Member-Owner Meetings

Notice of HWFC Regular Membership Meeting

(TO BE CONDUCTED REMOTELY)

 Sunday, April 28, 2024 6:00PM

You have received this notice because you are eligible to vote (up to date on time investment requirements and ownership interest payments).

If you have questions regarding your eligibility, contact Membership Manager Yevette Buddeau at MemberServices@honestweight.coop or (518) 482-2667 Ext. 104, three days prior to the meeting to confirm that your name is on the voting list.

Meeting materials will be available at the Customer Services Desk and on HWFC's website at  

https://www.honestweight.coop/page/member-owner-meetings-22.html

Instructions to participate remotely, by phone, or online are at the end of this notice and are posted on the HWFC Member-Owner meeting webpage at

https://www.honestweight.coop/page/member-owner-meetings-22.html

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm     Check In

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE AND CHECK IN TO THIS MEETING REMOTELY

6:00 pm - 8:20 pm     Membership Meeting

Agenda

Welcome & New Management Intro:  10 minutes

Member-Owners: “We’re thankful for the Co-op because…”:  5 minutes

Financial & Operational Update:  15 minutes

Governance Review Council (GRC) Update:  5 minutes

Strategic and Long-Range Planning Committee Update:  5 minutes

Anti-Racism Committee Update:  5 minutes

Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee Update:  5 minutes

Nutrition & Education Committee:  30 minutes 

Proposed Food & Product Manual Amendments, Q&A and Vote  

Food & Product Manual Information Sessions (see "Online Login Info for ALL" below): 

• Sunday, April 21 6:00 – 7:00 pm
• Wednesday, April 24 6:00 – 7:00 pm

Election and Nomination Committee:  45 minutes

Election for Four (4) Seats on the Board of Directors: Q & A and Vote  

• Applications from Eligible Candidates have been posted in the Co-op and online at: https://www.honestweight.coop/page/elections-314.html
• There will be a call for nominations “from the floor,” in this case from the MO meeting participants - use the “raise hand” function. See Guidelines for Voting/Participating Remotely at the Regular Membership Meeting later in the notice for details on “raise hand.”

Meet the Candidates Sessions (see "Online Login Info for ALL" below): 

• Thursday, April 25, 2024 6:30 – 7:30 pm
• Sunday, April 28, 2024 1:30 – 2:30 pm

Open discussion:  15 minutes

After the open discussion period, on-line and phone voting “ballot boxes” will be closed and we will conclude the remote portion of our April 28 Regular Membership Meeting‌. The meeting will remain open for the sole purpose of In-Person voting on-site at HWFC.

In-Person voting at HWFC

Monday, April 29                                                                    8:00 am - 6:00 pm

The meeting will be adjourned on Monday, April 29, at 6:00 pm upon the end of the voting period.

We encourage you to participate and be a part of the Co-op discussion. A successful Co-op depends on the active support and participation of the Membership. Member-Owner participation is the most significant part of our ability to successfully govern the Co-op. Our Bylaws require a quorum to start a meeting and vote. Get involved and vote.

Guidelines for Voting/Participating Remotely at the Regular Membership Meeting:

We recognize that some of the language associated with online meetings may be unfamiliar to some Member-Owners. Please reach out to Yevette at memberservices@honestweight.coop or 518-482-2667 ext 104 before April 25.

The Meeting

Note: While participants who dial in by phone will be able to fully participate in the meeting, you are encouraged to connect to the meeting online (via laptop, computer, smartphone app, etc) in order to view presentation materials. For the best meeting experience, and to better allow us to provide help if something doesn’t work right for you, you are highly encouraged to update to the latest version of Zoom before the Meeting: https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0060716

Meeting materials will be available at the Customer Services Desk and on the HWFC website at https://www.honestweight.coop/page/member-owner-meetings-22.html

Member-Owners who belong to a Household with other Member-Owners are strongly encouraged to use separate devices when attending the meeting. 

 Online Login info for

• Food & Product Manual Information Sessions
• Meet the Candidates Sessions
• April 28 Regular Membership Meeting:

Online meeting link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81073676905

Phone Login info:

Phone number: 1 (929) 205 6099

Toll-free phone number: 1 (833) 548 0282

Meeting ID: 810 7367 6905

Participant ID: Only needed to link dial-in phone audio to your computer/tablet video.

