ELECTION INFORMATION
Chequamegon Food Co-op owners can vote in-store to elect new Board of Directors representatives for the Co-op’s 2015 election cycle. Voting begins in-store on March 23, 2015 and ends on April 6, 2015. Only one ballot is allowed per owner household, and duplicate ballots will not be counted. If a ballot is cast in-store by a owner household, that ownership household may not vote at the Annual Meeting, Tuesday, April 6 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the CESA #12 building on Beaser Avenue in Ashland.
Any new household membership must have been approved by the Board of Directors at its March 17, 2015 board meeting for the in-store household vote to be valid. New members as of March 31, 2015 will be approved at the Board of Director’s April 6 meeting; as a result, these owners will not be able to participate in in-store voting, but may still vote at the annual meeting on April 7. Any renewing or current household ownership must be in good standing when the household ballot is cast in-store.
Three openings need to be filled for the seven-member Co-op Board of Directors. We have six candidates from which to choose to fill three Board openings. This means each member household may vote for three candidates when completing a ballot or write in alternate candidate names.
Look inside this brochure to learn more about the candidates. The 2015 Board of Directors candidates were given the same questions and were asked to allot no more than 100 words in response to each question.
Please note: Linsey Abel and Rusty Abel were initially listed as candidates in the spring issue of The Grapevine. Our bylaws state that each household may only have one vote. The Board asked the Abels to have one or the other of them withdraw because they both reside in the same household, which would have put us in violation of our bylaws. They decided that Linsey would withdraw and Rusty would continue as a candidate. Jonathan Berthel declared his candidacy after the publication deadline of The Grapevine, but his information came in with enough time to include him on the ballot.
If you have questions about this process or the current election cycle, please contact the Board of Directors at board@cheqfood.coop.
MEET THE CANDIDATES
Rusty Abel
1. Describe your experience with this cooperative and cooperatives generally.
I shop here regularly for the unique products, service, and expertise. With my family’s food sensitivities, life in Ashland would be extremely difficult without the Co-op’s range of products.
2. Summarize your professional experience and relevant skills. What unique skills, personal qualities, or perspectives will you bring to the board?
I am comfortable working alongside of diverse personalities for the sake of achieving common goals. As a social studies teacher, I understand the importance of cooperatives and small businesses in the local community and the country at large.
3. What’s your vision for the future of our cooperative? What makes you passionate about the Co-op and/or its mission?
I would like to see the Co-op expand membership and business while continuing to provide superior products and excellent customer service.
4. Why are you interested in serving on the Co-op’s board of directors?
I love the place! I want to play a bigger part in helping it grow and succeed.
5. Add anything else you feel is relevant to your candidacy.
I am a relative newcomer to Ashland. I have a wife and two kids. I enjoy cross-country skiing, kayaking, canoeing, camping, and pretty much anything that gets me outdoors.
Jonathan Berthel
1. Describe your experience with this cooperative and cooperatives generally.
I’ve been involved with this Co-op for a little over two decades as a shopper and am currently fully vested as a business owner. The Co-op has been a very useful partner in the growing of my small, private chef business. While interacting with the growing number of small farmers in the area, the Co-op has been a safety net of sorts for sourcing locally and organically when certain items are hard to obtain. I can rest assured that with enough advance warning, they can get what I need to carry out my menu planning. Generally, I’ve been a supporter of co-ops dating back to my first home in Kalamazoo, Mich., where daily trips to the People’s Food Coop were the norm.
2. Summarize your professional experience and relevant skills. What unique skills, personal qualities, or perspectives will you bring to the board?
I’ve had a great run in the North Country with sourcing my food as local as possible. I’ve been cooking at the professional level for over two decades and have built a reputation for creating innovative menu items utilizing the bounty of our local farms. Back in the day, there was only a smattering of producers in the area, so the recent growth has been very heartening to see. I believe my skills in interacting with the local growers in utilizing specific culinary ingredients will bring a different perspective as the Co-op continues to grow into its role as a support system for existing and burgeoning farms and producers.
