Food Service DTF

Meeting Minutes

November 6, 2000

Attendance: Robyn Herring Chuck McKinney Piper Kapin Russell Garafalo Kevin Anderson Beckie Kjer Kathleen Haskett Shoni Schlotzhauer Eva Clark Mike Arnow Jackson Sillars

Agenda:

1. Review binder / RFP

2. University of Washington update

3. Attempted Budget

4. Wednesday Group

The agenda was reordered b/c of some people needing to leave early.

University of Washington:

Tentatively coming on Friday 17th.

Friday the 17th is inauguration, We are hoping that they will come down at noon, tour the operations, have lunch and then talk to us about budget and Q&A time.

Chuck will look into other dates, but their time frame seems tight and we really need them here before Thanksgiving break.

Wednesday Food Group:

There are a group of students and staff who have been meeting for the last 5-6 weeks to research what options we have available for food here at Evergreen. The group is a culmination of already organized students and community members who had formed Alternatives To Corporate Food (ACTF) and Participation In Food Decisions (PIFD), as well as other Evergreen community members.

It is important that Fine Host Employees understand that they are welcome to be a part of the meetings and research, but that it is not the intent of this group to take on current labor issues.

We are all interested and supportive of the issues, but with such a narrow time frame the group needs to focus on compiling research. It is very appropriate and needed that we have input from current workers especially if we are going to look at a worker run model.

The group is attempting to seriously gather and evaluate alternative options to our current food service in many different configurations.

It is going to be essential that we bring that group into this one for them to share this research. While the DTF is going to be exploring the management options�the work of the Wednesday group will be very important once we pull through some of the initial major decisions.

The intention of the Wednesday group is looking for options that don't have exclusive corporate vendors on campus.

We need the Wednesday group to come and present on December 11th to the DTF.

We need to be clear that there are no guarantees on any particular model.

Also that if their model is created with in the confines of a self-operation, that we are able to use the ideas if we end up with a different model.

We will know more about what is feasible after the University of Washington comes down.

We also have the option of requesting shorter contracts if we need some time to make a full transition. Many schools out there go with 5-year contracts.

Budget:

Chuck is compiling a prospective budget that will give us three options to evaluate.

1. Actual for last year

2. Fine Host's Bid for future (minor improvements to the facilities)

3. Guestimate based on required state salaries and benefit packages w/ no radical changes for a self-operation.

This prospective budget will be e-mailed around this week.

Do we have the authority to go self-op? The board of trustees will make that decision. Yes it is feasible. There may need to be a price raise, but people might be supportive of that?

We need to explore the card system.

Possibly look into the school buying the card system.

Q&A (about the RFP):

What about the architectural plans that was developed from the DTF? Are they going to be of any use to us?

The estimates were for 3.5-6 million dollars This makes it not very relevant to this decision because we can't expect this kind of funding until 4-5 years down the road.

What are branded concepts? What is the role of branded concepts in Evergreen's policy? Will this limit us at all? What is the distinction in the Evergreen policy between McDonalds and a local business??

We will need to clarify this more, but it has to do with national chains and corporations we think.

What are the nutritional program requirements?

Just that whatever vendor comes in is expected to meet all the needs of the community.

What about putting language in regarding using the campus organic farm? We have to be careful with that.

We cannot force them b/c it will create and employee/ employer relationship between the college and the contractor. There are legal ramifications involved; not to say that it cannot be done.

We need to gather job classifications and pay rates to plug into budget projections. Piper will gather that information and pass it along to chuck.

Self Op:

We need to gather questions to ask U.W.

1. How do they handle accountability within their management?

2. Who do they report to?

We should all compile questions in the next week and then we will discuss and finalize for when U.W. comes down at the next meeting.

We need to figure out if we need NACUFS and how much lead time they need.

Next Week:

1. Review budget

2. Questions for U.W.

A proposed agenda will be sent out later this week.