HANOVER — The Hanover Co-op, without a permanent general manager since April, is now without a permanent board president.
Allene Swienckowski, president of the board of the Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society, abruptly resigned her position during the board’s executive session meeting on Wednesday night, saying afterward that she didn’t feel her voice was being respected by certain other members on the board.
“The reason why I left the board is my input for trying to elevate the culture of the board was not considered by a majority of the board members. Therefore, there’s no reason for me to spin my wheels, because I have real work to do and there are entities that need my input,” Swienckowski, a Quechee resident, said in an interview last week.
The Co-op board’s vice president, Jessica Saturley-Hall, will serve as acting president until a permanent board president is elected by board members at a later date.
Swienckowski’s resignation followed a email she sent to fellow board members on Monday taking her colleagues to task for wanting to submit Co-op interim general manager Paul Guidone to a formal interview later in the week before deciding whether to offer him the job permanently.
“I have frankly been stunned by the fact that many on the board feel that it is their due diligence to launch a full-press interview with Paul. … I am stunned because of the ever-present reality that Paul has been running the Co-op since March 8 and doing so under very challenging conditions. As his employer, are we not collectively, intimately already aware of his performance?” Swienckowski wrote in an email encouraging the permanent hiring of Guidone.
Her resignation also was preceded during the open session of Wednesday’s board meeting by what Swienckowski expressed as frustration in getting the Co-op’s bylaws changed. She argued for an article limiting the number of three-year terms members can serve on the board, but Bylaws Committee chairwoman Rosemary Fifield moved to return the article to committee for further consideration, even after a 9-2 majority of board members, including Fifield, supported the change in a straw poll.
The general manager position opened up earlier this year when Ed Fox announced he was resigning to pursue a “new professional opportunity.”
Guidone, a former investment management and bank executive who had been the Co-op’s CFO before being tapped to take over for Fox, declined to comment about his future status as general manager at the Co-op.
“I’m going to answer that question like a politician: I am very happy doing the job I am doing,” he said a phone call last week.
Saturley-Hall, the Co-op’s interim board president, declined to say whether the board has decided to hire Guidone as permanent general manager, saying the issue is a personnel matter.
But Saturley-Hall, speaking for the board, said in a written statement that Swienckowski “was a highly valued board member whose warmth, experience, and perspective were appreciated by all who worked with her.
“The difficulty of communicating exclusively over Zoom and emails during the time of the pandemic has increased the challenges facing any board, even those filled with extremely dedicated individuals with the best intentions. We were surprised by Allene’s resignation, and she will be missed,” Saturley-Hall said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.
Correction
Quechee resident Allene Swienckowski resigned as president of the Hanover Co-op board at a meeting on Wednesday, August 26. An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported what day she stepped down.
