Hub Support: (1) Weekly responsibilities to the Co-op

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
• your hub assists with packing, 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 $13/pack. Packs need to be ordered by 9pm on Thursday before the following Wednesday delivery, Payment needs to be completed by Friday.  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 is also an add-on bags available for $5/bag. These are packed in a red bag and contain at least 3 extra different vegetables. 

Ordering

Ordering is done through email to shop@csfvc.org.nz, please include the following in your email:  Date, Hub name and number, number of $13 fruit and veg bags, number of $5 add on bags.

Paying

Deposit or transfer the correct money to the CSFVC bank account on by Thursday if possible, Friday at the latest.

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: truck arrival, hall setup, 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 6am with the produce truck arriving at 6:45 am. Packing generally begins at 8 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, please ensure that your packer arrives by 8:45 am.

At the packing centre, please ensure that your packer signs in and out and reads the Health and Safety information.  To be added: how many packers each hub needs to send. Initial thoughts 1 for up to 35 packs? It used to be much more ... was it two for 25?  But we do not need as many people because we have so many regulars who come every week.  Also, since we start earlier it is much harder for hubs with lots of young children to find packers.  

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 main hall. 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 time, or there is an error in your order, or you are unable to logon to Tradegecko then post you problem to post on the shop facebook page or email shop@csfvc.org.nz or ring or text ... [Laurelle and Kerryn to clarify]
Packing If you have a problem with packing or your packer(s) you need to talk directly with the Packing Centre dispatch team.  [Phone ... or ... ]If your packers don’t turn up then the Packing Centre dispatch team will contact you and let you know where your produce is.

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
•  Having a bank account for your hub, most people can do online payments, this saves handling cash or going to the bank.
•  Keeping a list of your members and contact details if they forget to pick-up, or you need to contact them about something
• Joining the shop Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/csfvcshop/ where we will be posting information. if there is a problem with this week’s order (for example, squashed bananas – and what the Co-op is doing about the problem).  
• Having different people in your hub take on different responsibilities.  For example,
• having one person who looks after the roster for the Packing Centre and another person doing the ordering and/or banking
• having one person who checks out the orders for the coming week from our blog and lets your members know (or points people to the blog).
• having one person who looks after membership enquiries.  This person needs to know about what is on the CSFVC(Inc) blog page www.csfvc.org.nz so that they can explain how the whole organisation works.
• having one person who looks after good ideas for networking and helping out your local community
• Pointing people to the Food{Together} website which is run by our buyer, Craig Dixon. 
• Checking out the Canterbury Fruit and Vege Coop Facebook page.  This page is managed by two of our members, Jo and Teresa.  It includes a list of all the Canterbury hubs (not just the Christchurch South ones).  It is not an official page, but currently our produce list (on Tuesdays) and photos of produce (on Wednesdays) are regularly posted on this page.  This page is very active.

 Your Hub's responsibilities to the Collective CSFVC(Inc)

For details please go to Hub Support - (2) Responsibilities related to the Collective