With the new year comes renewed energy to get the long awaited Great River Co-op facility built, and operations up and running. To help facilitate these developments, the Board of Directors is focusing most of its time and energy on Board Development, including a slight reshuffling of the board’s leadership.
After five years as President of the Co-Op Board, Kim Mastrianni is moving to the role of Treasurer. Before moving to Langdon to start a sheep farm, Mastrianni’s career was in finance at some of the nation’s largest multinational corporations. Her move to serve as Treasurer of the Co-Op allows her to focus on refreshing the pro forma operating budgets and determining the investment needs for construction and start-up.
Replacing Mastrianni as the Co-Op’s chief volunteer officer is its founding President, Steve Fortier of Alstead.
Fortier was the Co-Op’s first—and along with Mastrianni, only—President having served from its incorporation in late 2010 through 2014. Fortier stepped down when he was elected President of the Keene State College Parents Association. He had served as Executive Director of Meeting Waters YMCA for 19 years before becoming Keene State College’s Director of External Relations in May of 2017. Under his leadership, the regional Y—which serves the Fall Mountain, Bellows Falls, Brattleboro and Springfield regions—received numerous national awards for its initiatives to strengthen the health of youth, adults, families and communities, including improving access to healthy foods.
“I’m excited to step back into a leadership role at this time,” Fortier exclaims. “In 2019, we’ll mobilize the passion and talents of our 800 members and other community partners to make our shared vision a reality.”
Fortier’s main focus at this time is on recruiting a strong and diverse board that brings together the skills and experiences necessary at this stage of the organization’s development. “We need more expertise on our board and committees in retail management, business start-up, events management, and fundraising. We also need to better reflect the region we’ll serve… so, we need people with skills in these areas who work or live on the Vermont side of the river, in particular,” Fortier adds.
Co-Op members interested in getting more involved in moving the project forward are encouraged to contact Steve Fortier at president@greatriverfoodcoop.com or 603-903-2602. If you are not yet a member, we encourage you to join here. More frequent updates can be found on Facebook - so please join the conversation there!