3. What’s your vision for the future of our cooperative? What makes you passionate about the Co-op and/or its mission?
I’m jazzed with the direction the Co-op is going in, and support the continuation of its role in the local foods economy. The CHIP for Change project is fantastic, the outreach to the community as a whole is always growing, and I feel that continuing and building on these projects is tantamount to continued positive change and growth. I would like to see new ideas brought to the Co-op from the community. What can we continue to do to affect positive change and continued outreach?
4. Why are you interested in serving on the Co-op’s board of directors?
I feel that I could bring a unique perspective to the Board. I’ve had a bunch of great experiences with our farmers over the years and would love to see an even greater relationship built for the future years. And I’m very interested in getting an insider’s look at the governance of our Co-op. I’m not much of a politician, to wit, but a friend and neighbor looking to aid and abet a positive future for our local foods co-op.
Justus Grunow
1. Describe your experience with this cooperative and cooperatives generally.
The Chequamegon Food Co-op has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Throughout my childhood, my Mom would bring my sister and me along on her weekly shopping trip. Around our dinner table, I learned the values of healthy eating from food purchased at the Co-op coupled with produce from my parents’ garden. As soon as I moved out of my parents’ house, I immediately enrolled for my own membership. Now, as a young adult, I value my trips to the Co-op as much for the community experience as for the wonderful products.
2. Summarize your professional experience and relevant skills. What unique skills, personal qualities, or perspectives will you bring to the board?
I was homeschooled through my entire childhood, graduated from WITC-Ashland in 2010, and have worked as a system administrator at Memorial Medical Center for the past five years. As a young working professional, as a child of the region, and as someone who is very concerned with protecting the environmental and economic health of our community, I feel that I would bring a unique perspective to the Board. I am dedicated, organized, enjoy working on a team towards a common goal, and am not afraid to get dirt under my fingernails.
3. What’s your vision for the future of our cooperative? What makes you passionate about the Co-op and/or its mission?
The Co-op has a reputation as being an expensive place to shop— for many, prohibitively so. I would like to explore ways in which the Co-op can be an ally to lower-income families, helping everyone to feed their families in a healthy way. Healthy Basics is a good initiative, and I would like to see more happen in this direction. I’m passionate about the Co-op for the strength it brings to our region by sourcing local products and by fostering community development. I’m proud to be a member of an organization that puts our wellbeing first.
4. Why are you interested in serving on the Co-op’s board of directors?
The Co-op has always been an important part of my life, and I’m ready to take on a greater role in furthering a great community resource. I would also value the experience gained from serving on the Board.
5. Add anything else you feel is relevant to your candidacy.
I’m active in working to protect the health of our region from threats that often seem endless. As members of our community, I believe we all have a responsibility to support projects that promote a healthy environment and local economy, and to oppose projects that threaten our clean water and our economic resilience. As a board member, I would like to serve as a liaison between the Co-op and community-based activism as we all work towards the health and prosperity of the place we call home.
Sara Lehr
1. Describe your experience with this cooperative and cooperatives generally.
I have been a member-owner of at least one cooperative for the last 18 years and on the Board of Directors for the Chequamegon Food Co-op for the last four years. During my tenure on the board we sold the farm, purchased the building where the Co-op is now located, developed Ends Statements, hired Harold as General Manager, and supported Harold during the expansion process using the principles of Policy Governance. As a board we have embraced the Policy Governance model and worked to use it to define our relationship with the general nanager and Co-op owners.
2. Summarize your professional experience and relevant skills. What unique skills, personal qualities, or perspectives will you bring to the board?
I am currently the finance manager at NorthLakes Community Clinic and have more than 15 years of accounting and finance experience. This experience has made me a believer in the concept that there is no mission without a margin, so a business needs to be financially viable in order to fulfill its mission.
Additionally, I have a Master of Public Health degree with a focus on community nutrition. I am passionate about improving access to high quality foods as a way to reduce the incidence of chronic disease and make our communities more sustainable.
3. What’s your vision for the future of our cooperative? What makes you passionate about the Co-op and/or its mission?
My vision for the Co-op is to expand on the mission to provide “ecologically sound foods and products, the production and quality of which promote the health of our members and our community” and meet the Ends Statements to enhance the quality of life of our community. I see the Co-op continuing to increase access to local foods and goods, as a source of education to further the wellness of our community, and partnering with like-minded organizations to improve the health of our community, local economy, and the environment. This all ties directly into my passion for public health.
