Friends of Wholefoods

The Wholefoods Collective is currently taking expressions of interest in volunteering in Wholefoods in 2013! Please take a moment to fill in the form.

Wholefoods Volunteers have been essential to the operations and philosophy of Wholefoods since Wholefoods began in 1977. When the Wholefoods community met one of the founders of Wholefoods a number of years ago, he was disappointed that – besides the cook – there were any paid staff at all.

The second aim of the Wholefoods Constitution reads that Collective are: “To encourage voluntary student participation at all levels of operation  of Wholefoods, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation”.

This year – amidst the dispute with the MSA taking control – volunteering has been effectively abolished – in part – because the One Meal for One Hours Work was dissolved by management.

The MSA believes, after legal advice, that this constitutes an “employment relationship” – the Wholefoods Collective and Friends of Wholefoods disagree. We believe that in one way or another this can be resolved.

Fill in the form with the areas of Wholefoods you’d be interested in being a vollie in!

Thursday, 13.09.12

An Open Letter to the MSA Executive:

A Case for the Re-introduction of the Wholefoods Volunteer Meal Voucher System and the Re-hiring of a Wholefoods Collective appointed Volunteers’ Coordinator

Dear MSA Executive (Esther, Freya and Olga)

We are writing to reiterate our concerns regarding the decision the MSA Executive made this year to entirely abolish the Wholefoods Volunteer Meal Voucher System – a thirty-five year old legacy of Wholefoods, predating Wholefoods status as an MSA department – as well as the decision not to reinstate the Wholefoods Volunteers Coordinator position to facilitate that system.

From our meetings of late it appears to us that the MSA still maintains the following positions:

• Wholefoods, being a department of the MSA, must adopt the MSA Volunteer Reward Program and function under no other volunteer system but this one. To institute an alternative system  would be against ‘MSA policies’ and even constitute an unlawful act.
• Wholefoods must adopt the MSA Volunteer Reward Program as to maintain a sense of equality within the greater MSA volunteer network
• Wholefoods volunteers must comply with the MSA Volunteer Policy and thus must have appropriate OH&S and Food and Safety training
• The MSA will not re-hire a Wholefoods Volunteers’ Coordinator for two reasons:

i.                It would be negligent on the MSA’s part to hire someone when their period of employment is uncertain (as Wholefoods Collective commence research into becoming incorporated)

ii.              The roles and responsibilities of a Wholefoods Volunteers’ Coordinator already fall under the position description of the MSA Volunteer Coordinator.

In this letter we address each of the concerns listed above  and also share with you some serious concerns of our own.

Wholefoods, being a department of the MSA, must adopt the MSA Volunteer Reward Program and function under no other volunteer system but this one. To do so would be against ‘MSA policies’.

1. We strongly oppose the MSA Volunteer Reward Program on the basis that is it not fair on Wholefoods, Wholefoods’ volunteers or the MSA for the following reasons:

