Staff photo
Update, 3:30 p.m.. June 14: We received a statement Thursday afternoon from ONF staff concerning the strike. Read it below.
Update, 12 p.m. June 12: We spoke with ONF marketing director Alexa McGriff this afternoon. Her comments were added below.
The employee strike at Ozark Natural Foods has ended and the co-op is open for business, according to a status update on the ONF Facebook page.
“We are now open for business again,” the statement read. “If you’re interested in hearing why, feel free to ask any employees at the store.”
A few comments later, the admin of the page had this to say: “We simply decided that we were not fulfilling our mission of serving the community by keeping the doors closed,” read the statement. “The issues at hand are still there, but the Board has taken over working on them and has promised to work to fix these issues and make the Co-op the best place it can be.”
ONF officials said on Monday that 60 out of 63 staff members who attended a special meeting held Sunday night voted to conduct a sit-down strike until co-op board members Linda Ralston and Sue Graham resigned from their positions.
The move was a reaction to several ongoing issues between employees and members of the board of directors, including frustration over the board’s recent firing of longtime employee and general manager, Alysen Land.
Marketing director Alexa McGriff said that a Monday night meeting with board president Joshua Youngblood led to the decision to end the strike.
According to McGriff, Youngblood promised to represent the staff’s position to the board, and to help establish a legal vote on the fate of Ralston and Graham’s positions.
“Some employees are still skeptical,” McGriff said. “But the majority of the employees in attendance last night voted to return to work so that we could get back to serving this community, and find a way to achieve these goals in a legal manner, without potentially putting our jobs in jeopardy.”
Statement of Apology from ONF Staff
On Thursday at 3:30 p.m., we received the following statement from ONF staff.
Owners and shoppers of Ozark Natural Foods,
As many of you know, the Co-op was closed on Monday. The staff decided to put down their vests and stand outside to speak with owners about what they felt were very serious issues. The staff did this with the best intentions – they felt that the ownerships voices were being ignored by the Board of Directors, and they wanted to take a stand that was strong enough to get the attention of the Board, owners, and community at large. That feat was accomplished, but at great risk.
While many owners and shoppers have expressed support and stood behind the decision the staff made, we are aware that we also upset many owners and shoppers. For that, we truly apologize. It was not our intention to upset or inconvenience anyone. The staff honestly felt that we were doing a service to the owners by standing up for them. We apologize to anyone who was upset or angry.
If you were displeased with this situation, we hope that you will give the Co-op another chance and find it in your heart to forgive us. We had the best of intentions. Now, our hope is for us to have the ability to move forward, as staff, management and Board, to work together for the betterment of this Co-op. Please join us in that effort and give us a chance to work together.Thank you,
Staff of Ozark Natural Foods
Letter in response to original petition
There has been much discussion about the Ozark Natural Foods’ Board of Directors and its duties. In many ways, this discussion parallels discussions in the media about corporate boards. A recent article in the NY Times by H. Hurt blames the financial crisis on the failure of many, if not most, corporate boards to simply do their jobs. ‘The boards were supposed to monitor risks, provide judgment and supervise managers on behalf of shareholders.” Ironically, “Four days before Lehman filed for bankruptcy, the CEO announced that the board had been wonderfully supportive.” In February 2012 Ozark Natural Foods (ONF) Board Director, Garrett Brown filed a petition to remove me from the board with the complaint that I was an obstruction to the functionality of the board. In his original petition, he stated that I tried to stall voting on the proposal to pay off the loan on the ONF building. The remaining loan amount is 1.9 million dollars, which includes a $300,000.00 pre-payment penalty. I had, indeed, requested the Board wait on the vote for several reasons. The newly elected Board had just received the proposal in June, 2011, with instructions from the General Manager (GM) to not tell or discuss it with anyone. The GM did not tell the Board to seek the opinion of experts as she stated at the 2012 Annual Owners’ Meeting. Instead, she told the Board if they had any questions, to come to her. The GM wanted the board to vote to pay off the building loan at the July meeting. I thought we should seek the advice of an expert regarding how much we needed to leave in reserve if we pay off the building and become debt-free. The GM said she would retain $400,000.00, which would take care of any unforeseen events. The Business Plan the GM handed in the month before she gave the debt-free proposal said $600,000.00 would be needed to cover such events. I also questioned whether it might be necessary to leave a certain percentage of owner equity in our account. And, of utmost importance, Linda