co-operatives

Weaver Street Market Annual Meeting

Anyone else going to this tonight?

Annual Meeting: September 9, 2013Annual-Meeting-graphic-2013.png

Owners: if you didn't RSVP you can still come to tonight's meeting. It might be standing room only. (We'll find seats for those who need them.) 

We are excited to have Gar Alperovitz speak at this year’s Annual Meeting. Gar is a leading thinker about developing a new economy based on community enterprise. In his latest book, What Then Must We Do?, Gar speaks directly to the reader about where we find ourselves in history, why the time is right for a new-economy movement to coalesce, what it means to build a new system to replace the crumbling one, and how we might begin. He proposes a possible next system that is not corporate capitalism, not state socialism, but something else entirely—and something entirely American.

Date: 

Monday, September 9, 2013 - 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Location: 

Century Center, Carrboro

Weaver Street Workers' Woes Continue ...

As an active worker-owner with Weaver Street Market Co-operative these past six years, I have worked hard not only to help WSM be successful as a business, but also as a model for democratic co-operation. It is with regret that I have to report that WSM continues to fail on both counts. It is time now to begin an active, community-wide conversation about the future financial and co-operative direction of WSM, and I invite OrangePolitics to take part in that conversation.

Bottom line: WSM has a crippling long-term debt of $8 million, incurred undemocratically in order to pay for the dubious expansion project of 2007/2008. That debt is costing our co-op millions in capital and interest repayments each year. Hence, the need for the 15% sales increase in 2011. With similar efforts required in the next four years.

It is WSM workers who are having to make those repayments by working ever harder, for less. We get longer opening hours. Less shift hours. Insufficient staff support. Paltry pay raises. And no dividend (haven't seen one for the past three years).

The Weaver Street Market Board: The OTHER important election this fall

We thought turnout for the municipal elections in Carrboro was low, but word on the street is that the turnout for the board elections at Weaver Street Market is abyssmal. Apparently even though many folks in Carrboro are members of the Weaver Street Market cooperative, only a couple of hundred members actually vote in a given election for the board. Considering there are probably 10,000+ members (educated guess based on the membership numbers i'm hearing people give at the register these days), that's a 1-2% turnout rate. Considering that the market is arguably the soul and conscience of Carrboro, it's surprising that so few people take a moment to learn about the candidates and take the important step of voting.

This year we're hoping that changes. So in an effort to promote voting of "consumer-owners", both candidates for the board have written this piece to get the word out about the voting, to tell you a little about ourselves, and to encourage each of you to reach out to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to vote as well.

 

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