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Committees

All of the tasks of running this student business are completed by a number of committees. Each one has its own responsibilities and meets weekly. Along with the committees there are two consultants: financial and buying. They are hired through the Center for Student Businesses and meet with their appropriate committees at the committees' meetings. All together everyone works to keep People's Market operating smoothly and efficiently.

Advertising

The People's Market Advertising Committee is comprised of four elected members who are responsible for making the concept of our business accessible to the UMass community. In extending the philosophy of the People's Market to the UMass community via the creation of dynamic promotional strategies we not only endeavor to maximize our earnings as a business but to continuously adapt to an ever changing and growing student body.

Board of Student Businesses (BOSB)

The Board of Student Businesses is composed of two co-managers from each of the eight student businesses and our Center for Student Businesses. We meet once a week to discuss issues that effect the student businesses as a whole. In the past, these issues have been privatization of the University, the student businesses as a recognized learning community on campus, as well as ways we can unify the businesses and reach out to the campus, the local co-ops and the co-operative movement at large. Annually, we make a trip to the North American Student Cooperatives Convention in Michigan and we plan a dinner in the Spring to honor all of the people that help us make the student businesses possible. We are a lively bunch of students who love the student businesses and what we do there.

Bookkeeping

The bookkeepers at People's Market take care of the money matters. We process all incoming vendor invoices and receipts for payment. We initiate the necessary paperwork for Purchase Orders and maintain sufficient balances in those accounts for all of our vendors. We process and monitor payroll paperwork to avoid angry co-managers with empty wallets. We compute and collect Tabs for co-managers. In conjunction with the Center for Student Businesses consultant, we present budgets, each month and semester at All-Staff meetings. Every month we count every little thing in the store to keep track of inventory and to eliminate product waste.

Buying

and our Buying Consultant, Bruce Byers

The Buying Committee brings together four members of the Market to consciously buy products that we find to fit our mission of providing a natural and socially responsible product line. We pride ourselves in buying from natural food cooperatives like Northeast Cooperative in Brattleboro, VT and small local business like Mapleline Farms, Vermont Maple Cookies and Pine Hill Orchards. We also strive to keep our customers aware of our buying philosophy by providing useful information on boycotted companies and products and on stellar companies like Equal Exchange.

Cashout

The Cashout Committee is charged with counting and depositing all the money at the end of the day!! We get to see how many customers came in and how much money they spend every day. We also get to know secret codes and we have special access to parts of the store that no one else does.

Committee of Representatives

The Committee of Representatives (COR) is made up of one member from each of the other committees (advertising, bookkeeping, buying, etc.). COR meets each Sunday before All-Staff. The purpose of the committee is to set the All-Staff agenda, recommend proposals to be sent to All-Staff and to devise policies for the Market which involve more than one committeešs jurisdiction. CORšs other duty is to update the each other on each committee's weekly progress.

Demerits of Time (D.O.T.)

The D.O.T. Committee is charged with keeping track of who has done bad things. Those bad things include: coming into work late, not doing a job to 100% satisfaction, or streaking around the Student Union. We also have the responsibility of bringing up naughty members for firing, but we try to avoid that measure at all cost.

Diversity Awareness

 

 

Extensions

 

 

Hiring

This committee is in charge of the advertising for People's Market openings; creating, distributing and evaluating applications; conducting interviews; and ultimately selecting individuals to carry this business into the future.

Maintenance

The Maintenance committee is responsible for the appearance and overall cleanliness of Peoplešs Market. We are the ones who make sure the market lives up to the standards set by the University. We make signs and fix anything that breaks, which includes everything from light bulbs to refrigerators to sinks.

Training

This committee is responsible for welcoming new peeps, educating them, and preparing them for work on the floor, participating in All-Staff meetings, and overall market-savy decision making. They also facilitate various other brush-up trainings that need to take place during the semester.

Financial Consultant, Dave S.

Peoplešs Market has a business consultant who works out of the Center for Student Businesses (CSB). The job of the consultant is to work with the members of People's Market to make sure that every part of the business is running smoothly. One of the biggest responsibilities of the consultant is to prepare a monthly income statement and present it to the business, so that the members of Peoplešs Market know how much money they are taking in and how much they are spending in various areas. It is also the job of the consultant to recommend changes and improvements that can be made. Because the consultant works for the CSB and not for Peoplešs Market, the consultant does not hold any of the rights and responsibilities that the co-managers of People's Market do. The consultant also meets weekly and works closely with the consultants from the other student businesses as well as with the Director of the Center for Student Businesses.

Organizational Specialist, Dave L.

Officially this lucky peep ties up various loose ends, types notes, facilitates certain meetings, arranges dates and whatnot for start-up and closing down the store, and takes care of updating the People's Market handbook. Unofficially, he or she knows everything there possibly is to know about the highways and byways of People's Market, makes sure everything that needs to be done is being done some how...some way...any way...and loves it.