How do I get involved?
Volunteer! Looking for a great way to meet interesting people and make new friends? We need volunteers to help "table" at the following events: APRIL 21st: Bike Day, Folsom Lake College , Folsom APRIL 22nd: EARTH DAY! Placerville Campus, FLC APRIL 24th: Nature Fest with Mary Youngblood, Georgetown May 1st: Earth Day Festival El Dorado Cty Library, Placerville Call 530-748-9365 or email pvillefoodcoop@gmail.com if you can help!
Become a Member!
Membership forms are now available at Noah's or by download:
Print out both sides, fill out completely and return with your full or partial membership payment to the address provided on the form. It's that easy to become a member! 
Take Our Online Survey!
It should only take you about 10 or 15 minutes. Our online prospective member survey is strictly confidential and is an essential tool for us to gather the critical information we need in preparing the Co-op business plan, feasibility study and marketing analysis. The information we collect is strictly confidential and will only be used for assembling aggregate data, other than what you indicate re volunteering, email list, etc, or offering other resources you may indicate in the survey towards creating the Co-op. You may also fill out an abbreviated paper version of the survey available at Noah's or the Cozmic, but the online survey is much more thorough and valuable. Donate!
We can take donations! They are not tax-deductible (Co-ops are not "non-profits"), but are essential in these formative days as various legal, printing, and other expenses come in. Your donation, no matter how small (even $1 helps us buy essentials like printing for surveys and brochures, paper clips, etc) help grow the Co-op. We've found a great way to make it easy to donate! Look for a special update soon with a link to our fundraising site! In the meantime, you can call as at 530-748-9365 for more information on Member Loans and Donations to help make your Co-op grow! Spread the Word! Tell your friends, point them to the website (under construction - see our temporary pages linked below), invite them to our FaceBook page, get them to take the survey, sign them up for membership! The Co-op is its membership, and that means you! You can familiarize yourself with the FAQ (frequently asked questions), our history, etc, at our temporary web pages:
Join our
 acebook Page!
Yes, it's the 21st century and we're on Facebook. Become a "friend" and follow our posts at 
Follow us on Twitter! Do you Tweet? Check out PvilleFoodCoop on Twitter for meeting notices and other updates. Become a Member! We will begin taking memberships very soon. Check our Facebook page or Twitter for updates and where to sign-up, or keep posted for our e-newsletter. You can also check at Noah's or the Cozmic Cafe for the latest news.
Organize! Friends in the area on Facebook? Belong to a club or organization? Get together with friends for a party or dinner? What's more exciting than letting people know about the new Food Co-op, or having someone come to your meeting to share more about the Co-op and answer questions. (Take our Online Survey right in your browser!)
LINKS TO OTHER CO-OP RESOURCES: |
We're Embarrassed!
(but only slightly)
Dear *|FNAME|*:
In our enthusiasm to get the latest Co-op news to you, we made a couple of "booboos" in Issue #1 of your Placerville Food Co-op Newsletter.
First of all, we gave you the wrong link to our temporary web pages (we've fixed it now in the left column, but here's the correct link anyway):
http://web.me.com/trippdm2010/Placerville_Food_Coop/Placerville_Food_Co-op_Home.html
Some of you also reported to us in the past couple of days that you may have had some problems taking our online survey. We're really sorry. We've fixed those problems, so if you tried taking it in the past couple of days and had some problems, we'd like you to try it again! And if you haven't taken it, well, heck, now's a good time to do it! Our online survey link is:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7VY99K3
Our apologies for the glitches, but we promise we'll do better next time. In the meantime, we'd love to hear what you think of the newsletter. Email us at pvillefoodcoop@gmail.com and let us know! Here's the corrected newsletter and links, and thanks for your support and patience!
And here's one new addition, a download link to our Membership Application! Yes, you can fill it out and send it in with your partial and full payment and become a member! Download at:
Pville Food Co-op Membership Form
Did you hear the news?
We're going to have our own Food Co-op in Placerville!
Over 120 people packed the Cozmic Cafe in Placerville March 27th to express their overwhelming support for the creation of a member-owned Placerville Food Co-op on the site of the present Noah's Ark Natural Foods.
The meeting included presentations by Chris Maher, General Manager (G.M.) of Briar Patch Food Co-op in Grass Valley, and Paul Harton, former 13 year G.M. of Briar Patch. Together they presented an overview of the history of the Co-op movement and dispelled some common misconceptions about Co-ops. (See our Pville Food Co-op FAQ and also Placerville Food Co-op History links or downloads to the left.) They also shared some highlights from Briar Patch's successful and inspiring history as a 30 year old member-owned and democratically run Food Co-operative.
Chris and Paul were followed by a presentation on the history of the Placerville Food Co-op (see link on left) organizational effort by Melisa Clark, General Manager of Noah's and part of the core team that's been investigating the feasibility of a conversion/purchase of Noah's since it was originally placed on the market in late 2008.
After a period of Question and Answers, the people assembled in the room were asked if they were ready to commit the time, energy, and financial and material resources necessary to make the Co-op dream a reality, and the room thundered with a resounding "Yes!"
Since that March 27th meeting, the Co-op hive's been a buzzing. Here are just some of the highlights of what's been accomplished in just a few short weeks:
Money, money, money makes the world go 'round...
Of course, we know better than that, but when you're creating a Food Co-op, right after people, organization, and commitment, money follows close behind.