• Relative to how the Wholefoods volunteer system once worked, the MSA Volunteer Reward Program is inadequate and has critical shortcomings. The program shows a poor understanding of just how valuable (socially, functionally, morally and economically) Wholefoods volunteers are to Wholefoods. The program completely disregards and  undermines our hugely successful 35 year-old volunteer system that was integral to the institution of Wholefoods itself.
• Wholefoods was started as an all-volunteer, student-run food outlet. From the very first bowl of dahl served till today, volunteers have been the lifeblood of Wholefoods. We believe that this lifeblood has been completely sucked dry this year.
• The projected loss of $60,000+ for Wholefoods in 2012 is frankly alarming and unacceptable. It is the highest loss Wholefoods has ever incurred in its history and we believe that the MSA’s annulment of a Volunteers’ Coordinator position in 2010, the abolition of the volunteer system in 2012 and the hierarchical implementation of expensive full-time managers this same year is the primary cause for this deficit.
• We need a system in place that understands the importance of volunteers, that appreciates and rewards them meaningfully.
• The MSA Volunteer Reward Program grossly undervalues the work of Wholefoods’ volunteers. Where Wholefoods volunteers once worked 1 hour for one meal ticket, under the new MSA Volunteer Reward Program, they are now required to work 15 hours for one meal ticket equivalent. (How? 1 hour volunteered and logged rewards volunteers with 1 point. Accruing 6 points gets you a $3 MSA voucher. You must now volunteer 15 hours to earn the equivalent of an old Wholefoods meal voucher – $7.50).
• To put this in to perspective, volunteers work on average 1 – 3 hours a week at Wholefoods. This means they will need to wait at least 5 weeks before they are even rewarded their first meal. As an existing precedent, we are in favour of programs like the MSA’s Host Scheme whereby hosts get free meals/drinks at every event they volunteer at. Rewarding volunteers is a vital part of creating any relationship whereby volunteers feel respected, appreciated and valued.
• The MSA Volunteer Reward Program rewards points based on ‘skills’. This point system arbitrarily compares skills of different MSA Departments i.e. The Bikery, Host Scheme, Monash Uni Student Theatre (MUST) and Wholefoods. Skills required in the Wholefoods kitchen will be different to skills required to host an info night for Host Scheme and these skills cannot be compared and tallied up in a point system that proclaims to be  fair. We believe this system is arbitrary, pre-mature in its development and does not cater to, nor foster, the uniqueness of each Department.
• Previous MSA Executive concerns about the Wholefoods Meal Voucher Volunteering System constituting an ‘employment relationship’ with volunteers are easily circumvented with a Memorandum of Understanding signed by prospective volunteers (advice from Volunteering Victoria). This practice of exchanging a meal for volunteer labor is commonplace among many not-for-profit volunteer based organisations across the country. Alternatively, the MSA Volunteer Agreement document already does this and the MSA Volunteer Policy (points 1 and 6) alludes to such understandings.

We understand the necessity for all volunteer programs to comply with MSA Volunteer Policy and recognise the mention of the Volunteer Reward System (point 6) in such document. This is not our main point of contention.
Not only have the Executives of the MSA insisted upon the overhaul of a well- functioning volunteer system and replaced it with one that is clearly incompetent and costly, the transition has been conducted in a highly non-transparent manner. We are yet to see any documents that stipulate that all MSA Department volunteers must fall under the new MSA Volunteer Reward Program, and abandon any existing volunteer system of their own.

We would greatly appreciate a copy of this document as soon as possible – this is something that should have taken place in semester one and involved the appointed Volunteers Co-officers of Wholefoods and the Wholefoods Collective, people who are directly involved with the management of volunteers inside the space.
Wholefoods must adopt the MSA Volunteer Reward Program to help maintain a sense of equality within the greater MSA volunteer network.

1.       Wholefoods is a student-run restaurant, for students, by students. Students and non-students alike can volunteer at Wholefoods. There are no exclusions. Wholefoods’ old volunteer system was there for everyone to enjoy and benefit from. In fact, the system ensured that all volunteers could be fed at least one meal each day – no other department can guarantee a service such as this. If anything, Wholefoods has  provided a service and opportunity that enriches the MSA volunteering network and the general student body alike.

2.       Wholefoods has sustained this volunteer system for nearly 35 years. It is a system that has been working since the day of its inception in 1977. With significantly reduced rewards, volunteering at Wholefoods will appeal to a less diverse group of students. Less appeal means fewer volunteers, a reduction in the vibrancy of our pulsating community, less income and inevitably, an increase to food prices.

3.       Having volunteers keeps costs and stress levels down. It also means that work-load is better divided, there is less time-stress on staff and more quality food can be produced. Better food means more patrons. More patrons means better chances of breaking even at the end of the year.

4.       We reject the notion that the Wholefoods reward system is unfair to other volunteers within the MSA volunteer community. Wholefoods volunteers should not be penalized on the basis that  it makes other volunteer systems appear inferior. The Meal Voucher System has always worked well for Wholefoods and it would be ignorant, offensive and highly defamatory to suggest that volunteers and this system are to blame for any years of financial deficit.

