Hub Support: Hub Coordinator Information

Hub Coordinators are key people in this organisation.   

• Coordinators have responsibilities for the day to day running of their Co-op hub including ordering and paying for produce, arranging for packers to volunteer on Wednesday mornings and bring the produce back to home base and to the people who ordered them. As outlined below in Weekly responsibilities to the Co-op.
• Coordinators are also responsible for supporting the Collective as a whole. This includes knowing what is going on in the Collective and helping their Hub and/or individual members of their hub to be active within the CSFVC (Inc). 

No hub coordinator is expected to do all this alone. Hub Support suggests that the person who takes on the role of coordinator works with a team of people who share out the responsibilities. The hub coordinators are the link between the Collective and people who receive the packs. Please keep talking with us (at the packing centre or at [email protected] or to any board member) of any changes, issues, problems, ideas, problems with produce.

Co-op members – these are people who only want to buy fruit and vege packs (not eligible for voting rights). They need to have completed a membership form which needs to be submitted to the Board. A copy of this should be sent to [email protected]. 

Collective members – these are people who want to either buy fruit and vege packs and be actively involved in the Hub for a minimum of three months after there membership has been approved as co-op member. 

If your hub cannot cater for someone then either point them to Hub Support or you could offer to get hub support to ring them – an email to [email protected] is probably easiest at this stage.

Responsibilities of each hub

Your responsibility as a Co-op hub coordinator is to ensure that:

• the fruit and vege packs for your hub are ordered and paid for weekly (in advance)
• your hub assists with packing and collects your packs from the packing centre
• the packs that are ordered get to the people that ordered them
• the hub supports our collective vision of "helping each other by working together"

You do not need to do everything yourself.  Most hubs share out the responsibilities. 

Ordering the packs 

The fruit and vege packs are currently $14/pack. Packs need to be ordered by 4 pm on Thursday before the following Wednesday delivery. Payment also needs to be completed by close of business on Thursday.  In practice this means you should have your money and orders from your hub members by Wednesday so you can complete the order on Wednesday night if possible. If you have any problems with this please contact hub support. 

There are also add-on bags available for $5/bag. These are packed separately and contain at least 3 extra fruit or vegetables depending on which add-on you choose. 

Ordering

Ordering is done through email to [email protected], please include the following in your email:  Date, Hub name and number, number of $14 fruit and veg bags, number of $5 fruit add-on bags, or number of $5 vege add-on bags.

Paying

Deposit or transfer the correct money to the CSFVC bank account by Thursday close of business.

Name: CSFVC (Inc)
Account number: 03-1594-0220899-000 (Westpac)
Reference: Hub Number and Name

Packing the Fruit and Vegetables 

The packing centre operation includes: hall setup, truck arrival, vege packing, count and move your packs to your vehicle, collect your extras box, help clean up. 

Packing is carried out at the Hoon Hay Presbyterian Church at 5 Downing St, Hoon Hay. Currently, the hall setup starts at 5 am with the produce truck arriving at 6:45 am. Packing generally begins at 7 am and clean-up is complete by about 9:30 am. You do not have to have a packer at the packing centre for the entire period, but unless arranged otherwise with a member of the Board, please ensure that your packer arrives by 7:45 am.  If you can not help with the packing you can help with the clean up after. 

At the packing centre, please ensure that your packer signs in and out and reads the Health and Safety information.  

Your packs will be made up in the dispatch room and available for you to take at the end of packing. Please check in with dispatch after all the fruit and veges are packed before helping with clean up. Your hub's packer is responsible for counting the packs and moving them to your vehicle (trolleys are available to help).  The packer will also need to pick up the extras from the dispatch room. After your packs are out of the way don't leave... keep on with the work you were doing help with tidying up.

Pack Distribution 

Pre Ordered Packs
How your hub does this is up to each individual hub. Some hubs have a single pick up area that is available for a set time, e.g. after school by office 3-3:15, some have an all-day pickup from a house, other hubs offer delivery, and some have a mixture of all. It depends on the needs of your hub and how what options you wish to offer.

Extras
Most weeks there is a box of extras and a gift pack. How your hub distributes this is up to your hub. Some ideas include distributing the produce amongst your normal packs, letting people choose extras when they collect their bag, donating the extra bag to someone needy (if you add information about how to join your hub they may choose to join).

If something isn’t working or goes wrong: 

Orders and payments If you are unable to get your orders and payments done on time, or there is an error in your order, then post your problem on the shop Facebook page (CSFVC Shop) and email [email protected]. 
Packing If you have a problem with packing or your packer(s) you need to talk directly with the Packing Centre dispatch team contact the CSFVC Board Chair on 021 0854 8513 as soon as possible to make arrangements. If your packer(s) don’t turn up and you haven't made contact then the Packing Centre dispatch team will leave your order outside behind the hall for collection.

Please contact one of the Hub Support Contacts for additional support.

Helping each other by working together  

Each hub operates differently; it is up hub coordinator's and hub members to decide how they want to run their hub.  Some ideas from hubs include the following - we hope these ideas are helpful AND that they are the start of lots more sharing of ideas.  You might like to:

• Create a hub Facebook page, email list or similar that you can post a packing roster, share the produce list on a Tuesday, let people know any changes
• Have a bank account for your hub, most people can do online payments, this saves handling cash or going to the bank.
• Keep a list of your members and contact details if they forget to pick-up, or you need to contact them about something
• Join the shop's Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/csfvcshop/ where order information will be posted. If there is a problem with this week’s order (for example, squashed bananas – and what the Co-op is doing about the problem).  
• Have different people in your hub take on different responsibilities. For example:
• have one person who looks after the roster for the Packing Centre and another person doing the ordering and/or banking
• have one person who checks out the orders for the coming week from the CSFVC Shop Facebook page and lets your members know
• have one person who looks after membership enquiries. This person needs to know about what is on the CSFVC (Inc) website www.csfvc.org.nz so that they can explain how the whole organisation works
• have one person who looks after good ideas for networking and helping out your local community.
• Checking out the CSFVC Facebook page. This page is managed by two of our members, Karen and Janet.

Hub Support is for the day to day running of the Co-op as well as general assistance. 

Hub support is also keen to support you in growing your hub with advertising.  We can produce material, especially for your hub. You could advertise your hub on neighbourly, local community pages, at the library or just by talking to people.

You will also need to respond to people who wish to enrol in your hub, or advise them how to find an alternative hub if your hub doesn’t suit.  See Hubs for a list of current hubs.

Change of coordinator or any other news about your hub

Please talk with Hub Support if there are any changes to who is involved in managing your hub, or if your hub would like support in any way at all.  Hub support wants to be sure that all the information we have about all our hubs is correct and that we know enough about what is going on to be able to help you if you run into any problems.