Membership Information

Submitted by Stephen MacDonald on

Membership Requirements

A minimum of 6 hours per month of volunteering is required to be a member of the Grainery. New Members must complete a minimum of 6 hours (3 shifts) of training to become an active member and should be comfortable with all operations of the store including opening and closing the store, bagging and ringing in sales.

Household Membership

A minimum of 9 hours per month are required for the household membership

  • 6 hours per month for one person
  • 3 hours per month for each additional person living under the same roof.

Membership Options

Volunteer hours can be accrued by:

  • Store and/or Market shifts
  • Bagging: re-packaging bulk product to retail size.
  • Stock ordering: place orders and keep track of stock for 1 or more suppliers.
  • Market Drop-Off and Pick -Up, Friday evening/Saturday afternoon: co-ordinate transportation of retail goods to and from Market.
  • Committees
  • Board of Directors: play a key role in the day-to-day functioning of the co-op and are elected yearly at the Annual General Meeting which takes place every fall.
    • Maintenance
    • Finance
    • Stock
    • Store
    • Market
    • Communication
  • A number of other tasks that can accomplished at home or at the store. The Director in the area of your interest can help you find a suitable task.

Membership hours can be banked to be used at a later date.

Membership Responsibilities

  • Work and log your hours in the membership Log
  • Follow established policies, procedures and guidelines
  • Help promote the Grainery values
  • Attend monthly member meetings(see below)

Membership Benefits

Member Discount

Grainery members receive 15% off all purchases, excluding sale items. The member's name must be on the 'Active Members List', which is updated monthly and posted on the cash table.

Have a say in your co-op!

As a member, you share in guiding the operation of the Grainery. It is not required but recommended to attend the members meetings held at the store. Members meet monthly to discuss opinions, share concerns and suggest potential changes.

Store Access Privileges

After 8 consecutive months on the Active Members List, members can apply with the Board of Directors to obtain a key for the store, to grant to access anytime you wish. There is a $20 refundable deposit for the store key.

Members Mailing List

We use Google Groups for our membership discussion mailing list. This is a private discussion forum for Grainery members and is not open to the general public.

You don't need to have a gmail account in order to join the mailing list, but joining with one will give you access to the mailing list archives and some other features. If you're a store member but not on the list, the easiest way to join is by logging in to a Google account and requesting an invite. Google accounts are open and free and allow you to forward email that comes in to that address (like our mailing list messages) to another email address. See The Grainery Listserv - Good Listserv Etiquette in the General Info section for further mailing list instructions.