CO-OP SHOP UPDATE
What's Cooking?
Well, here it is! The mid of August and our Co-op has been operating now for over four months. From humble beginnings, we're growing by leaps and bounds. We now have a membership of more than 350. If you haven't visited the shop lately, come in and have a look. I'm sure you'll be tempted by all the goodies on our well-stocked shelves.

What's in Store?
Fresh fruit and vegies, certified organically grown of course. You can buy small quantities in the shop or place an order for larger amounts. We offer $25 and $40 best value mixed boxes or you can specify exactly what you want using our itemised order form. Orders need to be placed before Saturday closing (6pm) accompanied by a $10 deposit. You can pick up your fruit and vegies at the shop the following Monday (before 6pm). You will need to place your order by filling in the form in the shop or faxing it in (currently care of the Environment Centre on 9976 3849). If you have any difficulty picking up your order before 6pm please call the shop to work out what alternatives we can arrange for you.


New Opening times!
Due to a shortage of shop coordinators the shop will not be opened before 2pm on Mondays.


New Products!
We now have fresh bread in the shop. Our bread basket is brimming with a heavenly variety of breads supplied by Helios and Quinton's. The breads come in to the Co-op each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.


Dining Out!
Thanks to some great PR work by Candy Disch, proprietor of Candy's Coffee House on Belgrave Street (the one with the superb coffee), some local restaurants are now buying bulk foods from our Co-op.

And other restaurants are showing interest. Not only does this boost our revenue, it gives restaurant patrons a chance to taste our wares. Thanks Candy!
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Have Your Cake and Eat It!
You don't have to be a restaurant to buy products bulk. Do you consume large amounts of certain foods? If you have a really big family, or a group of friends willing to share in a bulk purchase, you can purchase a whole box, bag or tin of any product you like. We will give you an extra 5% off whichever purchase price you qualify for. Now there's a price that's easy to swallow! Call the Co-op on 9907 1077 and tell us what you'd like to buy and we'll get the stock in for you.

Thanks to The Greens!
The shop is constantly increasing in stock and so there is more and more offered to members and customers. As sales are going up the Co-op is now in the position to repay a little of the loan we received from The Greens to ehlp us in stocking up the shop for the opening. We are paying them back an initial $200 of the $1000 they kindly lent us free of interest. A big THANKS to them for their support and they should receive the rest by the end of the year.

Crumbs!
What kind of gift do you buy for a person who has everything? A person with highly unusual tastes?

You whet their appetites with a Manly Food Co-op Gift Voucher of course! Pick one up at the shop any time. 		Spic and Span
The Co-op share a kitchen, toilets and a comfortable metting area above the shop with the other building tenants. Because it's a shared space, all the tenants have agreed to share the cost of cleaning. Our member Kate Charter has kindly donated her time and professional cleaning skills to do the job. Thanks Kate!

Cheers!
A few months ago the Manly Food Co-op applied for a grant provided by the EPA (Environmental Protection Authority) for the implementation of a project designed to ehlp avoid or minimise waste.

Well, we won the grant! Three cheers to our EPA project committee whose members have worked hard to bring this idea to fruition.

The aim of the project is to change peoples' attitudes, and ultimately their behaviours, towards retail related waste by educating them to drastically minimise packaging waste, and more effectively, to avoid producing it in the first place.

The committee has outline the project as displayed on the flow chart on the next page.

We will receive a cheque from the EPA, covering 80% of the almost $80,000 grant at the end of August. This money allows for a salary package of about $36,000 for a project officer to run the show.
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The EPA Project Committee is working hard to ensure the Co-op gets the very best person for the job so we can make the project a big success. A list of selection criteria has been established, which is based on the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to complete the project tasks. See our boxed advertisement next page for more details.
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EPA PROJECT OFFICER
EMPLOYMENT CRITERIA
You will need:
  • A high level of commitment to the natural enviornment
  • Knowledge about current waste issues
  • Knowledge of and experience in child to adult education, program design, delivery and evaluation
  • Experience in project implementation and administration
 It would be great if you have:
  • Experience with waste avoidance projects
  • Knowledge of relevant legislation
  • Experience in negotiating with Local Governments and community and corporate organisations
  • Computer literacy
Some evening and weekend work may be involved. Own transport required.

