Hello dear learners. Welcome to today's program. I am Dr. Pallavi Gugoy of Padmanad Guhaibara School of Humanities, Krishna Kandahandik State Open University. Today, I shall take up Unit 9 of General English course, Semester 1, Log 2. The unit is titled, William Shakespeare, Macbeth. And this is part one where we shall discuss the life of William Shakespeare. Let us then quickly begin. I shall first begin with a table of contents starting with a learning objectives followed by the introduction, the life of William Shakespeare and a few questions to check your progress and the references. Coming to learning objectives. After going through the video, the learner will be able to gain an insight into the life of William Shakespeare, who is considered one of the greatest dramatists of all times. To introduce you to William Shakespeare, William Shakespeare was one of the greatest known literary figures of English literature. Shakespeare, who is associated with the epithet, the Bard of Avon. Yes, you heard right. The Bard of Avon was born on April 26, 1564. Traditionally, however, his birth is celebrated on April 23rd, which is also known to have been his date of death. Isn't that a coincidence? Coming to the life of William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare was the eldest of the eight children of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden of Stratford of Avon. John Shakespeare worked as a tradesman and bailiff who had an influential role in the society. Mary Arden came from a family of high social standing. Only five of the eight children had survived childhood. Shakespeare, like his other brothers, was provided education in a local drama school. He married Anne Hathaway, a wealthy widow in the year 1582. His daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583 and the twins, Hamnit and Judith, were born in the year 1585. It has been stated in archival records that Shakespeare began as a schoolmaster in the countryside. In 1587, an actor of a theatre company called Queensman had died and Shakespeare may have filled up the vacancy, leading to his future rise as a renowned playwright. Later he became a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain's men in 1594 to become prosperous. Soon the theatre group became the leading theatre company of London and succeeded in occupying the famous Globe Theatre in 1599. The Globe Theatre was a large polygonal patch building with a centre open to the sky. It was used for the purpose of theatre performance, so you can imagine this wonderful structure of the Globe Theatre. The group soon came to be known as the Kingsmen. Shakespeare flourished as a playwright and in the year 1610 and left London for his hometown where he began to live at a new residence in New Place. His relationship with the theatre company ceased when the Globe Theatre was burned down during a performance in 1613. During the last years of his life, Shakespeare became more involved with Stratford and Hill's children, especially with regard to the marriage of his daughters. Nevertheless, his connection with the theatre world did not perish and he continued creating his dramatic works. Shakespeare passed away on April 23, 1616 and was laid to rest in Holy Trinity. This brings us to questions to check your progress, starting with question number one. Who is associated with the epithet Bard of Avon? Question number two. Who was William Shakespeare born to? Question number three. What was the name of the theatre company for which William Shakespeare first began to work? Question number four. What was the structure of the Globe Theatre? Question number five. How did William Shakespeare spend the last days of his life? With this we come to the end of this unit. Here are the references. I hope you would also refer to BA English graduate self-learning material of jail English block two unit nine semester one. Thank you dear learners.


Greetings. My name is Kari Bradley. I'm the general manager of Hunger Mountain Cooperative, and it is my pleasure to welcome you to our co-op's annual member meeting for 2020. Thank you very much for being here and for this combination of business meeting and community celebration. We're looking forward to sharing this time with you. I'm letting you know that in a couple of minutes we're going to kick off with a celebratory toast, so please have your beverage of choice ready to join us. One was included in our snack packs if you were able to get one of those. If you can hear and see me, then you successfully navigated the Zoom login. That's excellent. If you are in need of tech support at any point, please message us through the Zoom chat function. You can find a chat button at the bottom of your screen. Click on that to open a dialogue box on the right side where you can type in your message. I'd like you to know that our meeting is being broadcast by Orca Media live on Comcast 1075 or at OrcaMedia.net if you would prefer to view it there. A recording of this meeting will be posted on their website for later viewing. This is our first annual meeting using teleconferencing technology, and we're learning a lot about how to do this. We acknowledge that compared to our regular in-person meetings, we have limited time and opportunities to interact with each other. Thank you for your patience. We did host two member roundtable discussions in the lead-up to this meeting, and we will host another on the evening of November 16th for those who would like more opportunity for questions and discussion. We'll share the details about that later, or you can find them at hungermountain.coup. You can send out a message or question at any time using the chat function. Again, the button is at the bottom of your screen, and you can address your chats either to all of tonight's attendees or to the panelists only or just to individuals that you select from the participants list. And a quick word about raffles. Members who pre-registered before November 10th were automatically enrolled in our raffles, and our winners will be announced at the end of the meeting, but you do not have to stick around and then till when. We will post the results online and contact the winners. And before we move on, I want to offer a shout-out to our community relations and information technology teams who work so diligently on planning this meeting and made it possible for us to be together tonight. And I also want to share that I am here at the co-op in our community room with Scott Hess. Typically, we would always be wearing facial coverings indoors. Tonight, we will remove our mask when we are presenting so that you will be able to hear us as clearly as possible. We're taking our cue from our governor's press conferences. Please know that we are more than six feet apart and we have the windows open. So now it is my pleasure to introduce our call council president, Scott Hess. Scott, we can't hear you. I'm just going to pause you for a second. Okay, let me start all over. Okay, I was muted. I apologize. Technical difficulty. Thank you so much, Kari. And welcome, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. And please raise your glass for a toast. And I would like to toast our co-op community. Raise your glass to our employees for their supreme dedication to keeping the store open and safe. To the members and customers for supporting and shopping at the co-op and abiding by our safety protocols. To the co-op council for their insight and leadership. And to the local producers for providing us with healthy products. Thank you all. Cheers. And now we want to hear from you. We're going to run a couple of quick polls to get a better sense of who is with us tonight. You should see the first poll up on your screen right now. Please respond, but wait a few seconds. And as the answers come in, so the first one is how many people are attending this event from your login? We're asking this to get a better sense of how many people are actually attending tonight. While we're waiting for the results, Scott, tell us how many annual meetings of the co-op have you attended? I believe this is this is probably my 11th meeting, and I have attended every meeting since I've since we moved up to Vermont. Cool. Yeah, how about you, Kari? I think this is number 17 for me. Wow. Changed quite a bit over that. All right. Let's see. It was always a highlight, and I always really enjoyed receiving the receiving the newsletters while I was not living in Vermont and just to get a feel even though not living here. And I think we should just about be getting some results back in. Do we have any results? Ravi? Okay. Yes, we do. Okay. It looks like the vast majority, 74%, there's only one viewing, 22% to and three have 2%, and a little over for 1%. So great, mainly solo. Thank you so much. That's great. For the next question, what do you most look forward to by not by the in the? I think the other one's next actually. I'm sorry, jumped ahead. We just added this previous question. How long have you been a co-op member, a Hunter Mountain co-op member? And if you could just please reply on the screen. How about you, Kari? How long have you been a co-op member? Well, see, I grew up in the area, so I've been coming to the co-ops since I was a wee lad. I guess back in the 70s, maybe the early 80s. I remember the original co-op location on the corner of Granite and Berry and then when it was further down Berry Street, the second location. But I never became a member until I moved back to Vermont in 2004 to take this job. So I guess it's been it's been about 16 years. Okay. How about you? I've actually been a member since 2007, two full years before we moved up to Vermont, kept coming up here on vacation and just loving the co-op and actually stacking, getting supplies and actually bringing them back to New York and and then was just thrilled to shop here on a daily basis since 2009. It's been it's been a delight being involved in and shopping as I know all of our members do. Okay. Kars, should we see if we have some results that come in? Wide range here. Oh, interesting, the leading vote received over 21 years. Wow. Wow. And it's just so interesting being at the annual meetings and meeting so many people that many, many people that we know of that actually were here at the very, very start that started the co-op. Great. Thank you everybody for participating. And we have another and we have another question. What most, what are you most looking forward to when things get back to normal? And what what do you most miss about your daily interactions and what's going on in the co-op? So as you can see, which are the following most look forward to post COVID. So if you could just do that. How about you, Kari? What do you? Well, I mean, pretty much everything on this list is something I miss. I had to pick one. I'll go with the first one as someone who is here almost every day and eats a lot of the food. I'm really missing that hot and cold food bar, especially some of the specialty dishes that they put out. I miss that for sure. Thank you. Yeah, I miss all that, but I really miss the interaction. And I feel like this is kind of a community hall and where I could just, it's almost impossible to come to this as a co-op and not interact with people and see people that you know from Montpelier, East Montpelier. And I love that interaction and just either it's a quick hello or a catch up if you haven't seen anybody in a little while. So I'm really looking forward to and hanging out at the cafe, having, you know, meeting somebody meeting with someone for breakfast or lunch and always always a highlight. Sure. Real central place. Well, one day, we'll get back there. Hopefully, absolutely, absolutely. So let's say we have some new results coming in. Okay. Wow, Kari. It's pretty split here. Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah, you've certainly got the cold bar and meeting with friends and seeing other people's smiles in the last atmosphere. Great. Thank you so much. It gives us some insight and hopefully seeing for you that are viewing right now to see exactly who's signed in so far. And next, we're going to hear from some of the council members that are currently serving and they prepared a brief recorded statement for you. Hi, everybody. I'm Eva Schechtman and I have been serving on the co-op council for the past two years. I've been especially busy on the diversity committee, the recruitment committee and the communications committee. I'm especially appreciative of the staff and management of the co-op for making a safe place to work and shop. And I look forward to serving the membership for another year. Thank you so much. Hello. My name is Jess Knapp. I'm the community relations and marketing assistant here at Hunger Mountain Co-op. I've been serving as staff representative on the council for two years now. My name is Katie Michaels. Welcome to our first ever virtual annual meeting. I'm the vice president of the co-op council and wanted to take this chance to just give a big thank you to the staff of Hunger Mountain Co-op for keeping our community both well nourished and safe during this trying time. Hi, my name is Olivia Denton and I have served on the Hunger Mountain Co-op council for two years now. I'm also the staff member of the co-op. We don't quite have a co-op. And for the past year, it has just been such an honor to learn what it means to serve on a board and how I can better help serve my co-op and my community. Hi, Pat Sergi from the council. I hope you had a wonderful day and I'd like to thank all the hard workers at the co-op. They've worked through these difficult times and they've done a great job. So thank you. Have a good night. Bye. Greetings from the sunny November hillside of Plainfield, Vermont. He says without the slightest hint of irony in his voice. My name is Stephen Farnham. I serve on the executive committee of the Hunger Mountain food co-op council. I've served now two terms that's six years. I enjoy contributing to the community in this way and I'm looking forward to serving a third term. Thank you very much for your support. Hi, my name is Eric Jacobson. I'm a member of the Hunger Mountain co-op council. I've been a member for three years and my areas of interest are ethics, diversity, and fair trade. And this year I was a principal sponsor of a resolution in support of the organization by the name of Migrant Justice. Thank you so much and we do have a quorum. I didn't meet myself. Great. Thank you. We've heard from everyone on the council except for Andrew Sullivan. Andrew's just completed his first year on the council and he's also a co-op employee working in the grocery department. Andrew is also a candidate in this year's elections which leads us to our next topic slide. Annual meeting marks the end of the calendar year and we're in the process of electing new members. We have four candidates for the four open seats this year and let's hear from Catherine and Deb, the two non-incumbents running this year. Hi, I'm Catherine Wolther. I joined the co-op in 1989. My background includes growing food organically all my life, being in private practice doing psychotherapy, health counseling, and massage therapy, teaching at Goddard for the past 23 years, and teaching courses on climate change. I'm a member of Al Gore's Climate Reality Corps, the Vermont Climate Candlest Program, and the Sustainable Montpelier Coalition. I am very grateful to be part of the co-op community and I would like to help the co-op continue to localize its food sources, support our farmers, and reduce carbon emissions. I am Deb Robinson and I love shopping at the co-op, for the food of course, but also because I know that the money I'm spending is getting recycled into our own economy, through the paychecks of our employees, through the payments we make to the food producers we use, and through donations that we make to local organizations that share our values. And none of it, none of it ends in the pockets of the super wealthy. For me, being on the council is a way to see that process more clearly, to participate in it, and help and use whatever skills or understandings I have to help us make good decisions going forward. Great, thank you so much. A reminder that our polls will be closing this evening. Electronic voting is available until 7 30 p.m. tonight. And yes, it is an uncontested election, but voting is still important for determining the final seating assignments. We have three three-year seats and one two-year seat. Back to you, Cari. Now I get to introduce our moderator for the evening, Bonnie Hudspeth. Bonnie lives in Putney and she is in charge of cooperative development for the neighboring food co-op association. She also serves as the vice president of the board of the cooperative fund of New England. Welcome, Bonnie. And thank you. Thank you, Cari. Thanks, Scott, and it was really inspiring to hear from other board members describing their connection to the co-op. I'm really happy to be here with you all. I love Hunger Mountain co-op and I really enjoy stopping when I'm driving from my house in southern Vermont up to my folks in Burlington.  Can't help but mention them. So I'm really glad to be here with you all and I want to remind you that we want to hear from you. Please type your comments and your questions in the chat at any point. I've already seen some great interaction happening. Someone mentioned buying snow shoes at the co-op would love to hear that story. If we run out of time, we'll compile all your remaining questions and make sure to post responses. So you can rest assured all of your questions will be responded to eventually. So with that, let's talk about our plan for the evening. So we are going to approve the 2019 minutes first, recognize some employees at the co-op. We're going to hear from the diversity committee and we are going to learn about the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Fund grant awards. We're also going to get to hear from Scott and Kari again, their reports for the year, and then we're going to get to hear a bylaw update. And then we'll conclude with a very exciting Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Award and raffles, of course. So our first order of business is approval of 2019 minutes. And I got a just triple check first. Do Rowan, do we have quorum? I believe that we do. Yes, there are 99 people that I can see and several have let me know that they are with more than one person. So I believe that counts as quorum. Excellent. Okay, so let's approve the minutes. I hope you've been able to check them out on the co-op's website. Can we first have a motion and a second? You can type in the chat. So Scott can let me know. Who do we got, Scott? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We have Linda Kelly made the motion and it looks like Amy will a second at it. Thank you, Linda and Amy. Okay, you'll now you should see a poll up where you have the options to vote yes, no, or abstain. So go ahead and click your your choice here and as we're voting let's imagine ourselves together, getting to smile, wave at each other, maybe eating a tasty dinner, prepared for the co-op. That will happen again, right? All right, let's see how you all voted. We have 83 percent voting yes, no one voting no abstaining. So I'm excited to announce the 2019 annual meeting minutes of Hunger Mountain Co-op are thus approved. Thanks, everyone. Now we're warmed up, right? We've already practiced our co-op democracy in action and it's time to now hear from Council member Olivia Dunton who will share employee recognitions. Just so you know, she's sharing from inside the busy vibrant co-op so you might hear some background noise. Good evening everyone. I would like to take a moment to say how grateful we are to all of our employees for everything they've done, especially dealing with these unprecedented times and challenges over the last eight months. Each year the co-op selects one co-worker to receive a Hunger Mountain Co-op award for excellent customer service and recognition of a person who consistently goes above and beyond in providing service to internal and external customers. This year's winner is Tim Johnson. Tim is a manager on duty, meaning he works with customers, employees and local vendors responding to various challenges, making decisions in the moment, lending a hand where a hand is needed and generally providing helpful and friendly service to everyone. The award comes with a gift certificate to one of Tim's favorite local businesses, virtual bakery. Congratulations Tim and our heartfelt appreciation. We would also like to take a moment to recognize our employees who have been with us for many years. Much of our success as a co-op can be attributed to employees who have devoted large parts of their career to us. Here is a list of those who are celebrating major anniversaries this year. Robert Kerrigan, 35 years produce, produce manager. Mary Wells, 30 years finance bookkeeper. Lana Casey, 20 years finance and receiving, accounts payable clerk and receiver. Elizabeth Jezdale, 20 years, demo coordinator and gatekeeper. Ellie Wood, 20 years, human resources, human resources assistant. Neri Kado, 15 years, front end cashier. Jeffrey Gilbert, 15 years, grocery, grocery stocker. Leo Ormiston, 15 years, grocery, grocery manager. Jen Palkowski, 15 years, storekeeper, maintenance assistant. Chad Bisa, 10 years, grocery, grocery buyer. Julie Henderson, 10 years, finance, depositor and payroll assistant. Sonia Keane, 10 years, front end, front end manager. Marcus Lafayette, 10 years, food services, deli pocketier. Carlin Prue, 10 years, deli, prepare foods, assistant manager.  