Oklahoma Food Retail Grocery Cooperatives
Update: May 10,
2003
+ Goal: Our goal is to open Oklahoma
Food retail grocery
cooperatives throughout the state. The immediate first step is to
open one store in the Oklahoma City area, which if successful, would
then be replicated.
+ Method of business operation: The
stores will only sell
Oklahoma grown and/or processed foods, Oklahoma made crafts, art, and
other such products approved by the Board, and imported food items
that are not produced within the state, including coffee, tea, sugar,
olive oil, certain herbs and spices not produced in the state,
chocolate and cocoa, bananas, citrus. Producers will stock the stores
on consignment, and may also rent cubicle space to highlight their
products. Producers will pay a commission to the store for the sale
of the products; there will be different levels of commission based
on identified criteria.
The cooperative members will be both customers and
producers, and
all will have equal voting rights and an equal share in the capital
fixed assets of the cooperative, based on their purchase of a
membership share in the cooperative. There will be a vice president
for customers and a vice president for producers to affirmatively
represent the interests of each of the two groups in the
cooperative's governance.
The members are the ultimate governing authority of the
cooperative and elect the officers, the board and various committees,
and approve/consent/reject various actions of the board. Each store
will have its own store committee, and members will declare a primary
store at the time of their purchase of a share for the purpose of
electing the store committee, although all members can shop or sell
at any of the stores operated by the cooperative. No person may own
and vote more than one share, but persons may donate money to buy
shares for low income people for whom purchasing a membership share
would be a hardship. The price of a membership share may be made in
payments. Our present best guess is that a share will cost somewhere
between $50 and $150.
During the initial share selling campaign, in advance of
the
opening of any stores, people may declare a store membership in the
following areas. A percentage of their membership share, to be
determined by the board, will be placed in escrow to go towards
opening a store in their area:
+ Oklahoma City metropolitan area
+ Tulsa metropolitan area
+ Muskogee area
+ McAlester area
+ Lawton area
+ Woodward area
+ Clinton area
+ Enid area
+ Stillwater area
+ Ada/Durant area
+Bartlesville/Ponca City area
The purpose of this cooperative is not to make a profit or
surplus, but rather to provide a marketplace for local Oklahoma food
products and for the convenience of the members, a restricted list of
certain imported items.
The value of a membership share in the cooperative at all
times
will be based on the value of the fixed assets of the cooperative
divided by the number of members. For the purposes of the initial
share selling campaign, which we hope to begin this summer, we will
divide the proposed budget by 2,000, which is the number of members
we think are necessary, at a minimum, to support such a store. Any
surplus from member participation which be refunded at the end of the
fiscal year to the members in proportion to their patronage. Any
surplus from non member participation may be divided equally among
the members or used for capital acquisition, expansion, or
replacement.
We decided against financing general operations of the
cooperative
with an annual Sam's Club type fee, but the membership may vote an
annual assessment on each member for the purposes of funding
cooperative education and social activities.
Our goal is to create an enterprise that is (a) socially
just, (b)
naturally sustainable, and (c) operates on sound business principles.
The name of the enterprise will be: Oklahoma Food Retail Grocery
Cooperative. The stores will operate under the name "Oklahoma
Cooperative Hometown Independent Established Stores," which creates
the acronym OCHIES, which can be produced OKIES.
Each store will have a commercial kitchen attached, where
producers can process or preserve their products and thus add value
to them in a way that is in accordance with the food safety laws and
health department regulations.
We anticipate that meat (beef, pork, poultry) will be
handled in
two ways: (1) sold frozen on the premises, either by the cut of the
box, and, (2) at a meatless meat market, where offers and details
could be posted, and orders taken for later delivery.
Customers and producers will buy a membership share in the
cooperative in order to shop or sell at the cooperative. Non members
can shop at the cooperative's stores, but they will pay a surcharge
on their purchases.
We prefer to have smaller stores, and have more of them.
We have
an internet discussion going about this project at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/okfoodret/
. Everybody is invited to join the conversation.
We have held a series of meetings around the state, and
the
following folks have been elected or appointed to serve on the
Organizing Committee of the Cooperative (name, residence,
occupation):
Robert Waldrop, OKC (pastoral musician and cooperative
instigator
Mark Parman, Webbers Falls, (farmer)
Jackie Dill, Coyle (farmer)
April Harrington, Lexington (farmer and herbalist
Kim Barker, Waynoka (farmer)
Mario Tur, Oklahoma City (architect)
Dennis Pierson, Oklahoma City (retired military
Valerie Mettry, Norman (caterer)
Walt Kelly, Norman (mathematics professor)
Jackie Sellens, Norman (student activist)
Lyle Miller, Clinton (farmer)
Kathy Carter White, Tahlequah (attorney
Rev. Jonalu Johnstone, Oklahoma City (religious minister)
We are developing a verification system to guarantee the
claims of
the producers. This will include (1) certified organic, (2) Oklahoma
all natural (organic but not certified), (3) for non organic foods,
use of pesticides, herbicides, and commercial fertilizers, (4)
Oklahoma origin, (5) human treatment of livestock and meat animals.
Diana Endicott, of Good Natured Family Farms, a
cooperative in the
Kansas City area, has agreed to be a consultant to our project,
specializing in helping us develop our verification system.
+ We have submitted a grant application for a USDA
community food
grant. As part of that grant project, we put together a first budget,
and collected pledges of money, expertise, and other in kind support
amounting to more than $100,000. This is a snapshot of our present
progress. Much remains to be done, including holding meetings in the
Tulsa area. The articles of incorporation have yet to be finalized,
and there may be changes in the description above, but this is the
direction we are presently heading.
It is fortunate that early in our development process, we
made the
"cyberacquaintance" of Zvi Galor, who answered an email we posted
about our project in the Cooperative Business listserv operated by
the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives. We were not
aware of the various nuances and forms of cooperative organization
and the implications they can have for the success and development of
a cooperative. Through his work, we have been able to access the
experience of the worldwide cooperative movement, and most
importantly, to learn from its mistakes.
From the beginning, we have wanted an enterprise that was
entirely
owned by, and operated for the benefit of, the members. Thus, his
patient explanations of how this works out in practical terms have
been very valuable to us in developing our own structure and bylaws,
especially the difference between the fixed assets capital of the
cooperative and the operating expenses/revenue of the cooperative,
and why this is important. It is my belief that understanding these
principles and incorporating them into our founding documents will
greatly assist us in developing a successful cooperative enterprise..
Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma City http://www.oklahomafood.org