Well, it’s been several weeks since Skookum’s most recent Annual General Meeting and it’s time we announce the directors of the of the Society for this year!
First, though, Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative owes a big thank-you to out-going directors Nola Poirier and Julie Thorne, for all their hard work and great ideas throughout the past year. Julie is continuing on as part of the steering committee for Skookum Gleaners, and on Transition Town Powell River, while Nola reigns as Spoken Word Director for CJMP: Powell River Community Radio and myriad other projects.
(l-r) Jan, Sharon, and Pete
Our new elected board members are:
Pete Tebbutt, who takes over as President of the Cooperative,
Jacqueline Huddleston
The rest of the board elected on June 22, 2011, is made up of returning directors David Parkinson (now Treasurer), Jonathan van Wiltenburg (returning as Vice-President), Jan Burnikell (returning as Secretary), Sharon Deane, and Giovanni Spezzacatena.
But let’s not forget that cooperatives are about the members. As always, we encourage all members to participate as project coordinators and as blazers on the local food trail any way you can. Propose a project, participate in our upcoming events, accept our open invitation to our monthly board meetings, help organize and fund-raise for Skookum, spread the word, etc. Keep reading this blog for the latest news and opportunities.
Hello all Skookum Gleaners pickers and harvesters! The 2011 picking season has begun! This year, we need to clear up our picker’s list and start anew, as many of you have changed address/phone number. If you want to appear on our 2011 list of gleaners, you must sign up by Monday August 1, 2011 by filling this short online survey (click here). Don’t forget to click the “done” button at the end!
(This post brought to you by Wendy Pelton, the coordinator of Skookum’s soon-to-be-launched bulk-food buying project. Please read it carefully and help us out by responding to the online survey. We want your input!)
Great News! Thanks to Skookum, the opportunity to participate in a Bulk-food Buying Club (BBC) is returning to the Upper Sunshine Coast. Or, more accurately, it soon will be with your help.
What’s special about this new BBC? Ours may be a little more high-tech and easier to use than prior clubs, thanks to online ordering. Over time, this club will be able to directly connect its members with local farmers’ products online, making buying and selling locally easier than ever.
Why does Skookum want to organize a BBC? Well, through the availability of bulk food orders, we hope to increase people’s individual and household food security by encouraging and facilitating food storage. We want good food to be more affordable to all. We seek to increase the food independence of our local community by establishing our own systems of procurement and by increasing our involvement with local producers. We anticipate bringing members together as a community, as we work together and celebrate together in the management of the BBC. Lastly, we believe a local BBC will provide economic support to our community through employment, increased local farm production, and contributions to local charities and other valuable community projects.
Why might you want to participate in a BBC? Well, when used regularly, a BBC makes organic and healthy food more affordable, encourages healthier eating, promotes cooking from scratch, and lets us spend our money more wisely. Regular use results in an automatically full pantry year-round, which can prevent a minor panic at dinner time or a major panic during a strike or natural disaster. Vegetarians, vegans, non-dairy & gluten-free folks will thrill to the extensive choices available to them. A full pantry means fewer trips to town, less gasoline consumed, and cleaner air. What’s not to like?!?
We hope to begin ordering by the end of July. However, first, we need solutions to some important questions, which you can help us answer. We want this BBC designed to work best for you, our members, so we need to know:
What do we call it?
What should be our slogan?
What should we use for a logo?
Should we offer only organic items?
Should we offer refrigerated or frozen foods?
Should we offer non-food items?
How often do we want to order?
Whom do we want to use as suppliers?
Who will volunteer to be on our steering committee?
Who would like to be part of our advisory group?
Please help us race toward a launch, by first learning more about these issues on our webpage, then sharing your answers to these questions at our super-simple online survey.
Have ideas that didn’t fit on the survey?Please send them to me at wendy.pelton <at> shaw dot ca.I have a list of what I would like to have seen changed at my old food coop — maybe you have one, too, that could help us now.
Looking forward to re-building my own abundant pantry, alongside you, Wendy
On June 22, 2011, Skookum held its second Annual General Meeting to report on the accomplishments of the past year, let members know where we st financially,elect a new board of directors.
Thank you to everyone who came out on a sunny summer evening,special thanks to those who brought foodrefreshments…
... like this delicious buttery bad boy, contributed by Jonathan van Wiltenburg: an authentic Dutch boterkoek. Yum!
Treasurer Sharon Deane presented the financial report, which showed that although we’re just over one year old, we’re doing pretty well so far. It is the board’s hopeexpectation that our membership will help develop more ongoing sources of revenue for the cooperative, permitting us to take on larger projectspurchase common equipment. The first year was a solid foundation on which to build.