Please join me in thanking each of these employees for their many years of service to our call and activity. That was wonderful. Thank you. Tim got a lot of love from you all in the comment section. Apparently he's very helpful and remembers people's names. And huge congrats to all employees on these milestones. And as Olivia was recognizing employees, how your co-op is different came to mind. How even during these times of crisis that your co-op is prioritizing and retaining jobs, shuffling around to make it happen, caring for staff. And these types of things result in people sticking around for the long haul as we've just noticed by all these amazing milestones. So that's something to celebrate. Congratulations to all the employees. I'm now going to turn it over to Katie Michaels, vice president of the council and co-chair of the diversity committee. And she will be sharing the co-ops diversity committee report. So take it away, Katie. Hi there. My name is Katie Michaels. I'm a council member and I'm going to be presenting on behalf of the diversity committee. The diversity committee is composed of both council members and members of the co-op staff. So there are a couple of things we've been up to over the past year, mostly focused on a council level and the co-op has focused on employee training related to diversity, equity and inclusion. There's been a fair bit of professional development for council members on this topic, ranging from an optional reading group where council members have been able to read articles related to class, race and gender discrimination. And also all council members last January participated in a workshop related to anti-bias. A couple of other things I want to highlight from this list were this past June, we were all moved by the murder of George Floyd and the national reckoning that we had with issues of race in our country. And the council made a statement on this topic, which we're happy to share with you. And we also made a donation to Black Lives Matter of Greater Burlington, recognizing our need to put our money where our mouth is and support and stand in solidarity with Black members of our Vermont community. And then just this past month, Eva Schechtman on the diversity committee kind of envisioned and worked with CQ Strategies, a local consulting firm, to hold a listening session for members on the topics of racial equity and what the co-op needs to do and how we need to change to be a more inclusive place. On an employee level, most employees have participated in implicit bias trainings, which basically help people recognize their own biases and not act on those instincts. And a number of employees, as well as council members, participated in a workshop series called We All Belong, which was both individual skill building and also broader thinking about how the co-op can be a place where everyone is welcome and everyone feels like they belong. And one of the outcomes of that We All Belong training was the people who participated developed a statement about the place and space they hoped for the co-op to be. The diversity committee and members of the council have worked with that statement and shaped it a little bit to make it a more specific statement about the space that the co-op council hopes that the co-op will be. So I'm going to read the resolution, which was passed at our last council meeting, where we said a hunger mountain co-op wants everyone to feel welcome and we strive to be an inclusive and anti-racist community. We respect differences, honor each person, value your unique stories, and seek to learn from each other. We succeed when you feel that this is your co-op. So this statement is a work in progress. We're continually trying to make it more specific about precisely what we hope for the co-op to be, but we also feel really strongly that it's not enough to make a statement on behalf of diversity. We need to have some action to follow. And so one of the things that I feel really excited about for our 2021 work plan is we're hoping to change the language of the resolution and turn it into an ends policy, which Kari, the general manager and the staff of the co-op would then be responsible for implementing. So as part of that, we as a diversity committee and potentially some additional members of the co-op staff and any members who are interested will be trying to develop metrics that we think should be tracked over time to assess our progress on that topic and also to help the co-op staff develop a work plan to become a more welcoming and inclusive place. Some other things we're thinking about for the year ahead include member workshops, a survey of our members to understand your wishes for the co-ops, diversity and equity work, and then some professional development for council members as well as trainings for staff. So with that, I will pause but would welcome any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. We have time for a couple of comments and questions. And so far, I've seen a number of people wanting to be able to clap and raise the roof. So that's what I've seen so far. But we're lucky to have Katie here with us live. So please take your questions for Katie into the chat right now. Katie, I had a question or two actually from a member. How can you, how can a member, you mentioned that members can get involved in the diversity issue. Can you expand upon a little bit about how a member can get involved? Yeah, thanks, Scott. There's a couple of ways. We would love members to join the diversity committee and help the diversity committee think about what our overall work for the co-op is. But as I said towards the end of the report specifically, we're going to be doing some pretty in-depth work early on in 2021 to work on developing a work plan and to refine the resolution we passed into an end statement. And we need help. And so if you're interested, I'll type my email and Kari's email into the chat. And you can email us. We have a meeting next week that you're welcome to join. And we can go from there, but would really, really appreciate and welcome member participation. That's great, Katie. Thank you. Someone made a, Elizabeth made a comment that she hopes that we will continue to embrace economic diversity as well as other racial, gender and age differences. Do you want to elaborate on that, Katie? Yeah, Elizabeth, I think the diversity committee totally agrees. And, you know, last year a lot of our reading was focused on gender and class diversity, just recognizing that that's a lot of the diversity that we see in the Montpelier community. But I think we want to think about diversity through on a number of axes and also to think about the intersections between different types of diversity. But absolutely, I think we are hoping to think about all of those pieces. And that's part of why we are hoping to do a survey. We have plans for an in-person survey, which for obvious reasons were curtailed this spring, but really wanting to listen to the community and hear what the specific types of diversity that we need to pay attention to and respond to are. So, thanks a lot for that question and comment. Yeah. And I see a comment from Rowan that the co-op has made it easier to participate in the co-op CARES needs-based discount program. Elizabeth also mentioned as the economy shifts, local food will become more important. Absolutely, Elizabeth. And I think your co-op saw that when supply chain was compromised, that the diversity of relationships you have with local suppliers helped to keep your shelves stocked. So, excellent point. Any other questions or comments for Katie and the diversity committee? All right. Anything else you'd like to say, Katie, before we move along? No, I'm just really grateful for folks' excitement about this topic and would love folks to join the diversity committee. So, I'll share information about doing so in the chat right now. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. All right. Now we are going to shift and hear about the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Fund and I'd like to introduce Matt Levin, who's Chair of the Community Fund. Oh, I'm Matt Levin and I'm honored to be the Chair of the co-op's Community Fund Advisory Committee. The Hunger Mountain Co-op Community Fund was founded in 2005 to offer financial support to organizations, businesses, and initiatives that are aligned with our co-op's mission. Over the past 15 years, we've given out over $58,000 in grants to 52 recipients. These funds have provided critical support to projects that strengthen our community's individuals, local food system, and cooperative commerce. The Community Fund Advisory Committee is made up of member owners, council members, and staff. Our committee makes grant recommendations to the council who has final approval. Our criteria include alignment with the co-op's mission, anticipated project impact, and the applicant's access to other resources. The fund is supported by donations from members and the co-op's operations. Thank you to those of you who have made a donation to the fund. This year the council elected to donate uncashed patronage refunds to the fund as well. With these funds, the co-op is able to support projects that we know are making a real difference in our community. We were gratified to receive 16 applications this year and we are very happy to announce that we are able to award $11,030 in grants to seven deserving local organizations and businesses. And now here are the 2020 Community Fund grantees, Bethany Union's $790 for a freezer replacement at the food shelf, Greenfield Highland Beef and Plainfield $2,500 for installing secure freezers for contactless pickup of meat at their farm. Curly girl pops of Montpelier $2,500 to build a mobile commercial kitchen, the growing peace project of Topsim $1,000 to help them provide food to those in need, the East Calus Community Trust in Calus $1,000 to help get the East Calus General Store up and running again, and the Twin Valley Senior