Does this sound like you or someone you know? Be on the lookout for our official advertisement in the Manly Daily and in the Sydney Morning Herald around mid to late August. Then, be sure to get your application in.
MARKETING & PROMOTIONS

Come and Get It!
Now that the Co-op is well and truly up and running, we need to let the world know where we are, why we're here and more importantly, why they should shop with us. There are lots of ways you can spread the word. One of the best ways is word of mouth. Just tell your friends, family and colleagues how they can benefit from joining the Co-op. Better still, bring them in for a browse!

The more members, the greater the shop.

On the Fly!
We've created some simple, eye-catching flyers perfect for community notice boards. How about posting some in your local community! Call into the Co-op to get some copies.

The more members, the greater the shop.

Have Your Say!
We want to find out whether you, our members, and our other customers are happy shopping at the Co-op. We're compiling a questionnaire to help you tell us what you think, and help us to give you what you want. Questionnaires will soon be available for you in the shop.
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All Sewn Up!
We have received a wonderful donation of a bolt of cotton fabric from one of our members. The calico shopping bags donated by Blackmore's have been selling very well, so well in fact, we're running out. So, we've decided to use our bolt of cloth to make some bags of our own, complete with our Co-op logo. Once the fabric is cut and printed, we'll be on the lookout for some keen machinists to sew them up. If you're handy with a sewing machine, we'd love to hear from you. Later on, we could produce aprons and maybe T-shirts as well as bags, not only for selling, but for our Co-op shop staff to wear. What do you think?



Holy Mackerel! We're on the Net!
Are you on-line? Surf to the Manly Co-op site! In cyberspace, that is. We're currently located at:

www.cia.com.au/lanceman/foodcoop/

Click on the groovy graphics and you'll find some useful info on what we're about, a list of the products we carry and some yummy recipes.

Co-op members Val Braun and Bill Russo have kindly donated their time and expertise to set up our site and make it look good enough to eat. Val will be travelling back to the Great White North (Canada that is) in the near future. Her skills will be sorely missed. And that means we'll be needing a suitable replacement to update and manage our Web site. Do you fit the bill? If so, we'd love to hear from you soon.
MEMBERSHIP ISSUES
IT'S YOUR CO-OP!
Your Fare Share!
Other food retailers may conduct sales in a similar fashion but that's where the similarities end. So what makes your Co-op different? Exactly that. It's yours. Unless you are a shareholder in Woolworth's or Coles Myer, you don't have any say in what products you can buy or how they're sold. As a member of Manly Food Co-op you are the owner of one redeemable $25 share.
As a shareholder, you have the right to vote on how your Co-op is run and what it sells.
Manly Co-op is a non-profit organisation. We are here to provide a community service and raise community awareness (unlike Woolworth's and Coles, whose raison d'etre is PROFIT).
Because of this important differnce, your Co-op relies on a growing membership base and volunteer labour as well as shop sales to keep it running. Without the labour provided by dedicated volunteers your Co-op would cease to exist.
As you can imagine, it takes a fair amount of work to operate the shop and keep you informed of what's happening. At the moment, your Co-op is relying on the dedication of a few highly committed member like Keelah Lam, Bev Cowan, Ken Mercer and Susanna Wagner our current shop co-ordinators. A big thanks to them for the extensive hours they've put in to manage the day-to-day operations of the Co-op and keep it well stocked.
Bev and Keelah would like to share their managerial skills (and their workload) with some other keen volunteers. If you have some time to offer and would like to gain some skills in running a retail business, see the boxed advertisement next page.
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The Main Ingredient
The better we train our volunteer shop staff, the better they can serve our customers. A well-served customer is a happy customer. And happy customers come back for second helpings! So, to make the task of training new staff easier and more consistent, we're putting together a reference guide with lots of useful information, with a little help from other Food Co-ops who've been in the business a bit longer than we have. If you have expertise in this area, we could certainly use your input.

Just Desserts
A condition of maintaining your Co-op membership is that you provide a minimum of 2 hours service to the Co-op each quarter year. Your 2 hours service enables you to purchase all your Co-op products at the discount membership price (non-member must pay the full retail price). You can save even more money on your purchases by volunteering your time more often.

Here's how it works. For each hour of service you give to the Co-op over and above the minimum 2 hours, you earn 1 'Energy Point' which gets credited to your membership on our computer database.

For every 2 'Energy Points' you accrue, you're entitled to one shopping trip (unrestricted dollar value) at the Extra discount price. So, the more time you give, the more money you save.