Ralston and I both wanted to wait so the owners could give their opinion since ONF is a COOPERATIVE. Paying off the building loan meant many projects, like expanding into the basement, would have to be put on hold. We felt the entire membership should have been consulted, not for their vote, but for their opinion. Our request to delay the vote was ignored and the President called for the vote, stating she was doing so because that is what the General Manager wanted. The General Manager had stated that if the co-op did not have to pay the $15,000 monthly mortgage payment, she would be able to lower prices. However, when I later asked that the decision be tied to a commitment to lower prices, I was told the building pay-off was for no other reason than to simply be a debt-free company. After hearing that, I felt like we had been given a bait-and-switch; that while we were told it would then be possible to lower prices after the payoff, then were told there was to be no guarantee regarding lower prices. After looking over some specifically requested financials, I saw the huge profit margin. The quarterly reports we had been given had not shown that information. It is this huge profit that created the reserves, which made the 1.9 million dollar building pay off possible. I was surprised that I never heard an owner ask how we were able to pay off almost two million dollars when only 12 years ago ONF was nearly bankrupt. The answer to this unasked question is that the General Manager has been saving $60,000.00 a month. She even reported to the last board that we were ‘swimming in money’. At that meeting, the finance manager, Gary Cook, said if Whole Foods comes in, we could lose a third of our business and still have $300,000.00 excess annual cash flow. I investigated other cooperatives and looked up suggested benchmark figures for the profit margins. I found that other cooperatives worked with only one and a half to two percentage points as their profit margin. The 2012 General Manager’s Business Plan lists an expected profit margin of 6.8% for 2013, 6.77% for 2014, and 6.55% for 2015. Those figures do not represent lower prices at all. If ONF was a traditional, profit-seeking corporation and I were a shareholder, I would be thrilled with the picture these figures painted. Someone from ONF regularly visits the Whole Foods store in Little Rock or Tulsa and has announced that our prices are in line with those stores. I am not comforted with this fact. Whole Foods is a corporation with shareholders who expect a profit. Yet the profit margin listed on their site when I looked up these figures was only 2.9%. I brought this issue up at a lot of the meetings, which may have given one cause to say I was ‘obstructing’ other business, but I felt that this was an important concern that many owners are likely to share. Another issue raised in Garrett’s original petition discussed my feelings about the treatment of the staff. I did have a problem with the most recent employee satisfaction survey. Surveys for the past six or seven years have all indicated there were issues of favoritism by the General Manager. The most recent survey taken had only one question concerning favoritism and it was combined with nepotism, which caused confusion. Linda, Jim, Kathryn, and I wanted to use a provision in the bylaws that allows for employees who work more than 20 hours, and who have been there longer than six months, to evaluate the GM. We felt it would be helpful if the employees were allowed to do a free-write narrative to help us with an evaluation. This evaluation, or any other, was never done. I did have other concerns about the employees that take me back to the topic of the amount of our cash reserves. The 2011 General Manager’s Business Plan (page 25 – 27) discusses changes that she would make if competition comes to the area. She lists these changes under the heading of ‘Contraction’, which means benefits are ‘taken away’. Discounts would be systematically removed, starting with the deli, then the wellness discounts, and finally reducing the overall discount. IRA contributions would be lowered and possibly eliminated. Insurance benefits would be changed with a complex system for figuring out which non-management employees would retain coverage. And, finally, there would be a hiring and pay-freeze as was done when ONF first moved to Evelyn Hills. If we had more money in reserve, we might be able to handle competition without hurting our employees. This is another reason I wanted to be able to get the owners input before the ‘debt-free’ vote was taken. The GM’s contract was one more issue that was brought up. I was not trying to prevent the development of the GM’s new contract. For the record, the General Manager was never without a contract. All four of us in the majority felt it was important to follow the eight-step guideline for making a contract. This guideline was provided by the organization of consultants that are used by both the board and management. ONF pays a lot of money for both management and the Board to have consultants from this organization and it seemed irresponsible to ignore their advice. The GM’s contract automatically rolled over to a new one, so we felt we had the time to do things properly. The eight steps included evaluating the General Manager. Past President Tuesday Eastlack repeatedly has said the primary purpose of the Board is to support