Center in Plainfield in East Montpelier $500 to make the services of the senior center accessible during COVID. Congratulations to our grantees and thank you for supporting our co-ops Community Cooperative Fund. Thank you for that report, Matt. And just want to congratulate everyone who came together to collectively raise over $11,000 through your co-op to support these amazing community projects, which feels even more important now. So, Yahoo! I know you guys can't clap, I'll clap. Raise the roof. I'm seeing love for Curly Girl Pops and I see from Denise and Jan from East, the Community Trust, that they're very grateful for the grant as they continue to achieve their goal to reopen the General Store and to serve their community and beyond. And congrats. Let's see who else. Thanks for helping serve. They do great work in Northfield. Yay for the grants. Oh, someone figured out how to clap in the comments. So, we're seeing lots of love and excitement and truly what wonderful projects that you all help to support through the cooperative. You can raise your hands. Steven said to raise your hands. People are clapping and raising their hands. So, a lot of things to celebrate. All right. Well, I'm going to turn it back over to Kari now for reporting. Thank you for everyone's attention and participation. Kari, you're muted still. Thank you, Bonnie, on many levels. So, Scott and I are now going to provide a brief overview of the past year. For a more detailed summary, we invite you to take a look at the recorded video presentation of our annual report that is posted on the co-op's website. And or you can join us Monday for the member roundtable discussion. I'm going to start by sharing some of the successes of this past year as I see it. It's just been a remarkable time to operate a cooperative grocery store. First off, in the face of COVID-19, we've been able to maintain for the most part a steady supply of food and essential products, despite some shortages, especially of national brands in the spring and summer. This is thanks to our team of dedicated buyers and stockers. And it's also testament to the robust local food system that we've built up here in Vermont over the past few decades. At the same time, we've maintained employment. Many of our employees change duties and schedules. Some chose to stop working temporarily for pandemic-related reasons. Some have been able to work remotely. We've had a few retirements. And no shortage of staffing challenges this year. But so far, we've had no layoffs and no forced reductions in hours. And I believe we are fortunate compared to many businesses these days. One response to the staff to the pandemic has been to increase communication and share in decision-making. For example, we formed a response team of senior managers and union officers, which meets regularly along with maintaining daily staffing meetings and daily written updates to keep folks informed and provide a forum of exchange of ideas. I would like to pause here and again recognize the incredible efforts of our staff. Likely for most of us, this has been the most daunting challenge of our careers. And I'm extremely proud of our work and I feel privileged to work with such a dedicated and talented team. One of our accomplishments, we launched our curbside pickup program back in April. It was a significant undertaking executed on a very short timeline. I can share a couple of the markers of success. We now have over 5,000 items available. And recently we have been approaching our goal of 5% of store sales from curbside. And there's capacity to provide even more. This along with other new and altered programs, it's been quite a year. And I want to commend every co-op employee along with our members and our local vendors for your dedication and support. Some of the challenges we've been have been in our dealing with the uncertainty, operating with incomplete information, changing conditions, new regulations and expectations, lots of logistical challenges. It all keeps us on our toes and adapting knowing at any time a surge in local cases could impact us personally and business wise through a variety of impacts on supply, demand or staffing. At the same time, we are always doing our best to consider the interests of shoppers, staff and vendors. And it can be a delicate balance to meet all needs. I appreciate everyone's patience and flexibility. It's important to recognize that everyone has been dealing with heightened stress. And for many months now, we were very concerned about staff burnout. I urge all of us to approach each other with kindness. With so much going on, we just don't know what each other is experiencing in any one moment. And one of the sources of stress as a staff has been preparing for the upcoming holidays when we always do see a significant increase in customer traffic. We've been planning since the summer and we were prepared, but still this is our first holiday season during a pandemic. Scott will share some of the details about this in a moment. But now let's shift to a brief financial report. We're going to discuss how we perform in fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30th. Like many grocery stores, we saw an increase in sales, specifically 2.6% more than the prior year, driven by a historic level of sales in March. At the same time, operating expenses were only up 0.6% as we saw reduced staffing and we pulled back on discretionary spending. These totals do include increased pay and benefits that we agreed to with our employees union in recognition of the increased risk and stress. That income before taxes and patronage refund came to $569,312, our best year in over a decade. You'll see there's an asterisk here due to the fact that our audited financial statements are not yet complete. The reason for that being that in order to determine this year's patronage refund, we're waiting on action by Congress to determine whether the forgivable portion of the Paycheck Protection Act loan that we received last summer is subject to income tax or not. Regardless of how that resolves, we did a good job of controlling expenses and ended the year with more than $2.7 million in cash, so we were relatively well positioned if we should experience a downturn in sales or other financial hardships. Now we'll turn it over to Scott. Thank you so much, Kari. As you can see in this pie chart slide, we'll first take a look at the the big blue area, 63% of that's our sales, and that went back to our suppliers for the cost of the goods sold, and that's a little lower than than under normal circumstances. The 28% were the employee compensation. That was in the form of wages, benefits, and this was basically right on budget. The other smaller sliver, the other expenses, that was 6%, and that was cut down considerably and staff did a great job cutting down on those costs. And that other small sliver of the light blue was our net income, as Kari just mentioned, the 2.2%, which is really good in the grocery industry, and parts of this amount will be used to pay out income taxes and a patronage refund once Congress acts, as Kari just mentioned. I'd like to go through a few words on safe shopping for this holiday season in terms of what the co-op is doing. The co-op has expanded our curbside pickup, as has been mentioned, and I see a lot of comments on how successful it is and how happy you are about it, with pickups between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. every day. We've also expanded the hours back to normal 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate this extra shopping in this busy season. And we'll continue, though, please remember we're going to continue to limit the number of customers inside of the store to provide adequate space, and the 9 to 10 a.m. time frame is still reserved for high-risk shoppers. Staff has reduced the number of freestanding displays on the sales floor to reduce crowding. And, of course, hand sanitizer and masks are available for shoppers, and we will continue to sanitize the frequently touched surfaces. And what we can do as shoppers to remain safe, as you all know, the most important steps are what our health care experts emphasize. We're a facial covering, maintain six-foot distancing to the extent possible, and wash hands often. Additionally, we ask that you give our curbside program a try. It's the single best way to reduce our own risk and save space in the co-op for others. We encourage folks to shop intentionally. Please, if possible, use a list. Stock up now for things you will need during the holidays, and shop at slower times. Early in the day, or late in the day, on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays are the slowest times. Shop alone if you can. All this and more is summarized in our guide to safe shopping for the holidays, which is posted on the co-op website. So thank you so much for your support, and together we are keeping our community and ourselves safe. Sorry, that's you. So finally I want to speak to an initiative to help address hunger here in Central Vermont. The University of Vermont is reporting that nearly one in four Vermonters experienced food insecurity this past summer, and that children and people of color are amongst the most susceptible groups. The Vermont Food Bank has nearly doubled its distribution this year, and it's not enough. On top of all the other challenges right now, too many of our neighbors are dealing with life without enough food. So from now through the end of December, the co-op is organizing our neighbors helping neighbors food and fund drive, with all donations going to the Vermont Food Bank and our Central Vermont Food Pantries. You can help by donating at the cash register. We've secured matching donations from our community partners, Northfield Savings Bank, Cabot Creamery, and Feral Distributing. Food donations are being collected at the co-op every day, and we are running buy one, give one promotions focusing on different staple items right through the end of 2020. Our goals are to raise $15,000 and 2,000 pounds of food. It's an ambitious goal, and I urge all of us to participate in this important community effort. And we'll pause there and turn it back to Bunny. Thanks, Kari. So I'm noticing a lot of member owner excitement and gratitude about curbside, and I noticed a couple members saying that they could not shop if not for curbside. And Bill said that he's thinking of the co-op as his refuge in an increasingly strange world. That's a really good representation of what the co-op means, right? And I just