As you can see from the Report from the Directors, the year from June 2010 to June 2011 was a remarkably busy one: we took on management of Skookum Gleanersran a number of smaller projects; did some successful publicityoutreach into the community; raised a respectable amount of money;signed up a good number of new members. The overall message is that we got a lot done,that we can get a lot more done, but only with help from our membership. The board has been working on procedures for taking new projects from idea to plan to results,we need members to start proposing ideas that they would be willing to spearhead — with board assistance, of course!
As outgoing President, I want to sincerely thank my fellow directors Jan Burnikell, Sharon Deane, Nola Poirier, Giovanni Spezzacatena, Julie Thorne,Jonathan van Wiltenburg for their hard workall the delicious food they have brought to our board meetings. This board has accomplished a huge amountdone some important work behind the scenes to define policiesprocedures so that we can start to manage member-driven projectsensure that they generate value for members, for project coordinators, for the broader community,for Skookum. It has been a pleasure to meet with this group every month ( then some!) to do the hard work of defining goals, vision, values,principles;to take on the responsibility of being accountable to a membership of 84.
JulieNola decided to step down from the board to focus on other projectswe will miss them. However, we have two new board members: Jacqueline HuddlestonPete Tebbutt. We’ll post something soon to introduce these new directors to the membership.
The new board of directors will meet shortly to determine which directors will hold which offices (President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary); as a result of the term limits which our Rules impose, Sharon Deane will step down from the office of TreasurerI (David Parkinson) will step down from the office of President, as both of us have held those respective offices since our incorporation (two terms, which is the limit for a director to hold a particular office).
After we got through the election of the new board, we had a roundtable conversation about two Skookum projects; one in its second yearanother very much in the planning stages. First, Giovanni Spezzacatena talked a bit about Skookum Gleaners, formerly the Powell River Fruit Tree Project,what went on last year. Gleaners volunteer Gayle Morton talked about some of the exciting plans for this year. The fruit-picking season will soon be upon us, so the Gleaners Team is busy getting the word out, creating posters, flyers,notices to go into people’s mailboxes. This year we hope to gather much more fruit than in previous yearspreserve as much of it as we can.
Then Wendy Pelton presented Skookum’s very early plans for a bulk-buying project. Stay tuned for plenty more about that, since we need to find a couple more people to sit on the advisory committee,we need to sort out some questions about how the bulk-buying project will operate.
The theme for the coming year will be more member involvement, so watch out for that!
Skookum Gleaners (formerly known as The Powell River Fruit Tree Project) is ramping up the planning cycle as the fruit is visibly forming on the trees. Who knows whether 2011 will be a stellar fruit year (like two years ago) or a not-so-good fruit year (like last year)? We can’t wait to find out! Seriously. We cannot wait.
The Gleaners Team meets at 9:30 AM on the second and fourth Monday of every month upstairs at Quality Foods (in The Step Above coffee shop) for our planning sessions that this year will include:
more promotion, and for a longer period;
more door-to-door flyer drop-offs at homes with fruit trees;
more outreach to community groups;
more feedback and coordination of pickers & picks;
more follow-up on picks (how they went, where the food went and how much, the variety and the quality of fruit picked and donated, the state of the trees, etc.);
more education about picking, preparing, and preserving fruit — we hope to get lots more mileage out of our cider press this year!;
more fundraising activities, including a new Skookum 2012 local growing calendar out in early August!; and
A Fall Fair fruit-themed festival!
All this in an effort to increase the number and quality of picks, resulting in:
more food picked & preserved for the community;
more donated fruit for people (not bears) in need;
better disposal of spoiledwindfall fruit for farmers to feed pigs, use as compost, etc.;
a healthier treehuman population.
But we need your help to make this all happen. Skookum Gleaners is a project of the non-profit Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative, and is run by volunteers. The picked fruit is divided equally between the volunteer picker, the tree owner (if they want any fruit) and charity.
Some of these might grow up to be cherries.
Yes, it’s a great idea and it really deserves widespread community support. The Gleaners Team needs people with all sorts of talents, experience and some time to devote to the project, as well as any money you can donate to make this year’s project the best ever.
You may donate via PayPal or Credit Card by clicking here, and noting “Gleaners” in the Purpose box or you may drop off a cheque for Skookum Food Provisioners’ Cooperative (or ‘SFPC’), noting your Gleaners contribution in the memo field, to Kingfisher Used Books (4486 Marine Ave., Powell River, BC, V8A 2K2 CANADA) in care of SFPC.
