A Webinar Series for Food Cooperatives

Sponsored by: National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA)
Presented by: CDS Consulting Co-op

Do you want to know how your co-op can not only survive, but thrive the current economic climate? If so, this series, sponsored by NCGA, presented by CDS Consulting Co-op is for you! Webinars will include presentation, questions and discussion; resource materials will be provided.

Thanks to the generous support from NCGA, all participants from any food cooperative are invited to attend free of charge! Participate with your management teams! As many people who want to may attend.

Pre-registration is required. To register, go to the link provided.

Schedule

3:00 pm Eastern, 2:00 pm Central, 1:00 pm Mountain, 12:00 noon Pacific
1 hour each, presenters will stay on for an additional 15 minutes to answer any remaining questions.

1. Managing in a Recession – Overview
Wednesday, April 29
Walden Swanson and Marilyn Scholl

• For general managers and management teams
  Learning Objectives. From participating in this webinar you’ll
• Understand the impact the economy is having on food co-ops
• Discuss what experts (Harvard Business Review authors) say business should do to thrive in a recession
• Learn what other food co-ops are doing and what results they are seeing
• Explore the opportunities that exist for food co-ops in the current economic climate

2. Creating labor efficiencies
Wednesday, May 13
Mel Braverman

• For general managers and department managers
  Learning Objectives. From participating in this webinar you’ll learn:
• How do we measure labor efficiencies
• What impacts labor efficiencies
• Tools to assist you in managing your labor effectively
• What others are doing to manage their labor

3. Lowering staff cost (without layoffs)
Wednesday, May 27
Carolee Colter

• For general managers, human resource managers, and management teams
  Learning Objectives. From participating in this webinar you’ll be able to:
• Weigh the relative merits and impacts of hiring freezes, pay freezes,pay cuts, hours cuts and benefit cuts as strategies for controlling labor costs in the event of declining sales.
• Communicate with your employees as a group and one-on-one, to win their cooperation and support for controlling labor costs.
  We’ll hear the experience of a co-op that has effectively implemented cross-training throughout the store a necessary step to operating with reduced labor hours.

4. Lay-offs: if you have to do them, do them right
Tuesday, June 16
Carolee Colter

• For general managers and human resource managers
  Learning Objectives. From participating in this webinar you’ll learn:
• Policies you need to have in place
• Laws you need to comply with
• Different criteria for choosing whom to lay off
• Effective communications with your staff about lay-offs
  We’ll share the experience of a co-op that has been through lay-offs and their aftermath.

5. Managing and maximizing cash
Tuesday, June 30
Walden Swanson and Mel Braverman

• For general managers and financial managers Managing and maximizing cash
  Learning Objectives. From participating in this webinar you’ll learn:
• Sources and uses (where it comes from, where it goes) of cash at your co-op
• Where cash is typically “tied up” and how to ‘free” it up
• Forecasting your cash needs

6. Managing inventory to maximize cash and sales/
Tuesday, July 21
Mel Braverman

• For general managers and department managers
  Learning Objectives. From participating in this webinar you’ll learn:
• What part inventory plays in your operation
• What impacts the amount of inventory you carry
• What are inventory turns and what value do they have in managing inventory
• Tools to assist you in managing your inventory effectively
• What others are doing to manage their inventory

To register, download this PDF