want to take a moment to recognize the co-op staff and incredible board and leadership during this stressful and scary time, because the fact that they came together, they worked to innovate and launch new programs and somehow pull off the best sales in a decade under these stressful conditions while taking countless measures to keep staff safe, member owners safe, and the community fed and connected and safe is just amazing. So thank you. I have to say that. I can't not say that. So, and now we want to hear from you. It's time for your questions. I've seen a couple questions already typed in the chat, so I'll cue those up first, but keep typing them in if you got more. So this first question I'm going to throw to Kari. Kari, we've got a question about out of stocks when shopping online, and how can people suggest products to be added to curbside? Well, certainly send us your suggestions. We want to hear what to prioritize. So please email us at infoathungermountain.coop. You can also call us on the phone 2238,000. We're adding, we have been adding products as quickly as we can. I mentioned we're up to over 5,000, but obviously there's still other products to be added, and if you help us prioritize, we'll do that. Out of stock, sir, a challenge, certainly, and we're doing our best to stay on top of that. I think one of the benefits of going to pick up throughout the day is it has reduced that to some extent. And here's an area where you see an interaction with the fact that we are so focused on local that, you know, we work with a lot of smaller businesses. So, you know, we're not necessarily designed to be in stock with all products all times. So bear with us on that. It is something that we're trying to do better with and because we don't want to disappoint you. It's important. Great. Thanks, Kurt. I see a question here. What's the plan for the winter? Sure. So we called the gatekeeping program is what we call the program where we limit the number of shoppers that are in the store at any one time. That's in order to provide proper spacing within the co-op. And with the colder weather coming, we know we're going to have to make some adjustments to both the layout and the procedures. So you may have seen that we've constructed a room within the entryway. And that's for our employees so that they are provided some warmth and some proper distancing. And then we're going to be asking our customers when a line must form. It'll be outside. It'll work be undercover, at least partially. And we're going to be providing more enclosure to provide some protection from the elements. But we recognize that it's going to be challenging. And so please, on those particularly cold and snowy days, just know that we're trying to get you inside as quickly as possible. Think about shopping and avoiding the most popular times, which tend to be the lunchtimes, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, right now. They tend to be the busiest. And also, please consider the curbside pickup program because that's your best way to shop without even leading your car. Great. Thanks, Kari. Pat is giving applause for co-op efforts and for supporting local food need issues, financial and food donations. And there's what Bernadette is cheering for the response and problem-solving of the co-op has been most remarkable. Kudos to the amazing staff and gratitude for showing up and doing a great job. We do have another question about how would it affect the co-op if the PPP loan is taxable? Yeah, it will just mean that the forgivable portion, which is going to be the majority of it. I'm not remembering the exact number. It's a significant amount that will be subject to income tax, you know, roughly 21%. So it's a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And that will affect our bottom line in our cash position. At the last council meeting, based on our accountant's recommendation, the council actually approved patronage refunds for both scenarios, whether it's taxable or not, so that when Congress does act and we do have the guidance, we'll be able to move forward as quickly as possible. So in either case, I think the co-ops in a pretty good financial position right now are fortunate, especially compared to a lot of local businesses. But we've, you know, we've been conservative. We've built up our reserves for a reason. And that's just recognizing that it could be tough times ahead. Yeah, sounds like proactive planning. So there's a question about how do you staff the co-op side program and how does it actually work? Yeah, that's a good question. So right now the staffing is primarily provided by our front-end department, which is our cashiers. And they've really been doing a great job. So the way it works is that, you know, we're using obviously an online platform. It's connected to our point-of-sale software, that technology. So that really integrates nicely with our inventory database.  It generates a pick list so that our employee can basically do the shopping for you, process the transaction, you know, using using payment card. We're taking payment. And then that goes into storage until you arrive.   There's a number of steps. It seems to be working reasonably well. I should say hats off to the team because it's a lot of work, as you can imagine. We're doing between 20 and 40 something orders a day. And those range from, I don't know, maybe $40 or $50 up to $700. So it's a lot. And to juggle all that while maintaining normal operations, many, many appreciations to the team. Absolutely. Lots of shuffling and juggling. And that's one of the most frequent comments that, and thank yous that I've gotten from members and friends that they're just so ecstatic as we're seeing in the chats. It's just a remarkable job. And the council can't thank the staff enough for their heroic and, you know, for the tremendous effort in this. It was, we used to, we get updates on a regular basis. And we're just so appreciative. Yeah, thanks, Scott. And they all, they're just just posted the curbside link in the chat. So if anyone wants to click on it and explore it, it's right there for you to check out. And so we have a question from Billy about, as we're adapting to climate change and try to decrease our own impacts, can we look, begin to look at our buying policy and transportation issues around shipping from afar that impact the climate, slowly decreasing national brands in favor of local, increasing local available options? Yeah, I think that's a good point. Certainly this co op like many calls, but especially I would say this co op because we're so blessed with having such a strong local food system. Local food is really a priority here. And this year's report, again, in that recorded annual report, you'll hear about this a little more, but about 48% of our sales last year came from local products. And we've been hovering around that 40% mark for a while. And I think that, you know, there's a balance we can, we're always striving to do more, but we're also recognizing there are some benefits to some of the national brands too, especially when it comes to price. And that's an important consideration for folks these days, especially so I was looking to fill the gaps where there are product categories that are represented by local. That's an opportunity to bring in another local product and local vendor, and maybe a startup business can form to fill that gap. But increasingly, those are harder to find, because our system is pretty well developed. And people are really taking advantage of those opportunities in the market. So, yep, and we're so open to other ideas around this topic. And, you know, you tell us what is the proper balance between local and all the other values that we hold dear as a co op? Great question, Kari. And Elizabeth is already answering it. Your members have some ideas. So, Elizabeth suggests that perhaps a group of co op members can start to suggest how to shop local, prepare meals using local or low energy impact foods, and then post recipes in the newsletter. And feature ingredients also in co op deals, thinking about affordability and accessibility. Great idea, Elizabeth. I'm sure the co op knows how to find you. So, and it looks like we're, we're going to wrap up the Q&A section now. But as I mentioned before, we really want to make sure that all of your questions are addressed. And so staff will be making sure to collect them and follow up with you. And also you're welcome to join us Monday 16th at that's, you know, this coming Monday at 6pm for further discussion. Your Kari will share more information about this with you at the end of the meeting. And at any point, you can also submit additional questions and comments to annualmeetingathungermountain.coop. We'll post that email so you can just click it right from the chat. So you'll, you'll see responses and upcoming e-news to some of your questions. And yep, the just just posted the email right in the chat. So thanks, everyone. And thank you to Scott and Kari for handling all the questions. All right. I am now going to introduce Carl Etnire, who's chair of the bylaw committee. Hey folks, the person introducing this segment probably will have already told you this, but I'm Carl Etnire. I am chair of the bylaws committee. And I thank you for this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the process that we've been working on for amending the bylaws and related co-op housekeeping. The committee had hoped to bring proposed amendments to you at a special meeting earlier this year, this past spring. Unfortunately, for reasons we know all too well, meetings of every kind were canceled this spring, and we don't know when we'll be getting back together for in-person meetings. Meanwhile, the problems remain that got us together. Our current bylaws, they're still poorly organized. They're still full of typos and difficult to understand sentences. Every time we went to look up something in the bylaws, we were just struck by how dreadfully they're written. So I'm here to tell you what our thoughts are about moving forward on these proposals. First little background, what's happened so far. A committee of co-op members, including two council members, has worked on a massive overhaul of the co-op's bylaws since early 2019. We built on proposed bylaw amendments crafted since 2014, and we dug in a lot deeper than that previous work. Many of you have been involved in the discussions with our committee. We've circulated drafts of our work to members. We've held public meetings to discuss those drafts. Some of you