GM Search Committee Weekly Summaries

Moscow Food Co-op

Week of Jan. 11, 2011:
• Communications: The committee chair will provide monthly updates in the newsletter that focus on process, not specific content such as candidate names, in order to respect confidentiality of applicants. After each meeting, a committee member will come up with bulleted points of interest; this information will be posted on the BOD board, on the website, and in the bi-weekly staff newsletter.

• The group developed a committee charter, to explicitly detail responsibilities and commitment to appropriate confidentiality.

• GM Job Description: There is nobody better to write the GM job description than the GM herself because nobody knows it better. The search committee will solicit input from Kenna regarding a job description. The BOD may need to make some changes. A discussion of the importance of job qualifications versus personal qualities then followed. The group will also solicit feedback from staff about GM qualifications. Will also get input from membership via Breakfast with the Board.

• Hiring Timeline/Job Descriptions: The committee would like to have the first box of the timeline, including the job description, completed by the February BOD meeting (on the 8th). The sample job description in the toolbox is a good place to start; focus on the minimum and preferred requirements, as well as knowledge and skills. It is best to limit minimum qualifications to a few yes/no questions; preferred qualifications can be ranked by priority. Management should be included in the process. Will solicit input from membership via Breakfast with the Board.

TIMELINE:
• January 19th –Fill out qualification worksheets; read job description in consultant packet and think about how we want to make it our own
• January 24th – Create job description & summary by next BOD meeting OR second week of February
• January 31st – Timeline and budget
• February 8th – Take it to the BOD for approval


Week of Jan. 18, 2011
• The committee looked at input from Kenna regarding the GM Job Summary. The job description itself is the governance policies. The qualifications can be listed in the summary. The committee will also have to decide what information they want from potential candidates – a complete resume, names and phone numbers of all supervisors, as well as people who worked with and under them, etc.

• Timeline: The committee hopes to have a GM in place within the next 3-6 months, but experience shows that it may take longer than that. The membership will be kept regularly up to date on the process in order to keep them from becoming frustrated.


Week of Jan 25, 2011
• We were in contact with our NCGA consultant. She stressed that formulating clear and specific qualifications is crucial so as to prevent struggles near the end of the GM hiring process. It also helps design intelligent interview questions and prevents subjectivity.

• GM Job Description: The committee discussed the results of the GM qualifications worksheet and decided that it will be easiest to have a few minimum requirements with a longer list of prioritized preferred qualifications. The “soft” qualities, which are hardest to evaluate are very important, and dominate the highly desired qualities.


Week of Jan. 31, 2011
• We discussed Highly Desired Qualifications at length.
o We will keep the Required Qualifications to a minimum, and have many “Highly Desired Qualifications”, most of which relate to character, effective and cooperative management style, and systems thinking.
o We will group our highly desired qualifications into four categories, including Cooperative Principles, Critical Thinking, Interpersonal Skills, and Operational Skills.
• We will solicit board feedback and approval in early February.