Wholefoods volunteers must comply with the MSA Volunteer Policy and agree to the MSA Volunteer Agreement and thus must have appropriate OH&S and Food Safety training

We acknowledge the MSA Volunteer Policy and have set out the following to ensure that we comply with the standards it sets out. The Wholefoods Collective will:

1.       Take up Monash Short Courses’ offer to provide government funded Food, Safety and Handling certificate training to all prospective Wholefoods volunteers, free of charge

2.       Ensure all volunteers complete the online OH&S training (via Monash Safety Induction Program) before volunteering

3.       Ensure that volunteers are accompanied by a Wholefoods Staff member during each volunteer shift so that there is adequate training and guidance

The MSA will not re-hire a Wholefoods Volunteers’ Coordinator for two reasons:

1.      It would be negligent to hire someone in a time when their contract end-date is uncertain (as Wholefoods Collective commence research into becoming incorporated)

While we genuinely appreciate the concern MSA Executive have for the job security of future Wholefoods staff, the Wholefoods Collective will ensure that  no coordinator will be  left behind when, or if Wholefoods makes the transition into becoming incorporated next year. To substantiate our gesture, we have collectively agreed to signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a Collective appointed Wholefoods Volunteers’ Coordinator to ensure that their position does not become redundant once the hand-over has occurred and that an incorporated Wholefoods Collective will see them through to the end-date outlined in their initial contract with the MSA.

2.                   The roles and responsibilities of a Wholefoods Volunteers’ Coordinator already fall under the position description of the MSA Volunteer Coordinator.

While we appreciate the work completed by the MSA Volunteer Coordinator thus far, we believe it is important that Wholefoods have its own Volunteers’ Coordinator who is appointed by the Wholefoods Collective as has been the case in the past.

Wholefoods deals with hundreds of volunteers and our O-week stalls, induction and training sessions can be particularly idiosyncratic. It is expected that the Volunteers’ Coordinator be an active member of Collective meetings and report back at Collective meetings once a month. On top of that, Wholefoods has its own Constitution that forms the backbone of the café, restaurant and space. Our Volunteers’ Coordinator should be someone who understands and values our Constitution or someone who has experience working in a space with a similar anti-hierarchical, collective-run set-up to Wholefoods.

We believe what we have outlined so far has provided you with sufficient grounds to understand where we are coming from and what we would like to be working towards.

To summarise we will reiterate our main demands:

• That the successful Wholefoods Volunteer Meal Voucher system be immediately reinstated with a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by each prospective volunteer, outlining that any reward for their service is given as an honoraria and is not a substitute for wages.
• That a Wholefoods Collective approved Wholefoods Volunteers’ Coordinator be immediately appointed at the behest of the Wholefoods Collective to facilitate the re-introduction of volunteers into the space.

Wholefoods volunteers have always played a key role in the operations of Wholefoods. Their work deserves to be acknowledged and treated with due respect and appreciation. The MSA Volunteer Reward Program does not acknowledge this hard work and in-fact has been highly unfavourable amongst our Grocery volunteers this year. We hold strong reservations about enforcing such a program on our volunteers and trust that the Executive can work with us on bringing back the successful, viable and highly popular Wholefoods Volunteer Meal Voucher system.

We will be CC’ing  in the Wholefoods Collective e-list to this email and letter and emailing Friends of Wholefoods to put this up on their blog and Facebook page. We believe what we have touched on in this email needs to be publicised as there has been much silence and secrecy surrounding the Wholefoods Volunteer system this year.

If we can work together in achieving our outlined demands we believe the relationship between the MSA Executive and Wholefoods will remain harmonious in the interim period between now and a potential incorporation.
We look forward to hearing back from you promptly.

Sincerely,
R-Coo and Urvi
(Wholefoods Volunteer Co-officers on behalf of the Wholefoods Collective)

We are sorry, friends, to state an obvious redundancy but we feel we must respond to recent insinuations.

Friends of Wholefoods does not condone any form of bullying or harassment. We do not and will not participate in any form of harassment.

Friends of Wholefoods believes that our contention is so strong that all we need to do is speak softly and say what needs to be said.  We don’t need to push people or scare anyone into believing anything. Wholefoods has so many supporters who can see that Wholefoods has become an odious shadow of its former self that we don’t really need to do anything except turn up.

