Special Members Meeting

Dear Members

Our September wishes to you!

At our follow up AGM this year, where we reported that the shop was struggling financially, we agreed to report back to our Members at a Special Meeting  to update you on the financial position of Dig-In and our progress in returning the shop to sustainable operations. We have spent the past 5 months working hard at this with much support from staff, volunteers and with much appreciated input from Community Shares Scotland and the Plunkett Foundation. Please see the invite below to the Special Members Meeting – we hope you can make it! 

There are two other exciting developments we would very much appreciate your support on too and one request for Management Committee members. 

Our Rules were agreed way back in 2013, and are very much in need of updating.  Please have a look at the new proposed rules and the information below.

Our team and customers have done a great job in increasing our sales (thank you, supporters!) such that we can proudly report a profit in each of the past 4 months which we hope to sustain, However, the business needs more resilience and improvements including renovating the shop and a new up to date Electronic Point of Sale system to replace our outdated system. To this end we are also seeking your support to raise additional funds through our second Share Issue. Our hope is that this will not only raise much needed capital to allow us to invest in improvements and  face risks going forward with the financial resilience required, but also raise our profile in the community and expand our membership.

We are also looking for volunteers to join our 5 strong Management Committee, in particular those who would be able to contribute financial and HR experience. Please see details below.

You will find  the formal meeting details below, and  more papers will follow.  We hope to have your support  and look forward to meeting you on the 21st of September.

Dig-in Management Committee
Amanda Lake (Chair), Sue Lane, Melanie Main, Will Sohler, Marie-Amelie Viatte

RSVP by letting us know via Email below:

 

Proposed new rules for the Society 

Your approval is needed to update the Dig In governing rules! 
The proposed new Rules are here attached and will be voted on at the Special Members Meeting on 21st September. We really need enough votes to be quorate and allow us to approve so please take the time to vote!  We would very much hope that you can attend and vote in person but if you cannot be there in person, you can email through a proxy vote (to chair@diginbruntsfield.co.uk), by Wednesday 20th September at the latest. It’s as simple as saying: “yes, I would like to approve the proposed new Rules and I give my proxy vote to the chair of the MC at the Special Members Meeting”.
 
‘Why new Rules?’ you might ask. Simply because the current ones (which you can read here) haven’t been updated since 2013 and the Plunkett Foundation (which supports community businesses like Dig In) have advised us to review them. To reassure everyone, this update doesn’t affect any of what Dig In is about; the changes are administrative, sensible, and help to strengthen our overall governance. We don’t expect any of this to be controversial, but need a majority to agree to the change before the new Rules can be formally adopted and registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. The key changes are: 

  • – Quorum for Members’ Meeting reducing to 5% of Members (it’s currently 10% and is hard to attain and cumbersome).
  • – Members’ minimum age increasing to 16 years-old (it’s currently 5 years-old and considered too low in view of the decision-making responsibilities of Members. Note that ‘gifted shares’ can still be purchased for under 16 year-olds.).
  • – Allowing for Management Committee and Members’ Meetings to take place online with the same quorum as if in person.
  • – Entirely new sections: complaint against a Member (3.8), voting at Members’ Meetings (4.16), annual return to FCA (6.14), transfers of engagements (7.6), settlement of disputes (9.12) – all sensible and nothing controversial.
  • – Explicit reference to a Share Withdrawal Policy (here attached).

Our proposed new Rules adopt the template provided by the Plunkett Foundation and we’re grateful to the Plunkett Foundation and Community Shares Scotland for their support in this work. A representative from Community Shares Scotland will be present on 21st September to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you for your support and hope to see you on the 21st or in the shop soon! 

Dig-In COVID-19 Update (20/03/2020)

Dig-In open sign

Thank you to our community for being so understanding in what have been the most challenging few weeks we’ve ever seen at Dig-In. We are working towards maintaining trading throughout this difficult time and while we protect our amazing team of staff and volunteers, bring in new processes and ramp up our veg box offerings, we only ask that you are patient.

If you have sent in a veg box form, please wait until you have had confirmation from us before you come to pick it up. Bear with us while we try carve out a new normal so we can ensure we can weather this crisis and be back to our bustling wee shop on the other side. 

Covid-19 Update

Dear Dig-In community and shareholders,

The Dig-In Management Committee and staff have been in regular communication over the past few days to ensure we are taking all possible precautions to keep staff, volunteers and the community safe during the Covid-19 crisis. We are aware the situation is constantly in flux and, so are regularly checking government advice and are planning accordingly.  

Some key changes we have brought in (subject to change):

Please be mindful when visiting Dig-In and avoid buying in bulk wherever necessary, so we can ensure our whole community has access to food. We are limiting the purchase of wholefoods/grocery items to two items per person. This does not include individual fruit/veg items.

Additionally, as our shop is small and we are having a high visitor turnout we ask you to restrict numbers in the shop to only two customers at a time. Please wait outside until someone has left.

If you can, please pay by credit/debit card or with your supporters account. We want to minimise cash handling as far as possible.

If you have any symptoms, please do not come into the shop.

We are also aware that members of our community may be affected in different ways, so we are being flexible with our veg box scheme and are offering deliveries to those in need.

