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This item follows Nelson: Co-oops! -The Sequel directly below. To refresh, familiarize - it may be good to (re)read that before continuing here.
I find I wasn't done with this - may not be for some time.
The previous decision of the Co-op's pending move - leasing the Extra space - was based on what Russell Precious - the move's prime mover - called the facts of Extra's and the building's owner's intention to discontinue their arrangement past the current contract. He knew of disagreements - as a matter of facts. But whatever the relationship was/is is between the two parties, has/had nothing to do with Russell Precious and certainly was no legal basis for the done-deal announcement of the Co-op's move. Hear-say only - gossip in the vernacular.
Granted, gossip often is the driving force behind doing/not doing in Nelson - but not yet a legal basis. Legally - Extra then still had over a year to go on its lease and past that had first right of refusal. At that time it had no intention to move; no contract re-negotiations had been initiated at the time of the Co-op's announcement. Period - on all counts!
Then - based on that baseless announcement - a vote was proposed to withhold members' dividends and put them into a moving-fund. Although an active member - I did not know about that vote. The majority of those knowing about it and present - in a collective gluten-free glow - voted: yes, put them in the fund! Meaning: this fund was established - or at least fed - for a nowhere (literally!) purpose.
And when the move was called-off, the members' dividends stayed wherever - no offer was made to disburse them. And no clarification was volunteered.
In the meeting, Mar. 19, Mr. Precious told members they would get dividends now/soon/whenever(?) - tossing a warm and fuzzy bone. He did not say whether these dividends would include those withheld previously. Or what!
And yet another vote was proposed: to be allowed to spend more than the hitherto allowed 75% of available financial resources on the redo. More than! Soft-pedaling the original clear 25%, prior to this meeting's agenda. Many asked, but the majority caved as soon as the gluten-free zapper was activated again - even those who had questioned the deal just before.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,
it's time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
After taking a bit of time off from posting, the first one will be:
Nelson: The Tedium of Bylaw Enforcement.
This continuing:
Nelson: The Slippery Slope of Bylaw Enforcement
Feb. 28, 2012
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I didn't attend that meeting; I only heard about it because I asked ahead of time to be informed about any meetings coming up soon. When I saw the agenda for that meeting, I decided I didn't want to go. The expectation was to sit through two hours of coop board's talking about the move, then only get 15 min's for members to speak... no thanks! What if so many wanted to speak that I wouldn't even get a few minutes to make comments? So, I'm just as glad I didn't go and maybe that was part of the aim of this "meeting." To convince people and not allow for many counter assertions.
ReplyDeleteOne only needs to read the mission statement of the Coop, to know that their mandate is to provide as much organic food as possible (and not necessarily for the best price). Yet, as an introduction to their mission statement, they state that coops are about caring for community and being responsible. If they are going to move, they are going to wipe out a lot of people's ability to buy food they can afford downtown. If I live up by subsidized housing, in Rosemont, and I get home on the bus just after 5pm, and I've forgotten something, to go back down to the mall, and home again, is a trip that would take just over 4 HOURS!!! This is a trip that would take probably under 1/2 hour by car. Yet, how many people know of this? Or, that the newer proposed cuts to buses want to take away stops at the mall and at subsidized housing in Rosemont? (Just look on the city's website for the transit review for this year with the City of Nelson and BC Transit).
ReplyDeleteYet, will it truly be the Coop's mandate to actually serve the poor folks who don't have cars and can't afford most of their food? Or, will they turn a blind eye, claiming they would be like crack dealers for providing poison to anyone? That they will stand behind their principles that big agri-business is damaging to other communities outside ours as a way to absolve their responsibility to provide more food choices to the poor?
The way I see it, people need to eat, and they will only go elsewhere if the Coop is too expensive to get their non-organic food. So, the coop will do nothing to save the Amazon rainforest by choosing not to help the majority of food buyers in town if they choose to muscle into the old Extra Foods and not provide less expensive alternatives.
When I lived in Vancouver, the East End Food Coop provided both organic and non-organic. I ate MORE organic food because this existed, not the other way around. Because I had a one-stop shop, that provided me, a poor student at the time, with choices, I was learning about organics and working them into my food budget.
Nelson has gotten so class conscious, something we don't like to talk about in this society, but I really see the gentrified elitism blithely ignoring the poor's plight, being part of the "silent majority" this article writes of.
Last time I looked prices at Extra were more than Save On, and the meat is old at Extra
ReplyDeleteCo-Op has become Co-Rupt.
ReplyDelete