• Meeting Notes:
  · The meeting was started with a welcome, prayer, scripture verse by Astrid Cleare
  · Bio on Mr. Francis Davis:
  o Mr. Francis I. Davis was born in Nassau. He received his primary education at St. Francis and St. Thomas Moore Schools; and his high school education at St. Augustine’s College and St. Michael’s College in Toronto, Canada.
  o Francis received his University education at the University of Toronto and the University of Miami.
  o In 1965 while at the University of Toronto, Francis joined his first cooperative.
  o After completing a Bachelors Degree in General Science, Francis worked in Computer and Banking and then went on to the Oil Industry where he worked for twenty years at BORCO in Freeport.
  o In 1996, Francis joined the Bahamas Cooperative League as General Manager.
  
  · Co-operative – what is a co-operative?
  o Shared vision
  o Group – put in what it takes to make a vision reality/they are the owners (members are part owners)
  o E.g. mutual insurance – each holder is an owner
  o Owner and customers are the same
  · Co-operatives have failed in the Bahamas
  · Open-say in running the business
  · AGM vote – one vote, not depending on how much you have
  · Capital injection
  · Small share holders
  · E.g. purchase other co-operatives, need capital?
  · May not be able to do this, there are limitations
  · Mutual – stockholder companies’ insurance companies needed a lot of capital
  · Stockholders take a risk in the company
  · Attract capital funding?
  · Equity shares – over and above the minimum/invested in the co-operative
  · Ideas may be bigger than the money
  · Co-operative grow steady-could be great (high numbers)
  · If members don’t use the service
  · E.g. power plant on family island (Green Turtle cay/Spanish Wells)
  · E.g. agricultural Co-operative – sell products may sell items themselves, use services and appreciated help members to grow in capacity
  · Does business via co-op then can grow?
  · Encourage persons to grow wealth
  · Educate members to do better
  · Farmers produce – co-operatives sell
  · How can members of the co-operative get more than what they what have gotten from another source?
  · E.g. handicrafts – want members to do better
  · E.g. crops – what happens the rest of the year – come together and do an add-on
  · E.g. Florida Citrus juice (http://www.floridasnatural.com/co-op/meet-the-co-op)
  · Juice vs. selling oranges
  · Own the production facility
  · Own the agricultural equipment
  · No examples of that here – want to step up to this point
  · Informal co-operatives e.g. Spanish Wells one persons sells and the others fish
  · Benefits of a registered co-operative/entity
  · Government checks and balances (legal instrument/standards)
  · Stamp tax exemption with checks
  · Danette Malcolm - Any attempt made to set up a manufacturing co-operative?
  · Davis – tomato-bottling products in Eleuthera
  · War supply of bottled vegetable in the past
  · Sawyers, Albury’s
  · Small – Co-operatives in Long Island – Natural Products (jams/juice/Yuma Gold – alcoholic mix)
  · Not functioning now
  · Challenges?
  · Settlement of the lime at the top – made the product look inferior
  · Marketing
  · Bahamians are beer-drinkers; the product was good for mixed drinks
  · Consultants advised on production
  · More attention needed to be spent on who would use the product
  · Produce – local and export market
  · Workers were the owners and were paid as the product sold
  · Became disgruntled with the lack of regular paychecks – there was a wait for monies
  · Operational efficiency
  · Lemons grown in Abaco
  · Shipping from Abaco – New Providence – Long Island
  · Trucks were $120 to move products from the boats / timing
  · Had to rely on the transportation system – a lot of handing of the product
  · Business plan – movement of the raw material
  · No real volume in sales
  · Agriculture need to grow enough to be a business – not a hobby
  · Effort, sales, profit, herbicide, fertilizer, making a living or fun?
  · Delay payments, need working capital, need to operate efficiently
  · 1 vote concept – no matter how much dollars you have invested
  · Growth may be limited to
  · Can sell in larger amounts to the hotel now that you work together in a group – benefit from this business
  · Added-value, second level of business
  · E.g. potato – potato chips
  · Provides employment
  · Improved quality of life
  · Societies prosper when people spend money
  · Recession 2007 – 2010, the consumer pulled back on spending
  · Improve quality of life/ growth of the economy / larger GDP have more $’s to spend
  · This should be measurable
  · E.g. 4% interest on savings
  · 15% consumer loan
  · 15% credit card
  · The numbers are important
  · Focus on getting new members?
  · More deposits – then more $’s to lend
  · High interest, secure, regulated by the government
  · Be prepared to grow slowly
  · Put reserves aside
  · Surplus – dividends/divided among everyone based on how much business you have done
  · E.g. Canada co-op farmers get kicks backs from co-op based on how much services used from the co-op
  · Provide service
  · Need to be profitable to stay in business
  · Surplus given to members
  · Failures – have to change with the times
  · E.g. Mayaguana – service diesel for generators then BEC came
  · Fortune to recognize change required to grow market
  · Risk is high in agriculture – hurricanes/drought/salt-water intrusion
  · Competing against imports
  · Government support?
  · Tariffs – soon to be illegal with the EPA. Government will do this if you show that you can serve the market
  · Will soon be a thing of the past with WTO trade has to be open
  · Has to be documented
  · We can’t depend on Made in the Bahamas but on quality
  · Can’t encourage inferior products
  · Making and selling – for the economy
  · Keep some dollars in the country – production of quality products
  · Need a bureau of standards
  · Can a co-operative be formed for this?
  · No, this will be a government initiative
  · SPS/HACCP standards
  · Being done now with fisheries
  · International standards – well documented
  · Standards have to be reasonable and meet the test/WTO
  · Bahamas has to be prepared to compete
  · We did this with lobster and sponging
  · Niche market – set yourself apart
  · Consumer interest groups here?
  · Talked about
  · Government has price-control unit to protect the consumer
  · Any agricultural marketing co-operatives?
  · E.g. BCLL acted as the marketing co-operative
  · Inferior onions – Exuma
  · Unpasteurized juice – Long Island
  · Large scale done in Grenada (Nutmeg) and in Florida (Florida Growers)