Linking dial-in phone audio to your computer/tablet video through Zoom requires a Participant ID. To find your Participant ID, log into the meeting through Zoom on your computer/tablet first, and click on the icon in the upper left corner (it may be an “information” circle, or may be a shield). The participant ID listed there will be needed during one of the prompts when calling in with your phone to link the two devices.

If you have trouble logging into the April 28 Regular Membership Meeting, please call the Membership Manager at (518) 482-2667 Extension 104. We will help people log in the night of the meeting as time permits, which may result in a long wait.

Member-Owners who check in to the meeting will receive 2 hours for attending the meeting. Member-Owners who check in between 4:00 pm and 5:30 pm will receive an additional .5 hour for helping to alleviate the last minute rush.

We appreciate people checking in early. After you are checked in, you may freely move about; return to your phone/computer by 6:00 pm for the start of the meeting or to actively wait for quorum.

After you are checked in, you will be moved into the “Meeting Room.” Once in the “Meeting Room” if you click on ‘participants’ on the computer screen you will see yourself as ‘checked-in.’ For those connecting by phone only, your confirmation will only be by voice during check-in.

Please mute your mic on all of your devices while waiting for the meeting to start.

Once quorum is reached, the meeting will proceed in the order shown above. To reduce bandwidth usage and help those with slower internet connections, participants in the meeting will be muted and their videos disabled.

To participate in the meeting, you will use the “raise hand” function. If you have a question/verbal comment, you may “raise your hand” to place yourself in the queue to speak. If you are attending the meeting via phone, press *9 on your phone keypad. When it is your turn to speak, unmute by pressing *6 on your phone keypad. If you are attending the meeting online, you may press the “raise hand” button found in the “reactions” menu. 

Voting Eligible MOs who attend the Membership Meeting will receive one time investment hour for voting regardless of voting method.

Three methods of voting are available. You may choose only one method of voting and cast your ballot set once. Casting more than one ballot for a topic, or casting ballots through multiple methods, will negate all of your ballots.

CONFIDENTIAL BALLOT:

In-Person Voting: The confidential voting for this Meeting will occur in-person, in the Teaching Kitchen, at HWFC the day after the meeting. The designated time for submitting confidential ballots is as follows:

In-Person Voting Times:

• Monday, April 29 — 8:00 am - 6:00 pm

Ballots are not mailed out with the Notice and will be available at the voting table along with detailed instructions. 

NON-CONFIDENTIAL BALLOT:

Survey Monkey Voting: There will be a SurveyMonkey ballot link provided during the meeting. Survey Monkey voting will be available to online participants, once “ballot boxes” open, only during the meeting. Survey Monkey Ballot boxes will close at the conclusion of the remote part of the meeting. PLEASE NOTE: Every effort will be made to keep personally identifiable information separate from your vote choices during ballot handling and vote processing, however, Survey Monkey voting is not confidential.

NON-CONFIDENTIAL BALLOT:

Phone-Only Voting: Phone-Only participants who cannot vote on Survey Monkey or in-person at the Co-op may vote on facilitated ballots once Survey Monkey voting begins. Phone-Only participants will be asked to “raise their hand” (press *9) to vote by phone. As they become available, Phone-Only participants with raised hands will be moved to a “voting booth,” isolated away from the main meeting room, where Vote-Receivers will read the ballot questions and record their vote. To expedite the process, if you plan to vote by phone, write down information throughout the meeting so you will know how to cast your votes before entering the phone “voting booth.” Phone-Only voting will close at the end of the meeting after all Phone-Only participants have been acknowledged. PLEASE NOTE: The Phone-only voting method is not confidential.

If you plan to cast NON-CONFIDENTIAL BALLOTS online or by phone, be sure to have your member number on hand.

If more than one person in your household cannot vote in-person at the Co-op, you will not all be able to attend the meeting and vote electronically on the same device. Additional people unable to vote in person will need to check-in and vote by phone.

If candidates have filled out nomination forms and you cannot access candidate information on the HWFC website or at the customer service desk, call Yevette Buddeau, our Membership Manager, by Sunday, April 21, to request information be mailed to you.