PCC Board of Trustees report, February 2012

Board meeting report

There was no board meeting in December and the January 31 meeting report will be published in March.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting will be Tuesday, March 27 at 5 p.m. at the co-op office. Members are welcome at all public sessions of the meeting. Member comment period is at 7 p.m.

The board will report on its February 11-12 retreat in the April issue of the Sound Consumer. The retreat agenda includes learning sessions on Food Hubs, green building, and the regional cooperative landscape. 2012 is the International Year of the Cooperative.

Pre-election activity update

The 2012 board election dates are April 24 through May 17 with four PCC members vying for three open seats:

• Maggie Lucas (community advocate, parent, attorney) incumbent
• Stephen Tan (environmental attorney) incumbent
• Art Scheunemann (business executive)
• Sandy Voit (financial counselor)

Our candidates will videotape interviews on February 4 to give members an opportunity to begin examining candidates’ ideas on PCC governance early in the election process. Our co-op members say they take their votes in board elections very seriously and appreciate the extra time to consider candidates’ views.

PCC encourages members to view these interviews. The video interviews will be posted on PCC’s website no later than March 30, more than a month before the printed election material is mailed to members’ homes in April.

All members who are active as of March 31, 2012 will be eligible to vote in the 2012 board election.

Meet the board

Our annual meeting on April 24 will give members a chance to meet and talk with the candidates and all the current board members.

In another attempt to help members get to know the candidates, we’ll once again host informal candidate forums in April and May at two stores — one on the east side and another on the west. All of the candidates will participate, along with several current board members. We’ll announce the dates and times of the forums in the March Sound Consumer, so members can make plans to attend.

PCC renews organic certification

PCC is a certified organic retailer, which means that we:

• Maintain records of organic purchases, providing traceability.
• Verify that the organic products we purchase are certified.
• Handle the organic products in a way that maintains their organic integrity.
• Use appropriate cleaning, sanitizing and pesticide products and procedures.
• Our certifying agent, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), inspects our records and facilities annually, interviews staff and conducts an audit.

The inspections and audit for 2012 were recently completed and the organic certifications for all nine stores were renewed.

Comments on organic standards

PCC submitted comments to the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) during a public comment period recently on several pending issues.

We advocated for more living space indoors and out for organic chickens and hogs to enhance animal welfare. We advocated limits on ammonia exposure and for prohibitions against de-beaking, de-snooding, dubbing, and toe trimming among poultry.

We argued for continuing the prohibition against allowing added sulphur/sulfites to wines labeled organic. We also urged the NOSB to reject approval of novel additives deemed nutrients.

To read the comments in full, visit Public Policy Statements on Organics.