed member base - refer to Appendix 2 (handout on the night)
   3. Focus on minimum commitment and reliable volunteers
   4. Crowdfunding has demonstrated we have a lot of committed and talented members
   5. Create a central place of communication between volunteers: Confluence is a very powerful tool for teams to share information and communicate. Set up Confluence sites for each of the volunteer streams. Will improve transparency and communication, ability to organise market days and so on.
   6. Volunteer streams:
      
      1. Confluence – administrator required to help us get the most out of the system and improve comms. Tech. can be off site. Jenny Millman who works for Atlassian and organised the Confluence licence for us could help us organise a local Confluence expert – she is currently overseas on maternity leave. Kate Matcham volunteered to work with Confluence user to help set up the system.
      2. Marketing - Looking for a writer, graphic designer, web designer, photographer for marketing team.
      3. Store staff – need to be able to commit to a regular time.
      4. Repairs – e.g. air conditioning, other maintenance, equipment
      5. Grants – can be off-site. Cameron is working on a grant for My Community Project. Filming workshops to have a wider reach so the entire community can access and view online as well as use as a promotional tool to expand Alfalfa House profile. Consider teaming up with like-minded organisations for Grants.
      6. Stocktake – need regular help with stocktakes.
      7. Stock co-ordinator deputies – develop skills to help receive and manage the stock instore.
      8. Workshops – develop our position in the community with skills and products.
      9. Vege boxes: will only be viable if done 100% by volunteers. Our boxes were exceptionally well priced. Box size needs to be priced appropriately. Price must hit our working margin and cover 36% operating cost on every product to break even. Previously we were making 12% - so selling at a loss. There was agreement that we have a social responsibility to help people who are housebound but we need to be in a more stable position. Also the boxes drive incremental revenue, footfall. Member suggestion that earlier emails of box contents will drive planning and increase store purchases. Question: should we be looking at online store?
      10. Financials – help with bookkeeping and financials. Georgia has volunteered to help with book-keeping.
      11. It was suggested and agreed, that getting information about members and approaching them directly rather than waiting for volunteers would be more effective than waiting for people to volunteer. We could also advertise on induction sign instore.
      12. Anyone interested in volunteering should apply through the website or contact us by email.
      13. Suggestion: consider creating more/varied induction times for volunteers to attend as some members would love to volunteer but currently only two brief windows offered monthly.
3. Renewing: emphasizing our point of difference.
   1. Product
   2. Community
   3. Idea to create a reciprocal discount card with other local businesses. Anthony Taylor suggested we get in touch with local business chamber.
   4. More street activity including tastings to drive people into store, flyer drops at local markets. Not for profit stands could be possible at Carriageworks and Newtown.
   5. More strategic marketing activity about what we promote, emphasizing our unique products. Using social media to promote recipes to cross-sell other products. Suggestion: to promote to all members of the member household rather than just the membership holder. Instore we could ask each customer if they are on our mailing list. Email can be used to capture renewal.
   6. Joint stock ordering with other co-ops to secure better prices.
   7. Suggestion noted: to consider working with other buying groups who we might supply.
   8. Concern raised about turning away volunteers – the goal would be to match volunteer skills and availability to the roles needing to be filled.
   9. Suggestion: documenting processes for volunteers – having task lists and processes and keeping online. Can be used to show prospective volunteers what tasks are involved as well as task details.
   10. Suggestion: member surveys. Past surveys on google drive could be used to help.

Transparency: we apologise if anyone has felt we have not been transparent. We have been working very hard to uncover issues and work to stabilise the business. Our aim is to be transparent – feel free to ask any MC member about what is going on. We need to find a way we can serve information and be transparent with our community.

A email question was raised about why we are not prioritising moving to new premises:

1. If we had moved we would have gone bankrupt overnight – moving with a non-viable business model to an even more expensive location would have killed the business.
2. We need to explore opportunities for growth where we are.  The current rent is very cheap. An equivalent space in a shopping centre would be $15K to $20K.
3. Alfalfa already has excellent foot traffic.
4. Manly Food Co-op was in a very different situation. Their store was in an 'out of the way' area. They also though did a successful fundraiser but it took them 2 years to find the right location. So they also stabilised their business first after their fundraiser.
5. The situation is rosier now than it was before the fundraiser.
6. Moving location has not been crossed-off the list, but there is more pressing identified work to do in terms of increasing sales and improving processes and operations.

PERK DONOR LIST

1. via ALFALFA HOUSE

Alfalfa House Tote Bags

$50 Alfalfa House gift vouchers

"Bronze Pass" - a one-off 25% shopping discount at Alfalfa House

"Silver Pass" - a 20% shopping discount at Alfalfa for 6 months

"Gold Pass" - a 20% shopping discount at Alfalfa for 12 months

2. via STAFF

Okinomiyaki workshop ticket

Shiatsu Massage Therapy

3. via MEMBERS or MEMBER NETWORKS

'Food Coop' the film

An Ode to Alfalfa House

Babywearing workshop

Origami workshop

Native bee honey collection & hive splitting master class

Glamping & camping at Turon Gates

Sauerkraut Workshop

Orecchiette pasta workshop

Palestinian Spreads from Palestine Fair Trade

Original photographic hand prints

‘Healing with Whole Foods’ book

Tarot readings with Psychic Sarah

Dinner for two at Dulwich Hill's Manmaru Restaurant

One night for two at Peppers Cragieburn Bowral

A Taste of Clay: Ceramics Tuition for Beginners

Hang on the set for ABC's ‘Black Comedy’

A week of dog walking

Non-violent Communication Workshop: ‘Cultivating Inner Freedom’

Amazing Henry Gold Exhibition Quality Wilderness Photos

Wine favourites (and more) from Mike Bennie (of P&V Wine)

Artwork by Pia Larson

Private Tour to WherePigsFly Farm Animal Sanctuary

4. via SUPPLIERS

Tempeh Temple pack

Midweek feast pack: GoGo Vego, Tonicka & Suzy Spoons

5. via LOCAL BUSINESSES

Cat Protection Society Op Shop Gift voucher

Camelot Lounge – double concert passes

The Vanguard – double concert passes

Cornersmith on-line pickling course

Omafiets Dutch Bicycles, General Bike Service

A brewery tour for four at Wayward Brewing Co.

Young Henrys Pack + Dirty Dozen Brewery Tour

Two-night stay at The Urban Newtown apartment hotel