Proposed New Membership Options
Chris Hardie on Dec 21st 2009
One of the many big conversations we’ve been having on the board about the new Clear Creek Food Cooperative is how our membership options should be structured. In the past, they’ve admittedly been confusing - members weren’t always clear about their membership status, or what the benefits were. We’ve worked hard to simplify our membership options to avoid those confusions, and to make sure we follow the successful models employed by many other Coops around the world.
To that end, we’re ready to present in draft form our proposed new membership options for the Coop, and to get your feedback on them. We’re especially looking for feedback on these points:
- Cost / value: do the options seem like reasonable price points for the benefits included and for what the “market” in our community will support?
- Clarity of benefits: is it clear what benefits are included, and how they’ll be delivered/enacted?
- Simplicity: Are the options straightforward and easily understood, even for shoppers new to the Coop concept?
Of course, we welcome any other thoughts you might have as well. You can share your comments by posting a comment below, or by contacting us directly. Our hope is to receive your feedback within the next two weeks, so that we can put these membership options into place at our board meeting in early January 2010.
Thanks for your help!
Chris Hardie
On behalf of the board of directors
Clear Creek Food Co-op is a natural foods store located in downtown Richmond, Indiana. Our mission is to provide healthy food and high quality products to our members and the local community.
Dear Chris,
Thanks, everything seems clear enough except when Patronage Refunds / Profit Sharing ‘Patronage Refund’ is distributed? Is the 20% calculated from the members purchases and then refunded at the end of the year?
If the Co-op does not make a profit, is the ‘Patronage Refund’ not distrubuted?
Best Wishes,
Jim
Hi. If the Ritchie household becomes a Member-Owner, then the household gets one vote, correct? What if Kurt and I disagree at a meeting?
And, I think that the Pioneer Member should get a 10% discount for all time.
Looking forward these next steps!
Amy
I agree with most of the new membership requirements, but with one very important exception. The $200 fee would be difficult for most college students to pay, and moreover, I’m guessing each student would be considered one “household” (unlike families, which can share this cost between multiple people), so it’s more expensive for students (who are less able to afford it) than for, say, married couples. Also, since college students are only in Richmond for 4 years, a 1-time fee would not be AT ALL cost-effective.
Other possible alternatives:
- Have another, lower-cost membership level that only allows bulk-ordering without the other benefits (this would especially benefit people who only want to place bulk orders, but who don’t place them very often).
- Have a lower fee for students (a student ID card may be required for this).
- Don’t require memberships for bulk ordering.
- Have an alternative, yearly membership plan (similar to the previous system) in addition to the one-time membership.
Jim: my understanding is that the 20% would be of the total profit available for redistribution, and that a member’s refund would be based on the amount of money they’d spent that year at the Coop. It’s helpful to see that we need to move from that broad stroke description to some details - thanks.
Amy: if you and Kurt disagree at a meeting, we will allow you to use our “Phone a Friend” option that will break the tie and decide how your vote is cast. Thanks for the suggestion about the lifetime discount for Pioneering Members.
Suzanne: thanks for sharing these concerns! One scenario we’re considering is allowing a college house (at least in the Earlham context) to buy a share together and pass it down to subsequent members. This would allow students to split the $200 amongst 3-5 people (?) and not have to renew it each year. Since students living in houses seem like the significant portion of EC students who would buy in bulk from the Coop, would that help? We’ll keep thinking about alternatives for other students - your suggestions are much appreciated.
Chris
I share Suzanne’s concerns and think that a college house membership is not really a good option. Those who buy in the first year can’t get it back necessarily, and it’s a big outlay for a college student, even divided by 5. Perhaps Earlham College could buy a Pioneer Membership to allow students to buy in bulk? Or the college could buy a Pioneer Membership *and* students who work a certain amount a month can get bulk ordering and other advantages?
I agree with Suzanne, yearly membership should be an option. Any other plan (so far proposed) doesn’t make sense for college students.
The concept of passing down membership for houses doesn’t make sense because students shift houses EVERY YEAR. If you moved would you want the money that you had spent suddenly nullified? And people do live in the dorms, so they would be out of luck. If you had the 50 dollar quarterly option expanded to college students as a 50 dollar yearly option they would still have the possibility of becoming full members and 50 dollars is manageable for all the students who would be interested in bulk orders.
The proposed house option is not a good idea at all. There are multiple houses with more than 10 people, students generally do not have any sense of ownership of their houses (so why would they purchase something for the future of something they’ll be leaving?) and it would be very confusing for everyone. THERE NEEDS TO BE A PERSONAL OPTION for college students that costs less and a fifty dollar fee would be totally manageable. The share of the profits would be reduced for people with this option. This would be a steady supply of money for the co-op.
I also am very concerned about the $200 membership fee. Even if it is refundable, I think such a fee would exclude many people in the Richmond community from becoming members–and also from shopping at the Co-op. Until recently I was a member of a co-op that charged a one-time refundable $60 fee and anyone could place a bulk order regardless of membership. I think lowering the membership fee and allowing bulk ordering by nonmembers would help to make the co-op a more welcoming place to the average Richmond resident.
I agree with Suzanne. $2oo is too much even for a house to split, especially considering that a group of people is only in a house together for a semester or two. I strongly urge you to consider a temporary student membership, $20 or so a year, and/or make bulk orders available to all.
Sounds good. Clear & consise. Thank you. It looks like you (the board) have brought this coop over a hurdle it’s been struggling with for years. And it looks like you’ve landed us on our collective feet. Congratulations and thank you very much.
I like the structuring, the feeling of more consistency ahead from year to year, the member/owner aspect, and the variety of options you offer for involvement.
Just two questions — l. I assume the bulk order mark-up remains 25% for members?
2. You say the Pioneer level would have the same benefits as the “Regular Member-Owners” — that includes refundability? You refer to it as a “special gift” so I just wanted to clarify that.
Thanx again. It gets more exciting every day. The store looks great. Even with our “just-starting-out inventory” it’s nicely arranged and inviting looking. And I have great faith in our manager!
Thanks for putting this draft up for discussion. Like Suzanne, I am concerned about how college students can be a part of this new membership model. Perhaps another option would be to offer a student membership that is cheaper and has all the benefits of a regular membership except the profit payback part since the member is paying in less from the start-up. One possible way to structure this would be as a continuing $25 per semester fee that students paid as long as they were students/interested in the coop.
Many Earlham students do live in houses, however it is by no means a majority. My residence hall, for example, consists of 24 students in a dorm with a theme of community living. Three of us attended the grand opening of the coop, and many were members of the previous coop. We frequently cook together and have discussed bulk buying from the coop as an option for our group. It would be unfortunate if we could no longer be members simply because we don’t live in a house.
Thanks!
Sarah
the $200 doesnt fit into our budget right now as I feel might be the case with many Richmond households at this time. we have bulk ordered in the past an agree with other comments that it would make the coop more “Richmond friendly” to allow non-members to bulk buy. I think the path you are on sounds good other than that.
Hi everyone! I understand the annual rebate but why not make this a simple 10% upfront membership discount for each purchase? About the membership price and other benefits, take a good look at what Blooming Foods Co-op in Bloomington, Indiana has be doing successfully for years. Check out its’ web site.
http://www.bloomingfoods.coop/
[...] several months of careful deliberation and discussion about our new membership structure, and after great discussions with and feedback from our customers and supporters, we’ve [...]