have also visited the regular committee meetings. They've been open to the public, or you've read our minutes, which are posted at the co-op's website. Through all this work over more than a year and a half, we created bylaws that co-op can be proud of, and we think it'll make it easier to govern the co-op. We really look forward to presenting them to members for a vote. So what we want to do going forward, and based on what happens at this meeting, we'll find out how well we as a co-op can have reasonable discussions with online technology. We're hoping to bring the bylaws to you for approval in late winter or spring of next year, 2021. We'll be doing that in an online forum. After this annual meeting, the committee will get back together and assess how feasible this really seems. If we do decide, okay, we want to go ahead with this, we'll tele-counsel that, and if they're okay with it too, we'll have a significant information campaign starting in January to make sure that when the time comes you're prepared to make informed decisions. Well, that's it very briefly from the bylaws committee. I'd like to thank the committee members for all their hard work month after month to put together these improved bylaws. They include Jed Davis, Stephanie Kaplan, and Sue Zeekis, council members Stephen Farnham, and Scott Hess, and Carrie Bradley has been with us at almost every meeting. Cheryl Connor was an invaluable member during the committee's first year of its work before she moved out of state. I look forward to hearing more from you about the bylaws and the process in the Q&A period and in the months ahead. Well, thank you, Carl, and what questions? Anyone have questions? I see an appreciation and thanks to everyone who worked so hard on this from Olivia. Any other questions again? I do see a question about how, and bylaws are tough. Acknowledgement from Amy that bylaws are tough. Thanks for doing it. There's a question about how can I learn more about what's going on with the bylaws? Sure. I can take it. Can you hear me? Yes. Sure. So the committee is going to get together and make a decision about going forward. If it looks like we are going to present them to you this spring, as we hope to, or late winter, then there'll be all sorts of opportunities to find out about them. If you want, you can go to the Hunger Mountain Co-op website right now and find the bylaws. It's the same page as the council meetings, I believe, but if you just do a search for the bylaws, you'll get to it. And the proposed changes, the proposed amendments are there along with the existing bylaws and the Articles of Incorporation. And you can ask any of us on the committee as well. Carl and Carl, I think the minutes are also listed on the website. If people want to go back and read those also. If you want to read through minutes of dozens of meetings, they're there too. Sounds like you can learn maybe more than you want to know about what the board's been up to. Thanks, Carl. Any other questions? Carl, you're getting a shout out from Stephen Barnum about getting a lot of credit. And if you were paid for your efforts and hard work, it would cost the co-op a small fortune. So thank you for volunteering. And it's just another example of how you as a member are helping to shape your co-op. Thank you. Carl has done an amazing job, thorough and a tremendous amount of work. So I echo Stephen's comments on behalf of the council and the committee. Tremendous job, really is a lot of work. Thank you. Thank you. If there aren't any further questions, I could say just a little bit something more about the committee's process. Sure, go for it. Yeah, I think it's interesting that three of the now six members on the committee, since one of them moved out of state, three of us have a history of opposing bylaw amendments from the council. And I was one of them. We weren't motivated by knee-jerk opposition. We just thought that these previous proposed amendments were not improvements. And we rolled up our sleeves and worked with so many others to develop these bylaw proposals that are clearer. And we hope they will open the door for more participation by members. And that we are open to hearing all sorts of opinions on the bylaw proposals. I want to let you know that in this process, we've heard lots of disagreements and we've had our internal disagreements, some of them quite sharp disagreements at time. But we've generally succeeded at keeping the level of discussion polite and respectful. And we're going to try to keep it that way going forward too. So we hope many of you will continue to be part of that process. Thank you for sharing that, Carl. We know democracy is messy and also precious, right? So thank you for laying out the co-op's intentional process for bylaw revisions. And it sounds like you are welcoming feedback and participation. And you're still standing and smiling and energized after the process. So congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. All right. I don't see any more questions, but you know how to get in touch, right? You can contact the co-op and there's a number of ways to get involved. All right. Well, now we are going to hear from council member Dr. Eric Jacobson for the Hunger Mountain Cooperative Community Award. Hi, my name is Eric Jacobson. Helen and Jules Raven, the winners of the 2020 Hunger Mountain Community Award, single-handedly changed the character and the flavor of breadmaking and bread in Vermont. When they began baking bread in their self-built wood fired oven in 1977 in a shed behind their home, bread in Vermont was mostly of the manufactured variety produced with low-cost ingredients in industrial facilities located far and wide. None of it with sourdough or whole grains. A crust of sourdough would have only been obtainable at the fanciest of European style bakeries in the big cities, if not for Helen and Jules Raven, of upland bakers of Marshfield. It all began during the visit that Jules and Helen made to Le Archer, a commune in southern France in 1971. Like in many villages and small communities across rural Europe, a stone-baked oven formed the center of communal life and the locus of mutual aid. There simply wasn't such a place to bake bread in Vermont. Returning home, Jules and Helen began work on the oven. They lugged flat field stones from the banks of the Union River, burning out the engine of their Volkswagen bus just hauling stones to the oven site. They thought that they would bake their own bread and invite their neighbors to do the same, a communal oven that would bring neighbors together. As one writer noted, the oven would be part of Jules and Helen's vague and larger communitarian dream. According to Jules, the population of Marshfield was just too sparse to make practical use of a community oven. This vision of me and the 1970s French experience marked by the phrase, be realistic, demand the impossible. Helen and Jules surely would not have been ready to make a go of baking for the community when Jules was laid off from his teaching position at Goddard College in 1977. The upland bakers were born and they grew to produce by one report up to 600 loaves at their oven, distributing bread throughout the local region to great appreciation and ultimately great demand. Staying small was one of their goals. The ravens retained, retailed their bread only at a handful of nearby stores, food co-ops and a few restaurants. As Jules once noted back in the 1990s, down familiar roads, five, ten, twenty miles away, live the various people who eat our bread. Two hundred times a day or so, our bread shows up at different tables. The bread has made the life of this jungle of hills and valleys a thread more convivial. Today, things are a bit different. Today, there are dozens of sourdough, whole grain bakeries across Vermont, making Vermont particularly known for its high quality and locally produced breads. This is all thanks to the dedication of Helen and Jules Raven, the upland bakers whose perseverance in serving the community for more than 40 years not only kept us fed and in good health, they single-handedly transformed the food culture of Vermont one loaf at a time. I cannot think of a more worthy recipients of the first Hunger Mountain Community Award than Helen and Jules Raven for their outstanding contribution to the sustenance of our local economy. Congratulations, Helen and Jules. Thank you, Eric. Is anyone else craving a warm piece of sourdough right now? I can eat a loaf of bread. So you can see Helen and Jules standing next to their beautiful oven and joining a well-deserving group of co-op community award recipients. Big congratulations. So now we get to hear from Nessa Raven, daughter of Helen and Jules and also a longtime co-op employee. And Nessa is going to read us a statement prepared by her parents. I want to thank you very much, really. I'm sure I don't know why Helen and I were selected for this honor, except that we are a long-lived pair and being of the great migration of the 1960s, we have lived here for more than 50 years and have acquired a little moss on ourselves. First that was in a cottage we rented from Walter Smith, the foremost farmer of the area, and a very special Vermonter. And then in a house we built for ourselves with the very prominent help of a couple of new carpenters, recent migrants to Vermont like ourselves. No, that's backwards. It was the carpenters who built the house with ourselves assisting and taking greater charge as we learned the skills. In the course of time and because of changes in our lives, the shrinking down of Goddard College, where I had been hired to teach anthropology, we became the upland bakers. We fell in with the new mystique of bread, good bread, preferably sourdough bread, and baked in a wood-fired oven. We had encountered that combination in France, the bread and the oven, and it had held an attractive place in our minds. We built that ultimate oven ourselves with no previous masonry experience. Helen studied a few books to guide us, and masonry novices that we were, we did it. Built ourselves a serviceable oven over a long summer with field stone gathered from the stone dumps. Why sure, help yourselves at the back of ends of Walter Smith's fields. We didn't maraud any stone walls in all that effort. The stone and brick oven we made, with Helen, our mason and chief, was sort of preposterous, but it worked surprisingly well and served us for the 20 years that we baked bread for the area, supplying a small scatter of stores and food co-ops. We were, I believe, early factors