the General Manager. Jim, Kathryn, Linda and I believe our main job as directors is to ensure accountability to the owners. Several economists talking about the world financial situation have criticized many corporate directors for acting like cheerleaders for the CEO and being weak people who did not ask questions. This whole issue brings Ozark Natural Foods to a real crossroads. Owners must decide if they want a ‘rubber stamp’ board, or a board that will ask questions, monitor risks, provide judgment and supervise the general manager. Do member/owners want directors that represent management, or directors that represent owners? Owners cannot lose sight of the ideology that made Ozark Natural Foods so great, a store that provides foods of the highest quality at the lowest prices. More than ever, our co-operative needs the strength of oversight that will make it even stronger in a competitive world! Susan Graham
July board minutes. Start of conflict
The board had been presented with a proposal to pay off the building in the June meeting. Alysen asked that the board review the proposal and be prepared to move on it at this meeting. Alysen had brought up the fact that the recent owner survey showed that owners? number one concern was prices. Alysen had said earlier that if she lowered prices with the money on hand, it would only be a short-term solution. She posited that if ONF were debt-free, she would be able to sustain lower prices. She assured the board that she would make sure there was at least $400,000.00 in reserve. The proposal also assured the three main projects under discussion would be completed before the loan was paid off. Those projects are the generator, the parking lot lights and the point of sale equipment the store needs. The pay off would include a pre-payment penalty, but that would be far less than the interest that would be paid if the loan were carried the full twenty years. Alysen had asked the board not to discuss the proposal with anyone but to call her and meet with her with any questions. Sue asked for a discussion and Alysen said she wanted the board to discuss it. Colleen said that this just was not a difficult decision. She reminded the board of our first meeting at The Taste of Thai and when she walked in, Alysen was in the middle of answering a question from Sue on what it would take to lower prices and ultimately her answer was that as soon as we pay off the building, we can lower prices. Sue said she thought paying off the building was a good idea, but was worried about having such a low reserve. Tuesday reminded her of the „never touch account? that was to always have $400,000.00. Sue wanted to postpone the action until there would be more money. Kathryn noted that with decreasing property values, now would be the time to buy. Linda wanted to discuss the possibility of a third approach, a Plan C, as she called it. She said she felt she could not vote for this with a clear conscience that night without researching other possibilities and without the advice of a financial expert. Linda also said there were other considerations when one talks about competition and expressed concern about the projects that could not be done if all of our money were in the building. She asked if we could please hold off on the vote at least a month. She also wanted to be able to talk with some owners about the plan. Garrett and Colleen both told her we are not allowed to talk to owners about it. Colleen said it was a timing issue and it needed to be brought to the owners before the birthday celebration in October. Tuesday reminded everyone that Alysen had told us we needed to vote in the July meeting. Sue said she thought the timing of a vote should be a board decision. Alysen said she needed the board to vote that night. Garrett brought up patronage refunds and asked where they fit in with all of this. Alysen said these are in an interest bearing account with other savings. These funds could be used to help pay off the building. Kathryn said she hears folks complaining about prices all the time and we have to get the prices down. She said this would do that. Colleen said we can do this and then we can lower prices. Sue said she loved the lower prices but was still worried about having a small reserve. She asked why the vote had to be taken that night and Alysen told her she needed to get it in the Nutshell and work on the capital budget. At 9:32 Colleen moved to accept the proposal to buy the building with a second from Kathryn. The motion carried 3 in favor, two opposed. Meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m. Executive Session: During an executive session, the board discussed potential candidates to fill the board vacancy. The board returned to open session. Colleen made a motion to nominate Jim Roughton and was seconded by Garrett. The motion passed unanimously
Colleen Pancake is a partner at Free Thinker Productions. She had more than a friendship interest to keep Alysin happy and turn everyone against Linda and Sue. Linda and Sue, Thank you for cleaning up the board.. We are all paying close attention now.
Ozark Natural Foods
April Board Meeting
Board Meeting Minutes
April 24th
6:00pm
Board Members Present: Tuesday Eastlack, Colleen Pancake, Sue Graham, Josh Youngblood, Linda Ralston, Kathryn Scherer, Hank Kaminsky
Owner Comments: Owners present had 30 minutes allotted to speak. Each owner was allowed 2 minutes.