We want to reassure you that we are doing as much as we can in the circumstances. Priority areas:

1. Volunteers

We have communicated to volunteers that our primary concern is their health and safety and that they should not feel duty-bound to act at risk to their own physical or mental health well-being. Because of this, we may need to close intermittently or change our core opening hours to allow for regular breaks. Additionally, we have given guidance on what procedures to follow if they feel unwell. We anticipate a need for additional support so would ask anyone who wishes to offer voluntary help to fill in our volunteer application form on our website, so we can assess what support we may have should this need arise. 

2. Staff 

A plan has been written up to make sure we’re looking after staff in the event of sickness or self-isolation. Our current sick pay policy applies to all staff and allows for up to two weeks (pro-rata) of full pay before Statutory Sick Pay starts. If we have to close the business or operate on reduced hours, we will still pay all staff for their contracted hours. We are investigating government assistance available to support our staff team.

3. Training

We remain committed to ensuring that all staff and volunteers are kept in the loop with our plans and communications, and adequately trained to deal with the new measures we are operating within the business.

4. Stock 

Due to higher sales, we have streamlined some of our ranges to ensure we have adequate stock of some of our bestselling daily and pantry essentials. Please consider others and buy considerately.

5. Food handling

We have put in place additional daily hygiene practices to reduce food handling, and these will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. Currently, there is no evidence of food or food packaging being associated with the transmission of the virus. All staff and volunteers now wear vinyl gloves when handling food or cash. We would appreciate your support in using our contactless payment system wherever possible. 

6. Suppliers 

We understand the increased demand for some of our suppliers and wish to help support and strengthen these local food supply networks, wherever possible. Therefore, despite our increased workload, we are committed to ensuring that our administrative procedures and supplier payments remain a priority.   

And finally…

As the situation is evolving, we are grateful to have built up reserves over the last couple of years to weather us through some storms and at the moment we are hopeful to not need any significant injections of cash to keep the business afloat. We will, however, be suspending share withdrawals at this time. 

We would like to give a big thank you (and a virtual hug) to our staff and volunteers for the very hard work they have contributed at Dig In over the past couple of weeks. The management committee acknowledges the additional risk that working to keep our community-owned enterprise open and stocked with food from our local and sustainable suppliers poses. We want to assure the community we are taking this very seriously and researching various options in which we can support reduced contact within the shop, whilst still serving the community, and supporting local food supply chains.

It is in difficult times like these when the community pulls together and local businesses can shine as examples for community resilience.  Owned by the community and run for the community: we hope to continue to supply you with groceries with respect for our community and with good humour. If you think you can help us on this journey please do help us by becoming a (shareholding) member of Dig-In  or registering your interest in volunteering, or both!

Dig-in Staff and Management Committee

Dig In vs the Beast Fae the East – The Power of Local

Dig In vs the Beast Fae the East – The Power of Local

We’re just about thawing out after what was an incredibly eventful week in the life of our wee shop.

Tuesday evening, the snow starting drifting in as we gathered for our 5th AGM, reflecting on the successes of last year and catching up with our members, shareholders, volunteers and community built through this wee unassuming grocers. Little did we know that the Beast from the East was on her way, wreaking havoc with our food supply and collective ability to function…. or did it?

Read more

A progress report

Firstly, we had a fantastic volunteer social at the beginning of April. The shop was packed with people all wanting to help with Dig-In. We hope to see evenings like this become a regular feature in the Dig-In calendar so will keep you posted if any more are organised.

volunteernight_web

Now, the bit you’ve been waiting for, photos of the shop! We brought in our trusty camera last Friday so we can share with you our progress so far. Enjoy! Read more

Dig-In Meets Edinburgh Food Lovers at Scran Salon

Caroline and Scran Salon. Photo Courtesy of Common Good Edinburgh
Caroline at Scran Salon. Photo Courtesy of Common Good Edinburgh

Scran Salon is an informal meet up for anyone with a passion for food! It brings together business owners, chefs, producers, writers, promoters, and enthusiastic eaters from across Edinburgh’s vibrant food scene and is a great way to find out more about exciting food related projects happening across the city. Last Monday, Caroline,  John and Gina attended the second Scran Salon at Hemma Bar to mingle with the food lovers of Edinburgh and spread the Dig-In word. Read more

Missed a newsletter? Then don’t worry…

newsletter We regularly update those interested in the project with our email newsletter. However, if you’ve missed any, don’t worry! We’ve just put together our email archive and you can read all of our past newsletters here.

If you’ve not signed up to the newsletter, what are you waiting for? You can leave your email and join the list on the right hand side of this page.

We promise not to spam you with lots of emails and  your email IS NOT passed onto any third parties, it’s safe with us!

We’ve Smashed our First Target! (but we need to keep going…)

 

Screen Shot 2014-02-17 at 09.49.47BIG MILESTONE! We’ve reached our FIRST goal of £20K for our community greengrocers! We have to say a MASSIVE thank you to our shareholders, Tweeters and friends who have helped spread the word. It’s a fantastic achievement and we couldn’t be happier with the results.  Not only have local people bought shares, we’ve had purchases from as far away as Australia!

Reaching this first target means we can get to work hiring a shop manager and push forward with the grand opening. However, we’re not done yet and still need to reach our original £30,000 target. So please, share this website with your friends, join us on Facebook and Twitter and keep supporting Dig-In.