THE YELM COMMUNITY BLOG BREAKS THIS LOCAL STORY!
The Yelm Food Co-op held their Annual Member Meeting on September 13th where Co-op Board President Tom Dewell shared with the members what the Co-op has been up to in the last 12 months, including and not limited to:
* The Co-op has been reaching new sales levels! Mr. Dewell detailed those numbers.
* Introduced the Yelm Food Co-op volunteers.
* How the Yelm Food Co-op got a ruling on some tax issues with the IRS and succeeded.
* The Co-op’s plans for penetrating Cyberspace to bring customers around the world new and exciting products!
* The newly voted and installed Co-op Board of Directors:
Lesley Valentine
Dr. Suzan Seelye
Susan Meyer
all voted unanimously!
* Annual Co-op member Organic Turkey Raffle!

A brief history was presented: The Yelm Food-Co-op officially opened April 28, 2007. From zero to almost 1/2 million dollars in sales in 2 1/2 years is very encouraging! Mayor Harding cut the ribbon on their grand opening.

The Board, members, staff and volunteers brought their experience, people skills, creativity and business sense in discussion on these issues at their annual meeting at the Yelm Senior Multi-purpose Center.

The Yelm Food Co-op needs people who can help with:
– marketing and advertising
– the online store
– inventory and stock control
– staffing coordination
– receiving stock orders
– stocking
– cashiering
– department management
– and much, much more…..
Cooperatives only exist due to their Members!

CONGRATULATIONS to outgoing Yelm Food Co-op President Tom Dewell for his vision, persistence & passion in creating and seeing our Co-op go from a mere dream to what he announced as a 2009 $435,000 projected revenue producing entity (compared with $388,000 total revenue in 2008), 13% above 2008 figures if the Co-op just maintains 2008 sales in the last quarter of 2009. And, that is in a contracting economic environment!
Mr. Dewell dedicated the Co-op’s success to:
– members
– volunteers
– inspired customers
– grand variety of products not obtainable anywhere else in Yelm

Mr. Dewell also acknowledged,
Gloria Winnick, Secretary

Florence Vincent, store manager & buyer

Ektara Jarecki, Member of the Board

Iris Moore, Member of the Board

Tom told this to the Yelm Community Blog of his experiecne:
“Having been part of a start-up business before, I had promised myself not to ever do it again. But somehow, the idea of the Co-op got under my skin and things just evolved to a major commitment. Both my wife Jutta and I had been shopping at the Olympia Co-op and the idea of having something similar here was very appealing which is why we both got involved.
What has made the last 3 years so interesting is how we have taken a very diverse group of people who were for the better part of that time, unpaid volunteers, and pulled together as a team all striving for the same goal. As I said at the meeting, our success is due to three groups: the founders who had the vision and the courage to pursue it; the volunteers whose hard work and dedication took it from vision to reality; and our wonderful customers who were willing to give us the chance to grow.
No one person is responsible for our success, but certainly an enormous amount of credit has to go to Florence Vincent, who has been the main person responsible for the product selection, and for the look and feel of the
store.
I’ll probably not miss the intense involvement, but I will continue working on the online store project and remain a loyal customer.”

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL YELM FOOD CO-OP PARTICIPANTS & SHOPPERS.
TELL THE YELM FOOD CO-OP YOU READ ABOUT THEM ON THE YELM COMMUNITY BLOG!
AND THANK YOU TOM DEWELL, FOR THE LEGACY YOU HAVE LEFT IN YELM!