Minutes: Josh moved to table March minutes pending further discussion. Motion carried unanimously.
President’s Report: Josh stated his hope for future meetings going forward and noted that it is turbulent times like these that the co-op needs a board. Josh would like to continue working with Thane Joyal. He also stated, that the board needs to take time to make big decisions.
GM Report: Interim GM Mike Anzalone reported that the co-op is doing great! The open book financing has been very successfully and goals are being exceeded. The new Point of Sale system is being installed June 4th. He also noted two upcoming projects, one for the deli re-set and the other, for expanding office space.
Bylaw Suggestions: John Eldridge previously sent recommendations to board members. He advised that there are two problems where the Bylaws are not in compliance with the statute that the ONF articles of incorporation were written under. The first non-compliance within the Bylaws was the removal of directors without cause which requires cause under the state statute. The second non-compliance
within the Bylaws was that they only allow for one proxy per owner and the law says that an unlimited number of proxies should be allowed. He suggested either following the bylaws or rewriting them. The board will discuss the changes.
Discussion: There were four items of discussion:
Working Rules of Agreement:
1. Embrace honesty and transparency
2. Use process and mutual respect to achieve shared understanding.
3. Listen to the owners and act as a Board through consensus and a unified voice.
4. Review information and deliberated before making decisions, then own the decisions we as a Board make.
Reporting of closed session decisions from March 27th meeting:
1. Removal of Tuesday as President and appointing of Jim Roughton as President.
2. Removal of Colleen as Vice-President and appointment of Kathryn as Vice-President.
3. Increase of Board budget by $20,000.00 and Hiring of Ray Wymore as equity accounts coordinator. Replacing Stephanie Conway.
4. Dismissal of Alysen Land as GM.
5. Appointment of Mike Anzalone as Interim GM Position
6. Board approval required of all capital and extraordinary expenditures.
7. Free Thinker Productions would no longer be hired by ONF in any capacity.
GM position and transition- Closed session board meeting to review and clarify rationale and plans was set for May 15th at 6:30PM.
Upcoming Owner Forums- the dates for the owner forums were set for May 5, from 1-3PM, May 10 from 6-8PM, June 2 from 1-3PM.
The open session of the meeting adjourned at 7:47pm
Elise, broadcast this out loud where everybody can hear this.
Enlightening! But I’ve already pledged to be done with ONF until they stop acting like a soap opera.
On Friday evening the ONF Board was informed of a closed session on Father’s Day @ 9am!
The agenda: move forward with the hiring of Alysen Land as GM
Pardon my insensitivity, but this is just retarded. Its hard to fathom why they would rehire someone who has been fired twice and is embroiled in such a shady quagmire. There are undoubtedly many qualified managers out there. Allowing clerks and stock boys to bully the board and make multimillion dollar business decisions is ridiculous. Workers going on strike is fair play, but it was not a good decision. They obviously don’t have a clue when they apologize the next day and claim they didn’t mean to inconvenience anyone. That’s exactly what a strike IS, geniuses!
I have been an owner off and on for 20 years, but no more. I used to grab lunch from the salad bar several times a week but I completely stopped when they decided to remove chopped garlic because the price of garlic went up. That was a dick move by onf. Im also baffled as to why they can’t seem to keep the Naked juice cooler operational. I’m sure it is claimed to be the vendors responsibility, but as a customer, I could care less. Just buy a new cooler, or use those stellar managerial skills to ensure the vendor does so. After the fifth or sixth time of going in to find the cooler empty, I stopped going in.
I won’t shop there again until there is a major overhaul in the way ONF operates. I’m embarrassed to be an owner of such a bungled business.
“NAKED POWER”
The juice company’s slogan is:
“NOTHING TO HIDE”
As far as ONF management is concerned,
…one can only wish.
Indeed, it is unfathomable.
Cheers.
The coronation of Queen Alysen.
“The (paid???) “worker’s strike”
(lockout by mangagment) was
for the good of the owners.
–ONF Marketing Director (Minister of Truth)
Shades of George Orwell’s “1984″
IGNORANCE is STRENGTH!
