Thanks for musing, Carol! I'll add my own... While I'm not able (presently) to attend lunchtime meetings, my interest remains strong! If we are committed to a monthly or bimonthly order, I can easily plan on $42-82 -- often significantly more. If our drop-off point can provide some sort of temporary refrigeration, I'd like to begin purchasing our juice/dairy orders through the group -- which would add more $$$. I've noticed that some produce may be available through MPW -- I'd be interested in bulk ordering fruit. Again -- could add $$$. While splits could get complicated, we might be able to have several people divide a standard apple/banana/orange order (things that are easy to divide by x number of pieces, rather than exact or approximate weight) each month.
I'd be happy to help in terms of placing orders. I can't help as far as disbursement, unless my garage becomes a drop off point -- which I would actually be open to (we do have an empty extra fridge!). I'm comfortable saying that I am *not* the person to put in charge of collections! I agree with your point re. concentrating our efforts toward growing the buying group for the time being. Interested in hearing from others, too--- Sue [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I had hoped to get these thoughts joted down earlier to give folks more time to mull >them over and come up with fresh thoughts or modifications. Asi es la vida (such is >life). > > Of course we will need to come up with what works best and satisfies the group, but >as a starting point,I'll mention what I think would work best for me. > > I would like to do more of my purchases through the organization. The first element >to make that more feasible for me would be a predictable fairly frequent ordering >schedule-once a month would be super, bi-monthly next best. I think we're headed >towards that. > > My understanding is in order to make that happen we need the following: $500 in >purchases per order, a drop off location tied to a business, and a trained rotating >volunteer base to coordinate and facilitate the ordering,disbursing, and payment >collection phases. > > It sounds like we have a couple of possiblities for the business location. One way >to pull the rest off smoothly would be if we had twelve core members who were willing >to commit to ordering a minimum of $42 a month, being trained in the order phases >above, and volunteering the time necessary to manage two orders a year. Obviously, >numbers could be adjusted if we thought we needed more than two people volunteering >per order, etc. > > I imagine that some people might not want to place an order every month, perferring >to order larger amounts less frequently. It would also work to stagger two groups of >six people ordering a minimum of $82 every other month. As Jeb mentioned at Friday's >meeting, we do want to encourage people to buy in bulk whenever possible. Obviously, >the numbers could be adjusted with more core members, etc. > > There is a number of other activities I'd love to see the organization (or >interested groups of members) get into as time goes on, but I think that in the >beginning we should focus our energy on becoming a strong purchasing group for >organic and environmentally friendly products. I think that we should design at >least our initial structure towards people who are willing to make a committment to >the organization. People do have other options now (Wild Oats, etc.) for >introductions to organic products. One major thing that contributed to the Washoe >Zephyr Coop's demise was catering to the convenience of people making small, >infrequent purchases who weren't interested in giving anything back to the group. > > Just thoughts...I'm interested in hearing what other people think is our best method >of development. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's meeting. > _______________________________________________ > Buying Club discussion list at BuyOrganic.org > http://buyorganic.org/mailman/listinfo/friends _______________________________________________ Buying Club discussion list at BuyOrganic.org http://buyorganic.org/mailman/listinfo/friends
