Graphic News From CGIN

CGIN was pleased to unveil a new service to members in June: a photo gallery. As of this date, we have two exhibits available in our photo gallery, one on bulk food departments and one on deli menu boards. Both of these exhibits were put together by Allen Seidner of Thought for Food Consulting and feature informative photos and commentary highlighting good and "less good" practices. Thanks to Allen for these great exhibits.

We welcome exhibits compiled by members (for instance, photos before and after a remodel, great end aisle displays) and additions to existing exhibits.

A sampling of other new items added to our website for sharing among members includes:

• seasonal newsletter articles;
• handouts from a number of this year's CCMA workshops;
• some new board policy manuals and other materials (monitoring policy, board calendar, meeting facilitation guidelines, sample meeting agendas) related to using policy governance;
• a training manual for deli staff;
• two more sample bylaws;
• a sample union contract;
• another handful of job descriptions and evaluation forms;
• approximately 25 new deli recipes, including quite a few for baked goods.

At our annual meeting in June, we were pleased to announce a special offer for CGIN members on publications from the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). FMI is offering 25% off prices on selected publications to CGIN members for a limited time only. For more details, follow the links on CGIN's web pages after logging into the members-only section.

During the past couple of months, CGIN's listserve was upgraded. Now messages are delivered with a prefix that appears in the subject line of the message, so that subscribers can easily identify those messages.

A sample of recent discussion topics on the listservice includes:

• GMO claims, especially on organics;
• disaster preparation and insurance;
• special orders and return policies;
• member labor discounts and cashiers;
• information on canola oil rumors;
• sources for deli meats, organic meats, squirt bottles, razors, and other items;
• providing benefits to visiting co-op members;
• Co-op Month activities and planning
• board recording secretaries;
• produce section productivity standards.

You can find a CGIN archive listserve at http://csf.colorado.edu/archive/cgin.html.

Finally, at our annual meeting we handed out great new CGIN mousepads to those who have contributed items in the past or who pledged to contribute materials, deli recipes, or money to our scholarship fund. Special thanks to major contributors for the past year: Outpost Natural Foods, Brattleboro Food Co-op, Lakewinds Natural Foods, Community Mercantile, Hanover Consumers Co-op, Mississippi Market, and GreenStar.

If you'd like to join Cooperative Grocers' Information Network, contribute items, or get a new CGIN mousepad, contact me.