Blog

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending” – Carl Bard

At the August 5th board meeting, the board members and GM were asked to use three words to describe their feelings about the events of the last six months.  While we all shared different words, we all finished on a similar theme of hope  The challenges of the last six months have given the board the opportunity to learn from past mistakes and begin to grow as a group to better serve the co-op community.  We are hopeful we can get there, and we truly appreciate the member-owner support we have received.

In that effort, some progress has been made:

• The board and GM are engaged in a 6-month Abolitionist Challenge through Columinate, a national consulting firm specializing in holistic problem solving for co-ops.
• We teamed up with two Open Harvest staff members to review the board candidate application packet for 2020 resulting in more inclusive changes and recommendations for updating the Board of Directors Code of Conduct..
• We started communication with a local facilitation agency to help us work with the aggrieved Member Owners to put us on a path of reconciliation.
• We had fruitful conversations with other co-ops who have recently updated their policies and by-laws regarding diversity and inclusion.
• All board members have reached out far and wide to the co-op community to seek growth, guidance, and understanding.

Thank you to those who are pushing us to do better and to those who are sticking with us through these challenging and necessary changes.  We are all in this together and together we will make Open Harvest a better co-op.

Lori Ashmore

Open Harvest Director