While Holly was ringing up my groceries, I asked her if she would like to be interviewed.  She agreed, but worried that she was not very interesting, she obviously couldn’t know that as a social worker, I find everyone’s life story interesting.

 Holly grew up in Northern Idaho in the towns of Hauser Lake and Spirit Lake, the youngest of four children.  In high school, she was into punk rock music and painting abstract art.  After she graduated from high school, she wanted to try life in the big city so she went to live with her aunt in Olympia, Washington.  In this state capitol, she acquired an interest in politics and with a volunteer gig at the food co-op, she also discovered that she loved working in a grocery store.  Something else she learned was that the job market for a high school graduate with no work experience is bleak, so this stay convinced her to go to college. 

While interviewing Chelsey we were pleasantly serenaded by Brian Gill.  Chelsey's volunteer position at the Co-op is Tuesday night music coordinator, a job she shares with her husband Kevin.  Kevin does the heavy lifting, packing sound equipment up and down the stairs.  While musicians play from 5-6:30pm, they respond to musician requests and adjusts sound levels.  Chelsey books gigs and writes the monthly article about the Tuesday music series for this newsletter.  She "loves the Co-op, it has such a great atmosphere. I love the people, being part of the community, and listening to live music."

Chelsey comes from Colorado and Kevin is from Wyoming.  They met at the University of Wyoming while performing in "A Christmas Carol."  Chelsey majored in Theatre and Kevin is currently majoring in Biology at the U of I.  Chelsey helps out in the costume shop at the U of I and last spring she performed in "The Good Person Szechuan."

It's the New Year, and for my family and me, a new venture. Late in December Walt and I, along with Steffen and Nicole Werner, became the owners of Moscow's favorite independent bookstore: BookPeople. I was a bookseller long before I came to work for the Co-op in 2008, and of course I am a life-long bookworm. I never intended to leave the Co-op, but the opportunity to go back to books, to become a part of Moscow's cultural and business community, and to help preserve such a wonderful place was just too compelling to resist. Really it's a dream come true and I'm so grateful.

I'm thankful for the opportunity to have worked so closely with so many wonderful volunteers, owners, and staff. My time at the Co-op has been full of experimentation, growth, risk-taking, and often, lessons learned. At times I had more on my plate than I could handle but it was always so exciting or so important it was impossible to say no.

So this was a first: as I was interviewing my subject at the Co-op, someone stopped by and requested that I include John’s top five movies in my article. This seemed an odd request of a barista/deli server, but I soon learned that John had worked at Howard Hughes Video for three years prior to coming to the Co-op this past July.

It’s been just over two months since I officially began working at the Co-op. As I expected, I have been overwhelmed by all of the great things happening in our store and the level of dedication and professionalism of the staff. Coming from the east coast, I’ve had a bit of culture shock, but I think that for the most part it’s been a smooth transition.

That being said, there are two things you should know about me. First, as general manager, part of my job is to look at every aspect of the Co-op’s operations (sales goals, product selection, staffing, strategic plans, programs, etc.) and make changes if and where needed. Second, I like to talk. I talk with staff members, board members, owners, non-owners, fellow GM’s and anyone else who will listen to me. I ask for their opinions, thoughts, ideas, desires, and objections. But alas, my mouth sometimes gets me in trouble.

In its 35 years, the Moscow Food Co-op has grown from a tiny storefront serving a small group of people, to arguably the most important store in downtown Moscow, serving everyone.

Now that we’ve reached this stage of maturity as a cooperative, we’re ready for our communications and interactions with the community to reflect the same level of excellence that we already enjoy in all the sales departments around the store. So, I am very happy to introduce the Co-op’s new manager of marketing and communications, Sandi Day.