in the bread revolution, which is now well established in this part of Vermont and elsewhere. Then we began to get old, quit that career, and left the hard work of baking to now numerous other people. Now this is us, me, as a current member of Hunger Mountain. We live fairly isolated on a dirt road 10 miles from Montpelier, fixed in place as people our age tend to be. It's for me an event to come to town, which I do about once a week. The co-op is one of our regular stops when we go to town, and moseying around in it for our purchases and once in a while for lunch with a friend. I feel a little as though I had arrived at something occurring around the bend as I make my way through the oddly arranged aisles of the store, nod, nod, nod, chat, chat, chat. A pleasure of a special kind that is for back road people like us. And one of the pleasures is the sight of the little kids in carriages whose mothers and fathers, besides shopping, are looking too for a little of the village green experience, for a casual encounter with a friend or acquaintance. Or for me, just a sight of a Gaga, one year old, looking from their carriage at the wonderful array of goods and faces they come across, the faces remarkably. So I lined with that, that little prize and surprise of the baby wondering about the faces he sees at the co-op, that frank curiosity, and the hankering eye of the old guy, me, who has yet to greet his first great-grandchild. Thank you. And once again, that was Nessa, daughter, to the beautiful award recipients. That was very touching. And what a beautiful description of their story and how they call, forth the co-op is their village green. I imagine a lot of us can relate to that feeling. And this award comes with a beautiful apple crafted by Matt C. Schultz. Kari's holding it up now, so that will be given to the award recipients. And along with a $200 gift card to the co-op for the next time they come to shop. I see Elizabeth shared, amazing breadmakers, one of the original local breadmakers, well deserved. And Paul shared, with all the wonderful breadmakers we have today, I still long for a loaf of Jules and Helen's rye bread. I remember the days in the old co-op, the Second Berry Street store. Jules came on Tuesdays and Fridays and we weren't allowed to purchase more than two loaves. Thank you, Helen and Jules. Jennifer shared that she's needing a hanky right now. Such a moving award.  And Eric Jacobson noted, what a delightful reception speech. Thank you to Helen and Jules for all the years of wonderful service to the community. And Nora, everyone's chiming in. Thank you, Helen and Jules, for everything and your continuing inspiring words read so beautifully by Nessa. It does seem like a good time. It's the evening, we could gather on the fire and I could listen to Jules. Jules is where it's all night. Maybe we could have, or Kari, you could organize some winter readings to keep us comforted and connected. Fireside chat. Fireside chat. So sounds great. So congratulations, Helen and Jules, and for your many contributions to the co-op community. And it looks like people are excited about winter readings with Jules. And I just want to say three cheers for all of you. The member owners who are the heart of your co-op, right? So thank you. And now I'm going to turn it over to Kari one last time to bring us to the wrap up and closing our evenings together. Thank you all. Great. Thanks, Bonnie. So now we're going to move into our closing section and I want to start by recognizing our outgoing council members. Pat Siergy, who has served for the past three years, including on our recruitment committee as secretary and as treasurer this past year. Also, Jess Knapp, who has been the staff representative to council for the past two years, bringing employee perspectives to the council conversation. We have gifts for both of you and many thanks for your service. We also want to thank Julia Goldstein, who served on the council last year until the summer when she needed to resign. Thank you, Julia. And I want to recognize Katie Michaels and Scott Hess, who will be stepping down at the end of December. Our president and vice president this past year both served on multiple committees and have done so much for the co-op, our sincere appreciation. And a personal thank you to Scott who has served on the council for the past 10 years. Through many ups and downs, Scott has always reliably stepped up to help with whatever was needed. Many, many thanks for everything, my friend. In anticipation of the vacancies created by Scott and Katie's departure, the council is planning to appoint two members to serve until next year's election. An appointment application is available at our website and will be due December 3rd. The council will interview applicants and make selections in early December. I hope you will consider applying and let us know if you have any questions. Remember, we have a member round table discussion this Monday at 6 p.m. This will be an opportunity to further discuss the topics we cover tonight or any others. And you can join us using the go-to meeting platform. There's a login link on our website. You can also email us at annualmeetingathungermountain.coop. Again, we will respond to your questions and we'll compile all the questions and comments in the upcoming edition of the member e-newsletter. And a reminder that Monday is our deadline to order turkeys and pies for Thanksgiving. Turkey online ordering is easy. The pickup will be available the four days prior to Thanksgiving and the parking lot next door to the co-op. We're going to keep it outside this year. Please consider also placing a curbside pickup order for Thanksgiving. This will be a separate order from your turkey, but you can combine the actual pickup with the safest and most convenient way to shop. You will be able to get all or most of what you need without even leaving your car. Finally, a heads up that will be closed on Thanksgiving and the day following. So that's the 26th and the 27th in order to give our staff a well-deserved break. Thank you very much for your support. Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and joyful holiday. Back to you, Scott. Thank you so much, Kari. Thank you for those kind words. We have many people to thank. Matt Schultz created the award that the Arabians received and the pizazz pottery crafted for Pat, the beautiful ceramic plate for her council service. On your screen you'll see a list of the vendors who donated raffle prizes and the treats in our snack packs. Also thanks to Liv Dunton and Muffin Spencer for coordinating the food donations. Also thank you to Orca Media for broadcasting and recording tonight's meetings. The night's meeting. Thank you again to Northfield Savings Bank, Cabot Creamery and Farrell Distributing for generous donations to our neighbors helping neighbors food and fun drive. Many thanks to Bonnie for moderating and thank you to our other presenters Liv, Katie, Matt, Carl, Eric and Nessa. We also need to thank the employees who put so many hours and planning and preparing for this event. Stephanie Kanonen, Rowan Sherwood, Jess Knapp, Ravi Nielsen, Giles Brule, thank you for helping us have a successful remote annual meeting. And now on to our raffles. This is the slide. The first group of winners congratulations will contact you about how you can pick up your prize. And for the grand prize, the grand prize is the two. We have Sue Zeekis. She wins the camping essentials box and Lisa Rochelle wins the $100 co-op gift card. Congratulations to all of our winners. And please give us your feedback on how this meeting went. A survey will appear immediately after the meeting to get your reaction. We'll also email you a survey as a follow-up if you prefer to fill it out later. Thank you for participating. Have a safe holiday season and take care of all. Thank you so much. And let's adjourn by consensus at 7.23. Thank you all.


What has been your best success story in a fire effects monitoring project? We had, in 2002, the Rodeo-Chettiskei fire in Arizona. Well, probably the largest wildfire recorded in Arizona history. And we were asked, myself and my crew, were asked to help in monitoring the immediate post-fire effects. And I was very happy with the crew's response and the fact that our protocols were able to respond to what they wanted us to do. We took the protocols that we normally use and just massaged them a little bit and said, well, these are our, this is what the immediate post-fire effects look like. And what they were really concerned with was looking at areas that had been treated for fuels versus areas that it hadn't. But you could actually see, it was incredible, the difference you could see whether the area had been, to use an overused term, nuked on one side of the road and then on the other side of the road where it had been treated previously, several years even, there were green trees still there. I guess one of the most successful projects I've had recently with my crew is a mechanical treatment monitoring project that we just started this year. And it's a new protocol with new objectives. And the crew and I sat down together to discuss why we were monitoring this project, what our objectives were and what the best methodology would be to monitor them. And we looked at the literature and they, the crew was involved in deciding how to monitor. And we have the latitude to do that because it's a new protocol and because mechanical treatment monitoring is new for us. And with that level of involvement, those employees, not only did they come up with a great methodology for monitoring, but they really dove into it and did an outstanding job and their creativity and good quality work really paid off for us. Alrighty, the next question is, what fire effects monitoring assignment had the biggest surprise for you? Two years ago at Grand Canyon, we had the swamp ridge complex of mainly fire use fires and in that we had 18 of our FMH plots that just happened to burn by sheer chance. So it gave us something great to be able to assess the effects of these fire use fires when normally we don't have anything set up in advance of them. And one of the most surprising things about it was that with these 18 plots and a wide variety of fire behaviors immediately post-burned, there wasn't a single tree, overstory tree that we said had died. Now, we normally wait until five years out to assess that, but people want to know, how many trees died? How many trees died? We said, well, at least on these 18 plots, immediately after the fire, we