First Some Background on the Coop’s Board
The Park Slope Food Coop Board of Directors plays a crucial role in running the Coop. The Board makes its decisions based on the advice of members who attend the monthly General Meeting. There are five seats on this Board, and each term lasts three years. Members submit their applications to run for open seats in March each year and candidate statements are published in the Linewaiters’ Gazette. Nominees will have the opportunity to introduce themselves at the March 28 General Meeting. All members can start voting online via a Coop-wide email that will go out in late May, and results will be announced at the Annual Meeting on June 27.
This year there is one candidate for one open seat. (There were two candidates who self-nominated by the deadline but one of them dropped out shortly thereafter.) Here is the 2023 candidate and his statement:
Timothy Hospodar
When some mom friends asked if I was running for the Board, I hadn’t really decided. Last year, I tried joining the Board without success. I had been on the fence about running again, despite my interest in supporting our community in a different capacity.
Coincidentally, Nikki and Anna are both elementary school teachers, and all our kids are close in age. They’ve been having difficulty scheduling shifts at the Coop because of the pause on Coop-provided childcare. While sharing a gentle reminder that childcare is expected to return this year, I remembered that we can all think of a change we’d like to see at the Coop. Acknowledging that it’s a rare exception for the Board to approve an action that didn’t echo the consensus of the membership, I’d like to bring to the Board my experience with facilitating alignment for diverse stakeholders.
Maybe the Board needs a member that’s a dad to a school-aged kiddo. I trust that the Coop’s membership is made up of a significant number of parents, and electing a parent to the Board adds a dimension of representation that’s important in community. In an interest to keep this introduction short, I’ll reference last year’s Gazette wherein I drew an analogy between parenthood and stewardship of the Coop and other passions. Rather than dig out digital archives, I encourage you to join March’s GM and I’ll rehash the bit. I also encourage all readers to join all the GMs, in case you weren’t aware that attendance at the meetings needs a boost!