4. Why are you interested in serving on the Co-op’s board of directors?
I love the Co-op. I feel so fortunate that our community has the Co-op and the easy access to high quality, fresh and local foods that the Co-op provides. Our food systems are contributing to the increased prevalence of chronic disease in this country as well as environmental degradation, and I see the Co-op as an integral part of combatting such problems in our community. My combined finance and public health background brings a unique perspective to the board that can help the Co-op fulfill its mission and meet the Ends Statements.
5. Add anything else you feel is relevant to your candidacy.
At NorthLakes as well as previous jobs, I have worked with boards of directors, preparing financial reports in a way that is meaningful and understandable to non-financial personnel. This experience on the other side of the table has taught me how to effectively develop a positive working relationship between a board and management.
Eric H. Sharp
1. Describe your experience with this cooperative and cooperatives generally.
My wife and I joined shortly after arriving to the Chequamegon Bay area in 1999. Except for our move to Bessemer, Mich., we have been happy members, preferring the healthy products.
2. Summarize your professional experience and relevant skills. What unique skills, personal qualities, or perspectives will you bring to the board?
I am currently and for the most of the last 40 years have been involved in print media. I am currently a freelance writer (volunteer) for The Bay Wave (thebaywave.us). I work at Long Run Computer Recycling.
3. What’s your vision for the future of our cooperative? What makes you passionate about the Co-op and/or its mission?
I would like to see an ever-increasing membership increase, and continued support and guidance to local food economy and local organic, sustainable farms.
4. Why are you interested in serving on the Co-op’s board of directors?
I would like to learn from like-minded people and contribute to the vital success of the local food movement – farming, gathering, consumption, cooking preparation, etc.
5. Add anything else you feel is relevant to your candidacy.
As a semi-retired Ashlander, I want to remain healthy, active, and useful and help others achieve sustainable lifestyles not harmful to other living beings.
Jarrod Stone-Dahl
1. Describe your experience with this cooperative and cooperatives generally.
I’ve been a member of the Chequamegon Food Co-op for many years, starting back in the early 90s. I’ve been a board member off and on for about four years now, with three of those years serving as board president or vice president. I’m currently serving as the board president. I’ve also both been part of or starting a worker-owned co-op and a non-profit organization of which I still serve as a board member. I’m really a big supporter of the ideals and philosophy that surround the growing cooperative movement nationwide.
2. Summarize your professional experience and relevant skills. What unique skills, personal qualities, or perspectives will you bring to the board?
I am a self-employed craftsman and handcraft instructor. I sell what I make and I also travel across the Midwest, nationally, and internationally, teaching and giving lectures on the making handcraft and its philosophy. Serving four years on the Co-op Board of Directors, coupled with the other organizations I’ve been involved with over the last 14 years, allows me to bring a fair amount of solid, common sense communication and organizational skills and a very forward thinking perspective to the Co-op Board of Directors.
3. What’s your vision for the future of our cooperative? What makes you passionate about the Co-op and/or its mission?
The Co-op has been a growing economic, cultural, and social hub in the Chequamegon Bay region since its birth nearly 40 years ago. Not only that, but the Co-op has played a major role in the growing local food movement in the region. The Co-op is helping to spread the word that not only is locally grown food good for you, but it also has benefits to our community economically. I’d like continue to be part of the forward thinking direction the Co-op is currently on and to help continue the focus and expand on the Co-op’s part in the local food and economy movements.
4. Why are you interested in serving on the Co-op’s board of directors?
I think that the Co-op is in a very exciting period in its life. I have served on the Board for the past four years and through that I have been part of the positive changes that the Co-op has gone through in that time. I feel that now after the new store is up and running (a two-year process), we as a board can focus on the Co-op’s role as a key player in helping to create an even better Chequamegon Bay area, with more focus on already mentioned local food and economy movements while also exploring our role in the social and cultural wellbeing of the area. In short, I’d like to continue to serve on the Board as a very knowledgeable and experienced board member contributing what I’ve learned along the way to continue with the direction.