2008-05-28 Return to "Informal Intimacy" (II)

2008-05-28 Geoff Gilson Weaver Street Geoff \Weaver Street Market/2008 Election Task Force\Informal Intimacy http://weaverstreetgeoff.blogspot.com/2008/05/return-to-informal-intimacy-ii.html Return to "Informal Intimacy" (II) Return to "Informal Intimacy" (II)  Might it not make everyone a winner if we set up an immediate process which would make clear to everyone that we all want the greatest success for the grocery store; but that the grocery store is separate from the co-op; that the Board runs the co-op, and is clear as to what are its functions; and that workers and management are both entitled to representation on the Board, but representation that is separate?

And might the latter not best be achieved by the immediate and visible formation of a transparent Board task force, as I have suggested, rather than some less visible, and more amorphous, 'review,' at some undefined point in the future?

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Viewing these figures, a task force might also want to ask some of the following questions - not in a tendentious spirit, but in an open and searching investigation of why things happened in a particular way, and whether they can be improved in the future:

So, for example, why did 50% of the Worker-Owners not vote; were Annual Reports (and ballot papers) delivered to all Worker-Owners (there has been suggestion this might not have happened); why were votes removed from ballot boxes during the course of the voting period; could this have affected the outcome - in all and genuine good faith and innocence (after all, things happen - that's why we have process); might more Consumer-Owners have voted for Worker-Owner Candidates if there had been an open invitation so to do - and in the same proportion; what impact did the 20-25 bloc vote of management have; and does any of this matter?

For myself, and this most recent election, I repeat that none of this matters. But I hope that magnanimity will be met by an equally forceful, immediate and meaningful response, that ensures that we never have to ask these questions again.

The next point: 110 out of 230 votes cast, by whoever, for all of the Candidates, were cast for Candidates asking for more communication and for more democratic accountability and shared leadership within WSM the co-op. That is 47% saying that they don't want continued 'business-as-usual.'

And in the case of Worker-Owner Candidates, it was 52 out of 89, or 58%, saying 'things-ain't-right-the-way-they-are.'

Email from Geoff Gilson to Weaver Street Market Board Chair Jacob Myers reiterating the task force proposal and suggesting further specific questions that such a task force could investigate in order to clear up potential misunderstandings and learn from experience.   