However, we cannot control what everyone does with the information once we have put it out there.

Regarding the recent political scribblings, Wholefoods has always been a space for street art and political messages. We are surprised that – amongst it all – specific messages could be found. We didn’t do the graffiti this time, but we don’t condemn it.

Let us be clear: our problem is with the Monash Student Council Executive and their utter contempt for Wholefoods. We see staff as friends and colleagues who we expect to work beside before long. We see it as pointless to engage with the Wholefoods Manager: he is not the problem, it is the system imposed on Wholefoods by the MSC Executive.

This is an open letter written by the Wholefoods Collective sent today in response to an email written regarding the redesign and refurbishment of the Wholefoods space.

An open letter to Esther Hood, Monash Student Council President, 2012
From the Wholefoods Collective, the student organising body of Wholefoods since 1977

Dear Esther Hood, President of the Monash Student Council Executive (and Freya Logan, acting President of the Monash Student Council Executive)

Re: Wholefoods Redesign Update
We, the Wholefoods Collective, write in response to your email, received on the 29th of June this year. You describe in your email that you wished to give ‘a quick update on the Wholefoods redesign’ and that  ‘hopefully in the next three weeks the MSC Executive will be able to present the Collective with two different choices in overall design’. From this design, we will have ‘options’: ‘For example you might like one type of flooring over the other.’

The Wholefoods Collective regards this as a mere tokenistic gesture on your part. It is an attempt to placate us, to give us the false impression that we– in your words – have a choice. The fact that Collective has merely an ‘either/or’ choice between the types of wood, or the colour of tiles is a clear bastardisation of the Collectives role. These choices disguise the fact that the Collective has never asked for aesthetic changes to the space.

We find this presumptuous, condescending and misleading in the extreme. Up until the 29th of June 2012, plans for a radical reshaping of the Wholefoods space have been going on behind our backs, and now, in the final stages, you wish to give us ‘options’.
As it stands, the Collective has no opinion on any redesign and refurbishment. As we have been systematically excluded from all decisions and negotiations, the Collective has not been in a place to discuss whether this is something that we need, or whether this is an unnecessary and excessive expenditure.

Your email is only one of the more recent examples of the MSC Executive continuously undermining the power of the Collective in order to impose their own vision of corporate and anti-student management.

You write that ‘We have also made sure that all materials used are at least 60% recyclable to ensure we are committing to the ethos of the restaurant.’  We regard this as a farcical attempt to appeal to our environmental ethic, whilst simultaneously indicating a gross misunderstanding of the ethos of Wholefoods.

Further, your recent designation of the Collective as a ‘Directory Advisory Committee’ continues this absurdity and is absolutely antithetical to what we consider to be the ethos of Wholefoods. This form of consultancy is a farce – a parody of the kind of autonomy that Collective has been running Wholefoods under for 35 years.

We draw your attention to Section 19 of the Monash Student Association (Clayton) Inc. Constitution as what is emblematic of the ethos of Wholefoods, particularly parts 2 and 3:

(2) to encourage voluntary student participation at all levels of operation of Wholefoods, in an atmosphere of mutual respect and co-operation;

(3) to demonstrate that a collective operating with a consensus decision making process is a viable alternative to a hierarchical organisation;

Esther, we decline your offer to participate in a decision making process that has already ended. We ask that all renovation negotiations, until this point, be abandoned and begun again from scratch. We suggest, as a starting point, that you approach the Wholefoods Collective in an atmosphere of mutual respect and co-operation with the following question: Does Wholefoods need to be redesigned?

Regards,

The Wholefoods Collective

Crikey, 25th August 2010

Monash student politicians turn feral over dirty tactics

by Andrew Crook

The Monash Student Association (MSA) is in meltdown after members of its ruling clique sidelined rivals from running in forthcoming elections while paying a factional associate and adviser to ALP Senator Gavin Marshall $32,000 to oversee the poll.

While Crikey is usually loath to dip its finger back into the cesspit of student politics, damning details have emerged this week that MSA President Lauren O’Dwyer, a fellow-traveller in Senator Marshall’s Socialist Left faction, secretly registered all rival tickets, including the name “Liberal”, to eliminate competition in the September 20-23 vote.

