Scott McNulty
1. Why would you like to serve on the Board of Directors of the Onion River Cooperative?
By bringing a pair of “outside eyes” with both a scientific and business viewpoint, I’m certain that serving on the board will enable me to participate in more systematic and sustainable changes in how we eat. I would like to serve on the Board because I enjoy giving back to a store of which I’m a partial owner and to a mission which supports values I share: supporting a healthy, thriving community, strengthening the local food system and supporting the cooperative model.
I believe in fresh, local, sustainable ingredients prepared simply and shared with others. I believe that economic and environmental sustainability must go hand-in-hand, and that strong investment in the community and in local farms will result in a stronger food cooperative. The Board helps provide a level of ‘checks and balances’ by ensuring that the Co-Op achieves its ends while navigating around unacceptable situations.
I’d like to bring my experience as a Business Leader, Engineer, Chef, and NECI Adjunct Professor to the Co-Op members and its community to help continue the movement that is creating a new economy that functions in balance with human needs and the needs of our environment.
2. The work of the Board is not operational – that is, it does not deal with the daily operations of the store. Instead, the Board deals with the overall policies that identify and guide the mission of the Cooperative. How will you stay focused on the larger vision, without being distracted by the day-to-day operations of the store?
I recognize the important role Co-Ops can play in sharing information about supporting local businesses, nutrition, and cooking, and serving as neighborhood gathering places. And I understand the role of the Co-Op employees in that success. If you want to destroy worker initiative and blast a hole in productivity, there’s no better way to do it than by micromanaging. Keeping workers on tight leashes and constantly interrupting them ruins their ability to find thoughtful, profitable ways to do their jobs, and it wastes valuable time as well.
True organizational productivity requires engaged, informed personnel willing and eager to work toward the organization’s mission and vision. And it all starts with a simple concept that’s amazingly hard for some people to implement: trust.
I will build trust by empowering the staff to work through the details of the day-to-day operations while I, acting as a member of the board, stay focused on the larger vision of the organization. A similar strategy in my professional career has brought me great success, but it takes discipline and patience. And trust. There is no other way to manage.
3. What strengths and skills would you bring to the work of the Cooperative’s Board?
I can contribute to our board in three important ways: as a business project manager who understands the needs of a large organization and what it takes to follow the path towards success; as a loyal, long-time member of the Co-Op; and as a engaged conscientious consumer who strives to promote local reliance and the cooperative model. Plus, I’ll bring experience in meeting facilitation, problem solving, democratic organizational structures, and the nerdy particulars of meeting process.