wouldn't say any of them had died yet, which was pretty non-surprising and I think was a really good indicator of how well fire use can behave if all the proper management practices are taken and it's being allowed to burn at the right time. Prescribed burn that we had right outside of Moab, the surprising thing was is the amount of birds, wild turkey and elk that actually came into the site no more than about three weeks after the burn. All right, now thinking of one of your recent fire effects monitoring projects and it could be in the last few years or so, what did you learn from that project that you think others might benefit from? I'm constantly surprised and this is certainly important about how our data may be used once they leave our control and I know Diane mentioned how important it is for the crew to be professional and involved in what they're doing and also we need to follow up in that manner with where our data are used. I found that it's important to be real clear what the objectives are for the monitoring because a lot of people just say just go monitor but without knowing exactly what the question is, you don't know how to design the plots or how many to put in or where to put them. We really have to work with managers to convince them that you can't monitor unless you have objectives and they'll come up with an objective like we want to return the natural fire behavior to the landscape. We want to reintroduce fire. That is not measurable. You can't monitor a goal, you can't monitor a concept and so there is a lot of give and take with those managers trying to articulate an objective that can be measured. One thing that I found helpful in getting those specific objectives is looking at the burn plan because it'll have things like we want to present tree mortality and that's something you can measure and it's there. Something on more of a not project specific basis but that I've learned in the time that I've been in this job is that as far as seasonal employees go sometimes they'll only grow if you really allow them to. I guess I've been getting less controlling as the years go by and trying to give more work opportunities and more decision making ability to the season. I've just been really impressed with the results and realized that yeah maybe they don't always do everything quite to the standards that I would hope but they come up with some things that I never think of but the other thing is if you are going to be giving them more leeway be ready to give both positive and negative feedback because they need to be able to grow and learn to not just get the chance for freedom and then not hear anything back. We do need to link the practical and the data. What's it saying? Obviously we are collecting a lot of information that can be very, very useful but what has worked is a one or two page lesson learned on a particular project that you're 90% complete or done with implementing the project. The line officers love seeing that kind of information. Fire management officers burn boss. What actually worked and what can we improve on and make it more of a learning environment rather than a defensive environment? Two years ago at Grand Canyon. We did our first prescribed burn since before Cerro Grande and everyone was itching to finally get fire on the ground and honestly looking at it in advance everyone who was kind of on the wet side of things was late in the season, it was late October and we kind of started and then it rained and we waited a couple weeks and kind of dried out and then it was November and well maybe it's dry enough. Went ahead with the burn and really did a big air show and burned more than we originally sort of planned but it was still within the parameters and then we were done.  We got 3,000 acres done. Well we went out and read the plots going to the plots. You could see that it was really really cold burn. I mean there were enormous patches of unburned fuel and then we got the data and kind of gave them some feedback and said hey it was great and I understand the pressure to get the fire on the ground and do this but if we keep burning this late in the season we are not going to be meeting our objectives and they don't want to hear that and they're under different pressures than we are as the monitors but you still have to give that feedback. That pre-burn briefing the morning of the first ignition is really important because that's when you can tell everyone who is going to have a drip torch in their hand what the objectives of the project are and what to target with their drip torch and maybe what to not burn even though it will make a big cool looking flame we don't want to burn the cottonwood trees so ignite over in these kinds of vegetation instead and I think that really helps a great deal if the burn boss pushes it pretty hard to everyone on the burn. On some of your recent fire effects projects describe some of the best crew work that you've been with your crew and why did it work so well? We've got at Grand Canyon a couple of groups of plots that arrange such that it really makes sense to do about three of them in a day and in the past I've pretty much just told people okay we're going out, we're doing three and by the end of the day they're pretty much shot. This year though our schedule hadn't been as rigorous and I didn't feel like I had to force people to attempt the trifecta as we called it on these two sets of plots and we did the first two and it was getting late in the day and we were not going to finish the third one before the end of the day we couldn't walk out back to our vehicle and such and get home before close business and I honestly didn't think anyone would want to do them and before like I said I always made people do them and both times this came up the crew said that's okay we don't care if it takes longer whatever let's get them done we're out here and I guess it surprised me a bit the fact that both instances they chose to do this really impressed me you know we work in a fire organization and it's a pretty rules and regulation militaristic style in some cases but our employees are botanists they're natural resources people and they don't respond well to to military discipline and you know severe rules and regulations they just are a different breed I'm glad you guys said that because I I feel like I've been in the exact same boat and really this last year I changed my hiring practices a bit to intentionally hire the best crew dynamic rather than to hire the most efficient crew I'd always hired before this year I always tried to hire people who seemed to be the most qualified had the best skill set and would really just be able to bang out the plots and we had heavier plot workloads in previous years too in a way it was good but we also had poor crew dynamics but this last year I intentionally hired people who were maybe less experienced who I don't know I just got the impressions or interviews and such that they would be a better crew person I didn't hire individuals so much as I was trying to hire a team and we also had less of a intensive plot workload so that of course helped in that strategizing but I just got lucky because it worked out great what was the most significant thing you learned of any of the prescribed fire fires that were successful after a prescribed fire about a year after we found that the fuel loading was actually higher than it had been because of the scorching and all the needles and branches falling down and so the fire guys realized that multiple entries are going to be necessary that you can't do it all just in one and so the data fed back into the burn plan there's one that I wasn't necessarily involved in but I looked at some data on when I used to work at Alaska Volcanic National Park in California and I did sort of an informal study of how effective their prescribed burns were in relation to their fire effects data and also their fuel moistures and prescriptive parameters one thing that I found is that very few of their burns really were meeting objectives they were generally too cool the one that definitely did also had the most spots and was the greatest hazard so I mean that's really kind of empirical data but I'd say based on my experience with a lot of other burns you know if a lot of objectives are based on it seems like if you're going to meet them you have to burn a little bit hotter than a lot of managers are willing to burn how about the last question then what's the most significant thing you learned on prescribed fire you were involved in that went out of the prescription I'm thinking of a couple of prescribed fires that got away that I've looked at and no structures were threatened some the boundary was breached but otherwise no humans or life or property were threatened but I have to say that those were the best resource burns I've ever seen when the prescription maybe the weather changed and the fire behavior increased to the point where it crossed the burn boundary and went up the hill that hill looks great and the outlet fire from 2000 I think I wasn't actually there when the outlet fire happened and that one definitely was prescribed fire that got away and the two things that I think we can really learn from that the first is that it proved a lot of mixed conifer type habitat on the North Rim and people were bemoaning the loss of all of that after it happened it didn't take long in fact less than two months after the burn the Aspen regeneration in those areas was incredible beyond belief and I don't think anyone necessarily anticipated that we know that Aspen is an early successional species and it would respond probably well but I think everyone was probably a little bit shocked about how well it responded one of our objectives on a prescribed burn was just a broadcast burn and ponderous pine to reduce some of the understory and we had it was rimmed by Gamble Oak and Aspen and it was a late season prescribed burn and my instructions to the crew were to black line the unit and run it right into the Gamble Oak and Aspen is a natural barrier to containing the fire well we all woke up the next morning and there was fire off the rim down off this one edge it just did not occur to me until we all looked at it that it was late season Aspen that it had six weeks to dry with leaves were off so it kind of crept its way down the bottom of the hill and it was definitely unsafe to put anybody in there to cut it off because there was just too many snags did anybody else have anything they wanted to add to either any of the questions or anything