If you buy shares you become a member of the society and have a say in what we do!
Donations are also very welcome – it would be great if you could specify that your donation is for building work/refurbishment.
The Management Committee has the discretion to pay a small amount of interest on shares. There is no intention to do this in the short term.
Under the rules of the society you must hold your shares for at least three years. If, after that, you need your money back you can apply to withdraw your shares. This will be at the discretion of the Management Committee and it is likely that there will not be sufficient funds available, at least in the medium term, to handle large scale withdrawals.
You get a shop in the village! If you buy shares you also have voting rights and therefore have a say about who is on the committee and what happens to the shop profit. For house owners there is also the increase in house value associated with having a shop in the village.
No. The rules of the society state “1 person 1 vote” however many shares you have bought.
No – only the Treasurer and the Secretary will have access to this information (and, by request, the Financial Conduct Authority).
Your name and share holding will be on an official register of members of the Community Benefit Society (Bishop Wilton Community Shop Ltd) – this is a legal document but it is password protected and cannot be seen except by the Treasurer and the Secretary.
Profits must go back into the shop or the community. If we make more profit than we need to run the shop the extra will be put back into the community and/or used to pay a small amount of interest on shares.
This decision is made by the committee (but, don’t forget, the shareholders vote in the committee). This would always be discussed at the AGM so all shareholders will be able to have their say.
The current management committee will all retire at the first Annual General Meeting of the society. Those who want to stand again for election may do so together with any others who are nominated for election. Shareholders (members of the Community Benefit Society) will be able to nominate, be nominated and vote in this election.
Yes. There is wide range of training to be undertaken by the volunteers eg food handling, Health and Safety, first aid, working the till (EPOS). There will also be some volunteer events to get to know each other and find out what it is all about.
3 ¼ hours is the planned shift length at the moment but you could choose to do two or more shifts in succession.
Yes – you request your shift times and patterns and, if you want to work with someone just tell us. There will be an online rota system which you could access from home IF you wanted to.
Definitely – that makes things easy for everyone, but equally you could have different shifts each week or just be a “stand in” for when people on the rota are unable to work.
That is fine too – just tell us when you are available.
Sometimes it is really useful to have a bank of flexible workers who can step in at short notice.
Right from the start we have adopted a “no blame” culture – we all work together and we are all responsible for our mistakes!
You won’t be! There will be a minimum of two people on every shift.
It is likely that there will be Lead Volunteers who will work with one or two committee members … eventually we may have a part time shop manager who could take on this role.
You – and the lead volunteers/committee/shop manager. We already have the information you gave us when we sent the questionnaires round last August. Some decisions are already starting to be made – the first opportunity to do this is at “A Taste of Things To Come”. This event, on Wednesday May 15th 7pm at the village hall, will showcase many local suppliers and give us the opportunity to sample some of their products. Come along then give us your feedback and any other ideas. If you have ideas NOW about local suppliers let us know -e mail us at bishopwiltonshop@gmail .com If there are specific groceries/other items that you would definitely want to buy from the shop let us know. There will be a “suggestions” book in the shop (and on line as well) which everyone is encouraged to write in – let us know what you would like to see!
- Everyday basic groceries – plenty of them
- Fresh fruit and veg
- Meats/fish from local suppliers
- Nice bread and bakery items
- A wide range of items from local producers
- Stationery/nice cards/gift wrap etc
- Newspapers
- Tobacco products
- Pies/pasties/sandwiches
- Beers/wines/spirits
- And MUCH more…
Not to start with! We will stock stamps and we will be a parcel drop off/collection point. We would also like to provide a voluntary PO “run” to Bugthorpe to help people who cannot get to a PO… we need to work out how this might work.
Yes – we intend to sell newspapers.
No – as a shareholder you have limited liability so will not be liable for any such events. We will also have liability insurance to protect the shop.
Cleaning…. PO runs… shopping/cash and carry… Maintenance…. Book-keeping…. Gardening… if you can think of something we might need please offer your services!
The money is needed for a variety of things: volunteer training, stocking the shop, refurbishment and fitting. A large proportion of the money is for the building costs. By opening out the current premises a much bigger space will be created which will mean that there is a greater opportunity for selling goods and services as well as creating space for the community to use.