Candidate Questionnaire
Why do you want to serve on the Board of Directors for the RPFC?
I want to serve on the Board of Directors of the RPFC because I believe in good, healthy locally grown food, in keeping money local, and in a lively vibrant local community. This is easily represented in a Food Co-op Grocery Store. I want to see it happen. I want to shop there. I want others to have that opportunity. It won’t happen by itself. It needs dedicated people working together to make it happen. I am willing. And I have been working towards this goal since December 2013.
What is your passion? How could we see that passion in action in your day-to-day life?
One of my passions is eating ‘healthy’. I believe that our health is greatly affected by the food we eat. I have been a vegetarian since 1974 and altered by diet in other ways at that time too, for example almost eliminating fried foods. I have had a vegetable garden for many years, and seek to buy organic foods.
List some of the organizations, causes, initiatives, and groups of which you have been a part. How do you believe you involvement with these groups have prepared you to serve on the RPFC Board of Directors?
- I was second-in-charge of the Mathematics Department at the school I taught in.
- I co-founded American University Services, a company that prepared people for various American University Entrance Tests.
- I started a local chapter of La Leche League in the foreign country town where I lived.
- I am presently on the Board and on Committees for a Global Meditation Group
All of the above activities required vision, initiative and working and dealing with other people, as well as understanding also their point of view to better communicate and reach a final common goal. I have learned a lot! …and recognize there is always more to learn : )
Describe an experience in which you worked on a team. What did you offer the team? How did you compromise for the team's benefit?
I worked on a committee with a woman whose vision and methods were often different than mine. I compromised and ‘gave in’ for the ‘greater good’ and more harmonious working conditions when the difference in question did not compromise the overriding goal and ethos of the organization. I stood firm when I felt her requests were inappropriate. There were other members on the committee so direction chosen each time was a group decision. The organization continues and is thriving today.
I have an innate sense of attention to detail and a business sense, both help to see the overall goal and direction.
Briefly describe two or three possible ways you could handle the following situation. How you would ultimately act?
You've recently been elected to the RPFC Board. A close friend and local food producer privately asks you to help her business by having the Board publicly denounce the alleged unethical business practices of her closest competitor, whose products are already sold at RPFC. The business owner says she will deeply discount RPFC orders for her product for a year if you help her.
- I could invite her/him to present his/her request to the Board
- I could tell him/her that I will ask the Store Manager to look into his/her allegations of the product that we carry.
- I could recommend that he/she send in a written proposal to the Board or Store Manager, whichever is appropriate.
I think any of these 3 reactions could work, however the first and third respond more comprehensively to his/her request and offer.
Is there anything else you'd like to tell us? Do you have any other experiences that you see as being related to the work of the Board?
- I have been working/volunteering as a member of the interim Board for the Rogers Park Food Co-op for 2 years.
- I have attended a 2-day workshop in Indiana designed for starting up a Food Co-op.
- I have attended 2 different 1-day workshops in Illinois for Food Co-ops starting in Illinois.
- I have attended a local workshop for Co-op Board development.
- I have listened to various seminars on different aspects of starting a Food Co-op.