About

Our Collective Model

The Little Grill has been a restaurant in Harrisonburg, Va’s North End since the 1940s, and a worker owned collective since June of 2003. We offer a wide variety of delicious and healthy home cooked meals with vegan, vegetarian, and meat options.

The number of worker owners and employees fluctuates regularly. Generally, we are comprised of about half owners, half employees. Every employee has the opportunity to become an owner after working a minimum of 6 months. There are several tasks to complete before one becomes eligible for membership. This includes shadowing owners who work in different capacities within the business, attending meetings and completing a self-directed project – we intend each component to familiarize the worker with how the collective operates so that their decision to join is an informed one. Each new worker owner buys into the business to solidify their ownership.

Like every business, the LGC is a multifaceted operation. Between the operating of the restaurant, the business and the collective there are many, many details to account for ranging from canceling the laundry service and newspaper delivery when we close for a holiday, to doing payroll, to mediating conflicts between owners, to insulating the ceiling, to updating the menus, to facilitating membership meetings.… you get the idea. It is a constant challenge to balance owners’ interests with the less interesting, more pressing needs of the business.

Each owner takes on responsibility outside the restaurant in addition to doing shift work (washing dishes, waiting tables, cooking etcetera). We designate “coordinators” for many aspects of the restaurant. We have coordinators for arts and entertainment (music and art shows), back of house (kitchen systems and food ordering), financial (bills, payroll and taxes), front of house (training, dining room), human resources (schedule and hiring), human relations (evaluations, mediations), maintenance (building repairs, inspections), public relations (advertising), and retail foods (catering). Coordinators have autonomy to make certain decisions and spend money without consulting with the group. There are several committees for which owners and employees can get paid to work on; these include but aren’t limited to the maintenance committee, website committee, front of house committee and the special events committee.

We meet as a membership twice a month. This is time when we go over our financial reports, check in with new hires, make announcements, introduce ideas, set the dates for other meetings, create committees, and make a wide range of decisions. Anyone can add items to the agenda. We select a different owner to solidify the agenda and facilitate each meeting. We work on a consensus basis, though we can approve something with an 80% majority. If an owner opposes a decision, they retain the right to block the decision until the next meeting.

We also meet regularly to discuss non-business issues. Many area professionals have worked with us regarding our interpersonal skills, including Ron Copeland, Kai Degner, Larry Hoover, Dr. John Glick, and Tim Ruebke. Our longest standing form of meeting to discuss ourselves and our relations is our honesty meetings. There is no facilitator for an honesty meeting, only a talking stick. The rules are to be brief, be honest, and listen from the heart.

Our structure, the process by which we come to decisions, and the way we parse out responsibilities is constantly in flux as are the people who comprise the collective. So take this as a description of one incarnation of the LGC!