On March 27th, we raised over $1,000 just from passing the hat. Even more exciting: within 24 hours we had $50,000 worth of financial commitments from private individuals, and by end of week, well over $100,000! And by Monday we'd established a bank account and EIN with the IRS.
That brings us ever so close to the $250-300,000 we will need to secure a down payment for the bank and co-op loans we'll need for the final purchase. If all goes well, and the community continues to step forward with its generosity, creativity and support, we are hoping to be able to approach the local bank and other sources we're working with for the major "purchase" loans as early as sometime this summer or sooner!
Thank you citizens of Placerville and El Dorado County!
Steering a clear course...
Based on suggestions and feedback at the community meeting, we have selected our initial Steering Committee, composed of the following community members:
Melisa Clark, present General Manager at Noah's and original Core member; Bill Scrivani, yoga instructor, small business owner, and original Core member; Tripp Mikich, community organizer and e-media/communications specialist and original Core member; Ruthie Loeffelbein, community member involved in Ag issues; Laura Owens, small business owner and organic herb farmer of Owen's Acres; Kelly Hodgkin, biodynamic farmer and Folsom Lake College instructor; Nancy Myers, Financial Director of Placer County Community Action Council; Pam Roberts, attorney; Lisa Stark-Hughes, community member & law student; Heather Clapp, community member with a marketing & graphics background.
What have we been doing? Read on!
Paperwork... One of the Steering Committee's first tasks is getting our Co-op incorporation papers in order, and looking into by-laws and other legal p's and q's that will enable us to accept loans and other moneys from individuals and other funding sources. On the Steering Committee we already have some great legal expertise in Pam and Lisa, and we're in contact with Co-op specialist lawyers Laddie Lushin and Van Baldwin. They will be helping us with final documents and legal filings. We also have the assistance of Paul and Chris from Briar Patch Food Co-op in Grass Valley, both of whom have been incredibly generous with their time and expertise, fielding phone questions almost daily, and sometimes several times a day! And two of us recently attended the California Co-operatives Conference in Santa Rosa.
The Co-op is coming! The Co-op is coming!
The Outreach, Membership and Media Committee has completed a beautiful Placerville Food Co-op brochure just in time for the Earth Day, NatureFest, and other community events we'll be at in the next few weeks. You can download a copy at the link in the left column, or pick one up at Noah's for the Cozmic Cafe. With our beautiful peach logo on the cover,you can't miss it!
See How Do I get Involved? on the left side of this page for dates and places of our tabling events. Can you help table? If so, contact us by phone or email asap. It's a fun way to get involved!
Big thanks to Heather for her wonderful illustrations and design, and Tripp, Lisa and Laura for their great teamwork, and Brad at MegaGraphics in Cameron Park for his printing donations!
Only the facts, ma'am...
Important Placerville Food Co-op Community Surveys for soon-to-be Co-op members are available at Noah's or the Cozmic, but we'd prefer you to take the online survey, even if you've already taken the paper survey. It's a much more complete version of the paper survey. You can find it at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7VY99K3 and it's completely secure and confidential.
This 15 minute survey is extremely valuable in this formative stage of the Co-op's development. And it will help shape the Food Co-op's future! The information will shape our Business Plan, Marketing Survey and Feasibility Study. Bill, Melisa and Kelly, along with with Nancy's Financial Manager and book-keeping skills, are heading up our Business Plan and Feasibility Committee, with Tripp and Bill working on the Membership Loan Campaign.
If you haven't filled one out yet, or even if you have, please consider taking the Online Survey. It will provide us with a much greater level of detail than the abbreviated paper version and only takes about 10 or 15 minutes. Even if you've already filled out the paper version, please consider taking the online survey. Here's the link again: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7VY99K3
We are not alone... Steering Committee members Melisa Clark and Tripp Mikich recently attended the California Co-operatives Conference in Santa Rosa organized by the California Center for Co-operative Development out of Davis. They came back with a tremendous amount of information about new, as well as well-established, community and worker-owned co-operatives from around California and the nation.
What did they learn? That we are not alone! In fact, we are part of a new wave of food co-op organization going on in urban centers and rural communities throughout the nation, part of a whole new way of looking at regional food economy and economic localization in general.
What is "economic localization"? Economic localization is a way of looking at (and living in and working in) our community and region that builds towards long term economic, social, and environmental sustainability through strengthening of local economies, and developng the means to encourage localized buying, selling, sourcing, and exchange.
If you wish to see a great example of what we're talking about, our hands down favorite is GoLocal in Sonoma County. They're building a sophisticated network of regional economic ties and localized credit, linking consumers, businesses, non-profits, and local government agencies in a powerful example of "economic localization."
We've only just begun... Since the March 27th meeting, our community has been buzzing with excitement and conversation about the coming Placerville Food Co-op. Be part of the conversation! And more importantly, Be part of the Co-op!
In the weeks and months ahead, there will be something for everyone to do: money will need to be raised, community events tabled, business plans written, meetings to be attended, benefits organized, and a lot of fun to share with our growing Co-op community here in El Dorado County!
You can start by forwarding this email to your friends. There's a handy link that says "Forward" at the bottom of this newsletter. You can pick up some brochures and bring them to your next meeting, or share them with your neighbors. You can volunteer to table at an event or join one of the Co-op work groups (more on that in the next newsletter), and definitely come to our next meeting. No one is too young or too old to help.
We are a community, and ultimately a family, and there is a place for every one of us in it! |
