Old Creamery Co-op now welcoming Founding Member-Owners!  Just 6 months ago we gathered in Cummington to launch the effort to transition the Old Creamery into a community owned cooperative. Today we’ve reach a major milestone – we are now welcoming founding member-owners to join the Co-op!

Our Co-op Steering Committee has been hard at work since February.  We have:

• Conducted site visits to 5 area co-ops;
• Outlined the business plan, analyzed the financial history, created future financial projections, and compiled estimates for purchase and start-up costs;
• Received an architect’s assessment of the property and advice on approaches to future improvements;
• Determined the member-owner costs and benefits and created new materials to help educate and recruit our founding member-owners;
• Created interim bylaws, adopted a conflict of interest policy, and conducted preliminary research on the liquor license transfer. 
• Last week we incorporated the Old Creamery Co-op as a legal entity in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We met with the Creamery staff to provide information about the transition to a co-op, including their role in answering questions from prospective member-owners. 

In the midst of this intense storm of activity we have shared many laughs with fellow Steering Committee members, staff and customers. We’ve had tender moments, times of frustration, and exuberant outbursts. We have all felt deep satisfaction knowing that our efforts will serve the Co-op and the community. We have learned a lot and developed a high level of confidence that we can become the Co-op  that so many people have been working on for many months.

Our next milestone we need to reach is signing up at least 300 founding member-owners by the end of this year.  When we reach that goal - and the related efforts to raise additional capital from gifts and grants and member-owner loans - our Steering Committee will move forward with the decision to purchase the Old Creamery and we’ll start a new era as a member-owned community cooperative.

Help us come full circle. The Old Creamery started as a dairy farmer cooperative in 1886. Let’s make 2010 the year it returns to its roots.

Over the next several weeks we will be holding a series of “co-op conversations” to explain the benefits and responsibilities of membership, as well as the roles of member-owners, the board of directors, the general manager, and the staff. If you would like to be included in one of these educational sessions please contact us at info@oldcreamery.coop  and provide your name, address and telephone number and best time to reach you. We will be sure to follow up with an invitation to a co-op conversation.

Please consider joining the Co-op today. You can do so online now, or you can stop by the store to pick up our brochure and membership application. We prefer your equity payment to be made by check to avoid credit card processing fees. We will hold all founding member-owner payments in escrow until the Co-op is ready to open.

Please help us spread the word about the work we’ve done so far and where we’re headed. Share the news with your neighbors, and  let us know if you have questions or suggestions. You can contact any Steering Committee member via email, you can send a note to info@oldcreamery.coop and you can drop a note in the suggestion box at the store, or call the store at 634-5560.

We welcome your support.  And, as always, one of the most effective ways to offer your support is to shop at the Creamery.

Go to Contact Us.  To receive periodic emails about our progress, complete the contact information form.  You may also use the comments section to tell us how you would be interested in helping or supporting this effort.   

Ask questions or let us know your ideas and concerns.    We invite you to call, write, or speak to any member of the Steering Committee.  Their names and email addresses are listed on our website.  You may also email us at info@oldcreamerycoop.org, write to us at 445 Berkshire Trail, Cummington, MA 01026, or call the Old Creamery at 413-634-5560 and ask for Amy or Alice..

Stop by the Old Creamery.  We will post regular progress updates at the store.  

Thanks for all your help and support.

We have received wonderful support from the community to keep this coop initiative moving forward.  See who is on our Steering Committee and what they are working on. 

The Old Creamery as a Co-op took a BIG step forward on Sunday afternoon, 31 January.  Inside the Cummington Community House, children played in the back room with a child care provider as their parents and others filled the seats, spilling into the library, the balcony, both aisles and the foyer.  Approximately 300 people took the time to come and listen.

David Hurwith, briefly welcomed the crowd and then, Amy Pulley and Alice Cozzolino, stepped forward.  Alice and Amy have issued an invitation to the community to transition the Old Creamery into a Community-Owned Co-operative, and this meeting was called to gauge community support.

The notion of the Creamery as a co-op is nothing new. In 1886, the building housed the Cummington Cooperative Creamery, a co-op of local dairy farmers who brought fresh cream from their farms to be churned into butter.  In its heyday, 145 dairies produced 20,000 pounds of butter per month. With the advent of refrigeration and motorized trucking in the 1940’s, the needs of the community changed, the Creamery Coop closed and the building housed either a restaurant or a general store.

On this night, however, Amy and Alice called for change.  Facing the large crowd, Alice quipped that she had sent her first e-mail that week. Everyone laughed, knowing that Amy and Alice are “hands on” folks and more comfortable with pencils than a mouse. The room became quiet and the crowd leaned forward. 

Amy thanked everyone for coming.  Then, Alice spoke of the physical ramifications of running the Creamery, noting that it was beginning to take a toll.  They spoke from their hearts.  They want more balance in their lives, but they don’t want to simply sell the Creamery as a business and jeopardize the values that made the Creamery the community resource it has become.  They felt the best solution was to become a co-op and asked David Hurwith, Michael Kalagher and Kathy Harrison to help them get this ball rolling.  (video of Amy and Alice‘s in their own words)

Kristi Nelson, friend, and organizational consultant to their co-op process, joined them on the stage.  She put Amy and Alice’s core organizational values at the bottom of a model that built upon those values by creating a vision for what the Creamery could become.  This vision held a mission statement which subsequently held the programs  that came to define the Creamery as a place of action and eventually, as a source of community leadership.  The bottom line was that the Community would not not be merely investing in a business, but would be underwriting values and ideals that enrich and support community.

Jan Caruso and Andy Danforth from the Cooperative Development Institute gave a slide presentation on co-op values and principals and provided a framework for moving from private ownership into a cooperative. 

Michael Kalgher, then addressed those gathered with an overview of the research, legal, financial, and operational work that will be required if this Co-op idea is going to happen.  He emphasized that it was up to us in the community and would be done largely by people volunteering their time and talent.    

A question and answer period was led by Kathy Harrison.  Many great questions were addressed, and recorded for future use.  It was almost 6PMwhen Hannah Streeter, Cummington, age 11,wanted to know what kids could do to help.  It was the way she asked the question, her sincerity.  The entire audience clapped.  Alice thanked her for just coming to the Creamery and hanging out.  She reminded her, and everyone there, that the best thing they could do to help was to use the Creamery, buy food and share ideas.  Alice also remirimded everyone in the group that there will be ample opportunities to contribute to the Co-op development process as it unfolds (see a video excerpt of the Q & A session)

The meeting was adjourned, soup and salad was provided by the Old Creamery, and many more ideas were shared well into the evening.