PCC Board of Trustees report, October 2012

Board application deadline

The application deadline for the 2013 election is October 15.

The nominating committee will conduct interviews in late October and early November. The 2013 slate should be finalized by late November and published on our website by December 19. The slate should be published in the January issue of the Sound Consumer.

Board reports

July 31

This was the first meeting of the 2012-2013 board year. It began with the annual review of the trustees’ rights and fiduciary responsibilities. This interactive session included a review of applicable Washington statutes, PCC bylaws and board policies.

The following rosters for the four standing committees were approved:

• Board Development – Maggie Lucas (chair), Julianne Lamsek, Stephen Tan, Bruce Williams
• CEO Evaluation – Carol Binder (chair), Maggie Lucas, Bryan Pearce, Stephen Tan
• Finance – Bruce Williams (chair), Bryan Pearce, John Sheller, Sandy Voit
• Member Relations – John Sheller (chair), Katrina Basic, Julianne Lamsek, Sandy Voit

The board approved the date and location for the 2013 annual meeting. It will be Tuesday, April 23 at St. Demetrios Hall.

Rebecca Sadinsky, executive director of PCC Farmland Trust, updated the board on recent trust activities. Sadinsky also requested and was granted permission to mail the trust’s annual fundraising letter to PCC’s membership. Sadinsky noted that the annual appeal to our members has been very well-received over the last six years. PCC members may expect to receive the letter in November.

September 25

The board was scheduled to meet on September 25 (after Sound Consumer’s publication deadline) with an agenda that included consideration of work plans: for this year’s four standing committees; Board Development, CEO Evaluation, Finance and Member Relations.

The next board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 27 at the business office at 5 p.m. Member comment period is at 7 p.m. Comments are limited to three minutes unless prior arrangement is made with the board chair.

Contact the board at
board@pccmarkets.com
or by mail sent to the co-op’s business office.

IYC 2012 activities

In early October the National Cooperative Business Association is holding its annual meeting in Seattle. Co-ops from around the country will be here to teach and learn from each other about the ways the co-op business model can impact the world.

Your co-op is participating by contributing to workshops and seminars and by hosting a tour of one of PCC’s stores for a group of forty co-op members. We’ll report on the activities in this space soon.

Learn more about the annual meeting and conference »

Improving school food

Kim Bussing

As the school year begins, we want to share some thoughts on school lunches from one of our young members. Kim Bussing participated in a panel discussion on childhood nutrition at the 2012 annual meeting. She wrote an essay for our website, which we excerpt here.

Though home-brought lunches are not a rarity, the most common sight in the cafeteria is a thick slab of pizza, with grease and questionable nutritional value. A variety of hamburgers are provided, the most popular being bacon cheeseburgers, and hot lunch options consist of chicken or beef drenched in a variety of sauces, with French fries or tater tots, and a cookie.

Between sports practices, play auditions and after-school clubs, teenagers are more apt to choose easy, pre-packed food options. While rushing around, students are not aware of how nutritionally devoid their hasty decisions might be.

Comparing my experiences to that of my peers, it is evident that after eating a nutritionally dense lunch I am equipped with better focus, more energy, an ability to regulate stress, and a more positive attitude toward my studies and the day as a whole.

Improving school lunches and increasing nutritional awareness is critical to allowing students to fully excel in school. After all, we learned in kindergarten that you are what you eat; our next step is learning exactly what to eat to be who we want to be.”

— Kim Bussing graduated with honors from Issaquah High School and is now a college freshman.

UPDATE

This year, local schools are making the first major changes in school meals in more than 30 years. Schools participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs now offer:

Look for a story about the changes and their impacts in an upcoming Sound Consumer.

PCC Farmland Trust

FUNDRAISING APPEAL

All PCC members should look for the annual funding appeal from the trust in the mail in November.