The elections are now in crisis with bitter O’Dwyer rival and campus Liberal Party President Ben Kunstler lodging a series of complaints with the University’s feared Electoral Tribunal.

Following a ruling yesterday, a make-up registration day will be held on Friday. A separate appeal to push back the poll has been dismissed.

The Clayton bearpit serves as a key funnel for professionalised political talent, with many former office bearers later ruling over everyday Australians in State and Federal parliaments. Former Treasurer Peter Costello famously cut his teeth at Monash in an alliance with right wing of the Labor Party which persists to the present day.

Six weeks ago, O’Dwyer hired Marshall staffer Gavin Ryan as Returning Officer for the elections, replacing Greens in-house psephologist Stephen Luntz. Ryan formerly held O’Dwyer’s position as MSA president in 1998 and hails from the same Left factional grouping, which campaigns at Monash under the generic name “Go!”. Variations on the faction have controlled the union for nine of the last 13 years.

Kunstler told Crikey that an email normally sent to advise of the looming re-registration period, that enables the previous year’s tickets to keep their names, failed to appear this year. He claims that with their opponents in the dark, O’Dwyer and offsider Sheldon Oski helped themselves to names including ‘Liberal’, ‘Clayton Jewish Students’, ‘Connect’, ‘Unity’, ‘Free Parking’ and ‘Pirates Rrrrr Us’ in an attempt to dupe voters via a preference scam.

At the end of the registration period, only the Labor Left and Trotskyite cult Socialist Alternative held tickets, with independent, Labor Right and grassroots left groupings denied representation.

Kunstler said: “Go! is always very nervous when it comes to ensuring their control for another year. They have shown themselves willing to use plenty of dirty tactics in the past and have been taken to court in previous years for their behaviour.”

Under official election rules, the Returning Officer must advise of the elections and re-registration period seven weeks before the poll on the MSA website, on noticeboards and campus kiosks. However, as of this morning, the website remained un-updated.

The well-regarded Ryan dismissed the allegations, saying he had extensively advertised the elections on noticeboards in the union, in student newspaper Lot’s Wife and in other prominent locations throughout the Clayton campus.

“It’s unfortunate that he’s [Kunstler] missed out. It seems normally cognisant people have not taken as much attention as they should. It’s all quite bizarre.”

He rejected allegations of a Labor Left conspiracy theory, saying that he was familiar with student politicians from across the political spectrum. And to underline his impartiality, Ryan said that O’Dwyer’s group had appealed to the Tribunal against his decision to re-open registrations.

It is understood Ryan did a good job administering last year’s election at the Labor Left-controlled La Trobe SRC, which he will again oversee this year. According to the minutes of the Monash Student Council meeting held on July 16, O’Dwyer was “strongly in favour” of accepting Ryan’s quote after grafting positive intelligence from her associates at La Trobe. She said Ryan’s “institutional knowledge” was crucial to the decision to write out the $32,450 cheque.

However, others have suggested that Ryan’s hiring was payback for a controversial 2008 Stephen Luntz ruling that led to a life ban for former Labor Left president Julian Campbell and his associate’s subsequent shaming in Federal Parliament. That year, Campbell and Alan Griffin electorate officer Mat Hilakari published a hate poster claiming a rival candidate had faked a disability in order to take sick leave from the union. In fact, the rival was seriously ill.

Luntz’s ruling spilled into the Senate after the victim took her claim to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Liberal Senator Helen Kroger then assailed Hilakari under parliamentary privilege, claiming he had paid for the $60,000 settlement with student money.

Crikey attempted to contact Lauren O’Dwyer this morning for comment but she did not respond before deadline.

Wholefoods Collective poster from the 2007 Publicity Coordinator, a role that has since been abolished because the MSA already has someone who works on publicity. Or something.

From the Tent City protests of 1998. Students camped outside the admin building over the deregulation of Higher Education.

The security camera mounted high near the ponds? A monument erected by the university dedicated to the time and energy put into future students by an active left wing student body.