Membership News

—by Naomi Jackson, Membership Coordinator

2012 volunteer cards

New volunteer wallet cards will be available in mid-December. Pick yours up at Register 1 (by the entryway) and fill out a 2012 Rolodex card. Don’t throw away your old Rolodex card! Put it in the back of the Rolodex file.

If you will no longer be volunteering, ask for a pink shareholder card (or a senior card if you qualify) by filling out the new card request form at Register 1. Put it in the Membership Coordinator envelope in the entryway.

Membership report for 2010/2011

For reasons we are still puzzling over, we’ve seen a considerable drop in both new members and new volunteers in the past eight months. In 2010, a record number (331) of households joined the
co-op; for 2011 we’re on track to sell just over 200 memberships.

In the fall of 2010 and winter of 2011, people were eager to volunteer. We now have 305 volunteer households, compared to 346 households a year ago.

We currently have 1835 active members, down from 1900 a year ago. We saw a big jump in inactive households, from 1166 last year to 1428 this year. If you are a member but say “nonmember” when you shop, you are in this category.

Attendees at the annual meeting offered possible reasons for these declines, including the economy, the change in discount structure, and light rail construction. They also offered ideas for turning this trend around, which we are following up on. If you’d like to add your ideas to this discussion, contact me or our general manager, Kari Neathery.

International year of the co-op

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 to be the International Year of Cooperatives. Did you know that, around the world, over a billion people belong to some kind of cooperative? Go to the International Cooperative Alliance web site at http://www.ica.coop/al-ica/ for more information.