And there are lots of ways you can be of service. Working as a staff member in the Co-op shop is the most obvious way. And yes, we always need more volunteer staff. You can work from as little as 2 hours per fortnight to virtually full-time Monday to Saturday! It's up to you. You don't need any retail experience. Just drop in to the Co-op and we'll find hours to suit you on our shop roster. 		We understand that many of our members hold full-time 9-5 jobs, so working in the Co-op shop may not be practical. Well, you can still earn those valuable 'Energy Points' because there are lots of other ways you can volunteer your time, like:

Sewing Co-op shopping bags; updating our Web site; posting Co-op flyers; doing shop maintenance; fundraising; organising activities and social events or delivering newsletters...


WANTED
Trainee Shop Co-ordinators
Have you ever wanted to run a food retailing business? Here's your opportunity to learn the ropes. If you have a full, or even 1/2 day available each week or fortnight, we'll give you hands on training in all aspects of running the Co-op shop. You'll learn how to process sales and balance the till using our computerised system. We'll teach you banking and stock control procedures. You'll gain skills in working with volunteer shop staff, and eventually, you'll be able to pass your shop skills on. Your hours in the shop (including training time) will earn you 'Energy Points'. Working at the Co-op will give you the opportunity to meet lots of people and do something sorthwhile for your community.

This opportunity is ideal for anyone who is unemployed and needs to gain experience. It could lead to part or full-time paid employment. Sound appetising? Give Keelah or Bev a call at the Co-op on 9977 0177.
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Get It While It's Hot!
With a current membership of over 350, posting out your newsletters can get quite expensive. We have a member who has designed an effective 8 zone distribution system for the Peninsula. All he needs is some volunteers willing to deliver the newsletters within each zone each time they're published (bi-monthly at present). If you want to get the latest news hot off the press, and get a couple of hours of fresh air and exercise every 2 months, call Barry Golding after 8:30pm on 9982 2248.

Childcare needed?
Parents who are too involved with child-minding to work in the shop, please call Conny on 9451 3231.

RECIPES

Taste Buds
Got a recipe to tickle the tastebuds? Want to see your name up in lights? Share your culinary expertise with your fellow members! Send in a favourite recipe that uses one or more of the products you buy at the Co-op. We'll select a recipe to print in each edition of the newsletter. Who knows, it could be yours!

Condiments of the Season!
While many of us look forward to crisp winter weather, it can bring colds and flu bugs to many of us. Here's a brew to clear some of those nasty symptoms:

Cayenne Tea
(Stimulates the circulatory and digestive systems)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon grated raw ginger
1/2 cup boiling water
honey to taste

Stir the cayenne pepper and grate ginger into the boiling water. Strain. Add a little honey to taste if preferred.

ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

Soup's On!
Not sure what to do with some of the products sold in the shop? Especially the ones with 'how do I pronounce that?' names? We have a member who is willing to hold a cooking class and/or be available in the shop say one Saturday for other inerested members. If this whets your appetite, let us know and we'll get you cooking!
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On the Pulse!
Members who are interested in contributing to the definition of the Co-op's vision, direction, values and strategies are invited to come to our special workshop on Sunday, 28 September from 12pm to 4pm. We will decide who we are as a co-op and who we are not, what we wil do and what we will not do and how we deal with situations where members disagree.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT...
It is a commonly held belief that 'over-population' in poor countries is the main cause of our global environmental problems. But there's more to environmental impact than numbers alone. Like the amount of resources each person uses, and the amount of pollution each person creates. Did you know...that the USA's 250 million people have 12 time the environmental impact of India's 900 million?

This means the most 'over-populated' societies in today's world are actually Western industrialised nations. (Source - Community Aid Abroad)

How much waste are you producing?
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FARE GO!
What's your beef? Or is it compliments to the chef? Whatever it is you'd like to say, send in your comments to

'The Editor - Co-op Newsletter'
PO Box 806, Lane Cove 2066

or fax them to 9905 5213. We'll address all issues raised and print your letters where space allows.

TAKING ACTION

POTLUCK!
Got a passion? Want to share it with others? Here's your opportunity to seek out other like-minded Co-op members. Get a group together to discuss issues that matter to you. Take some action and really make a difference.

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT!
We have an active Co-op member who is interested in waste avoidance. Would you like to learn more about the environmental impact of waste? Would you be interested in finding alternative approaches we could put into action at the Co-op and at home? Conny would like to organise regular meetings.

EARTHWORKS DAY
Earthworks Day (for living with less waste) coming up on 30 November at Bondi Beach is a great opportunity for Co-op members. To support the EPA waste challenge by volunteering call Conny on 9451 3231 and make it happen!