Madison    When we hit Madison, we had to provision ourselves for the week for our five-person crew preparing for the battle with the million pieces of paper that represent the ACORN archives within the Social Action Collection at the Wisconsin Historical Society.  We searched for the location of the local food cooperative, the Willy Street Co-op, Willy for Williamson, the street where the main store is located.

Compared to our local coop in New Orleans, this operation was primetime.  There were multiple stores.  There was prepared food.  They served coffee and had an espresso machine.  This was a full-service operation.  We were impressed.

Earlier in the day we had stopped at a smaller store in Milwaukee.  Mi companera is on the board of our local cooperative, so she got a chance there to visit with the manager of that operation, the Riverwest Co-Op, which was more to our hometown scale.  They had a small café next door to the food shelves.  The manager said that for years the café had carried the coop, but more recently it was the other way around, since they were no longer the “new” thing in town for vegetarian fare.  They had tables outside.  It was a nice cozy operation.

While checking out at the Willy Co-op, the cashier told us that their annual meeting was coming up at the end of the week with a huge celebration in a nearby park as part of the multi-day Fete Marquette.  We bought tickets for the dinner and the opportunity to be observers of the annual meeting.

When we showed up there were lines at the food tables that stretched one-hundred yards in length it seemed.  We asked where the annual meeting was being held and were directed to a large yellow tent where people were sitting at tables eating and listening.

A speaker from the community shares operation that was associated with the coop got applause citing the $3 million in donations they had made during their history.

Members of the board reported on the successful payment of member-bonds that had supported the expansion of the store.  The numbers were significant for their operations, and they were doing well it seemed from the report of the board member who handled finances.

The nominations for the board were open, and differently than the New Orleans co-op, the members were actually allowed to vote on the board, which is one of the seven fundamental principles of cooperatives.  Interestingly, they reported there had not been an uncontested election since 1973.  Three candidates for board seats gave brief remarks in favor of their candidacies.  We couldn’t hear clearly from where we were, but the elections were likely through mail ballot for members-only.

There were questions and responses by various board members.  The questions were interesting.  Someone wanted to know if there were plans for a fourth store and whether it would be located in Madison, but the board member said there were no plans for expansion currently.  There were questions about recycling and suggestions from members on other topics.  The business meeting was short.  The fair and festivities were sponsored by the Willy Co-op, so the fun was the carrot, and the meeting might have been the stick, but we were glad we came.

Please enjoy Immigrant Eyes from Willie Nelson.

Thanks to KABF.