By: Scott Timm, Oneota Co-op Board President
Dear Member/Owners of the Oneota Community Co-op,
One of the most daunting duties outlined for the Board of Directors, as elected representatives of the Membership, is the hiring of the General Manager. As many of you likely know, our successful GM of 11 years, David Lester, will be leaving the OCC in January, and we have been involved in a GM search since early Spring this year. Our process aimed to be inclusive and thorough. We leaned on tools that utilized best practices in hiring Co-op GM’s, and included the Co-op’s Human Resources manager in our search process. We held a nation-wide search, casting our net far and near. We sought direct feedback from OCC staff, the Leadership Team, and the Board in thinking about what qualifications and qualities would be important in a new General Manager. Seeking consensus, we then took those responses and formulated questions that would give insight on how strong each candidate would be in each qualification, and each committee member ranked each candidate according to that criteria. We filtered candidates, narrowing down the field. We included representatives from staff, Leadership Team, the Board, and representatives from the membership in the interview process. Due to Covid-19, site-visits and meet-and-greets were not an option. We narrowed the field of eleven candidates to five, then three… finally the 9-person hiring committee offered a unanimous recommendation to the Board of Directors to offer the position to our very own Nate Furler! The Board agreed!
The hiring committee and the board are excited to offer Nate the position for many reasons. Mr. Furler unknowingly competed with candidates both local and national, from both Coasts and the South and emerged our clear and objective front-runner. Nate has been involved in the Co-op’s operation for more than 13 years, and in that time he consistently sought out professional development and trainings to improve his managerial skills. He is universally valued and respected by his coworkers and he has deep roots in our community. His vision for the future of the Co-op is grounded in the lessons learned during his tenure in our store. Nate is thoughtful in his approach to problem solving, and creative in his strategies. Nate has had a prior opportunity to serve as the interim GM in David’s absence, and is a core member of the Leadership Team. Nate’s work ethic is impressive – he is a very visible, positive and active voice for the Co-op. We are thankful that Nate has stepped up to the plate, and we feel very lucky to offer him the position. I hope you will join the board, staff, and Leadership Team in congratulating Nate on his new post. I encourage us all to positively engage with and support him as he transitions into this position of leadership to help us realize the mission and vision of our great Co-op.
Sincerely,
Scott Timm, OCC Board President, on behalf of the OCC Board and Hiring Committee
