One thing I missed in "How to Talk About the Co-op"

Thanks again to everyone who came out last night for the first of our regular, bi-annual member-owner meetings. As member-owner myself and someone who has been helping out with these start-up activities since darn near the beginning (though I must admit, not as long as Alison or Cassie or Patty or Josh or John or MaryBeth or a number of other folks), it was GREAT to see so many people who believe in this enterprise. I had the great pleasure to give a little presentation on how to talk about the Co-op with friends and neighbors who might be open to joining. While I leaned pretty heavily on the psychological reward of being one of our 250 Founding Members, I forgot what is perhaps the most practical reason and best answer for the question "Why should I join now rather than just wait until the store opens?" Quite simply... if you join now, the Co-op will open sooner. Conversely, if you wait until it opens, it may be a loooooong wait. (Thanks to Josh Skaroff for reminding me of this message point!) So, if you're out there talking to a friend or neighbor and you get a sense that they are interested in being a part of this enterprise but give you the "Why now?" question... it's quite simple. Join now and the Co-op opens sooner. Thanks again to everyone who came. Let's review the numbers... We had about 70 people in attendance (and that's NOT including the Boy Scout troop whose meeting space we invaded for the evening... special thanks to them for being Quiet along with Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.) Among these 70 people we had representation from 48 of our member-owner households who cast votes to ratify our by-laws (by a 48-0 vote). We signed up 5 (!) new member households to bring out total to 110. If I'm doing my math correctly that's 44 percent of the way to our first day of spring goal of 250. and... I ate 4 of the chocolate cupcakes and found them to be 110% delicious. Big thank you to everyone who earned a volunteer hour by bringing post-meeting snacks! And finally... if you really want a few more check out this blog post on Treehugger and the video below to find out directly from the Director-General of the International Co-operative Alliance why "the cooperative movement is gaining traction, and why it could be the fastest-growing enterprise model by the end of this decade." (Hint: it has a little to do with how strong the model is compared to some of the other *cough*corporate*cough* models which haven't performed so well recently.) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96EOrGPJfk8]