Inflated pie
Take a close look at at the ONF “Pie Chart”
Excuse me, but if based on actual cash flow
(rather than perceived customer savings),
would the pie be somewhat smaller, and thus,
*profit* would show as a bigger slice?
Whole Foods, anyone?
Whole Foods? Yes, please.
It’s gettin’ real in the Whole Foods parking lot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UFc1pr2yUU
New Co-op, anyone?
Don’t give up on the ‘now minority’ of the board who are still working to prevent the return of the queen. Your support here and in other possible ways is appreciated.
We need to hold the board accountable to uphold the bylaws and to ensure the management team does the same.
The checks are not yet written people, please email the Board your objection to the massive debt payoff scheme without professional analysis reported to the membership as justification for this highly costly choice. If 60 twenty-somethings can get Alysen back. 5why can’t 60+ member stop this terrible move. Remember it’s our money they’re spending.
Also, don’t put it in the subject line, make each board member open it. TELL ALL MEMBERS YOU KNOW. PLEASE.
board@ozarkonf.coop
Speaking of checks, when do we get ours?
Seems like the patronage refund checks are way overdue.
I’ve also been wondering that.
The possibility of a new co-op, the likelihood that patronage checks might end or be significantly reduced can be discussed at the new yahoo group.
Send an email to:
ORGANICONF-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Pieman: gotta make the pie higher dude!
Profit is a huge slice, no matter how you cut it. (sorry) Even devoid of co-op rationale, what bus. needs ?60k per mo. of profit?
[& shouldn't ms. alexa be the Minstrix of Truth? ]
Paydown the mortgage might add $10 to that number. There is No intention (witness Anzalone at last Board meet) to lower prices, so wtf difference is another $10k (their monthly interest expense) going to make?
Sparks: According to Tax Regs: they have to 9/15 to get those DIV checks out.
No worries, from now on, there will be an excuse to pay as little divedends as poss. (uh, we spent all our working kapital on the mortgage !)
Why such a hurry? Tell me someone has gone over those financials with a fine toothed comb. What would be the harm in waiting for expert analysis? Did they get it and that is why they have agreed it is a good idea? Someone please speak up on this if you know? It seems very suspicious to do this while there is conflict over the issue. Ouch, can people hide inappropriate expenditures and theft in big payoffs like these?
COOKing the PIE
Totally agree, Fester, that profit is way too high.
Nut drawing the pie sans, the imaginary ingredients
makes the already huge profit look even bigger.
What’s in a name?
Alysen (wonder)Land
Paying off the building will deplete ONF’s liquid assets. From business people I know this is so ill advised it’s incomprehensible that only 2 people on the board can see this. It has not been reviewed by a financial analysis. Alysen, whatever anyone may think of her personally, is known for having no business sense when it comes to financial management. Even if one did not know her history going 300 thousand over budget on a 100 thousand proposal should be evidence enough.
When the building was originally purchased Alysen ran thru the loan at warp speed. She proudly announced to any and everyone no problem, John Lewis, then president of Bank of Fayetteville, would give her more money because he was in the palm of her hand and it looked like it was going to happen. A group who were then trying to save the co op approached John and asked him to review how money was ill spent because this group had access to information that was not presented to John. John, being knowledgeable in financial matters, did review once he had the additional information and the loan was denied.
Good point Elsie…could improprieties be hidden in a payoff of this size? I don’t know but certainly a question that should be investigated. What is the huge push to ram this through? Could there be hidden motives?
Also very suspicious that the board was forbidden by Alysen to discuss the payoff with owners.
How is it that the only two board members asking these questions are the target of Alysen’s personal vendetta? And if something does come up that would require liquid assets, of which there are none, would that put ONF in the position of a hostile take over? Again I don’t know. If ONF were to fall we can all remember the board that allowed the demise of a supposedly owner owned co op.
In any event it will not lower prices because the push will be on to replenish liquid assets.
Eva, great comment–please repeat it over at the yahoo group organiconf. I know there are those who don’t want to sign up to yahoo. Use fictional info–it’s the best site we have now. Tell all your member friends. An owners website is in the works. Remember, as these comments are part of a news story that’s going to drop off the thread, soon it will be gone. We need all of you that are catching on to the larger picture–please go over to yahoo.