PCC Board of Trustees report, July 2014

PCC searches for New CEO

PCC Natural Markets is planning a nationwide search for candidates for chief executive officer, following the resignation of Tracy Wolpert, who has left PCC to pursue other interests.

Randy Lee, chief financial officer and a member of PCC management for 43 years, has assumed the role of acting CEO while the PCC Board of Trustees undertakes the search for the company’s next CEO. Lee will be very ably supported by the cooperative’s entire management team, each of whom has also been serving PCC and its membership for many years.

PCC Board of trustees election results

Clockwise from top: 1. Incumbents (l-r) Bruce Williams, Julianne Lamsek and Carol Binder were re-elected. They are shown here during the election campaign. Their new terms will end in 2017. See complete election results below. 2. (l-r) Hadassah Jordan and Emma Spurlock were among those who counted ballots at the May 19 meeting. 3. (l-r) Craig Larson and Brett Purchase accept the Redmond store’s election prize – movie tickets for everyone on the staff!

PCC’s 2014 annual election began on April 29 and ended May 15. The ballots were counted at a public meeting on Monday, May 19.

Board chair Maggie Lucas notes, “On behalf of the board, thank you to all the many people who participated in our recent election. This is such an important part of how our co-op is governed. Special thanks to the nominating committee for their crucial work, to the staff who worked so hard to administer the election and get out the vote, and to all the members who participated by voting in near record numbers. It is exciting to see our cooperative principles in action.”

Vote totals are as follows:

(*The top three candidates are elected to three-year terms on PCC’s board of trustees)

Julianne Lamsek, 1,973* votes
Bruce Williams, 1,924* votes
Carol Binder, 1,860* votes
Betsy Lieberman, 1,565 votes

Nominating committee

(All five candidates are elected to one-year terms on the 2014-2015 nominating committee)

Sara Walsh, 2,267 votes
Julie Tempest, 2,104 votes
Karen Gaudette Brewer, 2,083 votes
Leanne Skooglund Hofford, 2,083 votes
Janet Hietter, 2,027 votes

The election always is a source of excitement in our stores since the ballots give members a chance to name their “home” store and the store with the highest number of ballots wins a prize.

This year, the winning store is Redmond. Not only did Redmond win, but the store’s total of 434 ballots was its highest since the store opened in 2006.

Seward Park earned the highest increase in vote total over last year with 308 ballots. Employees at both stores won movie tickets!

Board meeting report

The board met on May 27 and heard reports from the board development, finance and member relations committees.

• The board heard the election results and shared feedback from campaigning in the stores. The nominating committee was thanked for its work this year.
• The finance committee reported on its review of the solid first quarter financials.
• The board selected the audit firm for the 2014 tax and finance audits.
• The board self-evaluation survey was approved for distribution. Results will be discussed at the June board meeting.
• The annual meeting was reviewed. With another record attendance and widespread appreciation of the 60-year retrospective that was the meeting’s education component, the meeting was deemed successful.
• The nominating committee protocols were reviewed and a slight change was approved.
• Management reported on the status of the Greenlake Village PCC. Merchandising and staffing decisions for the new store are ongoing. (The store opened June 4.)

The next board meeting is July 29 at 5 p.m. at the co-op business office, with member comment period at 7 p.m.

Note to our members:
The June 24 board meeting report will be published in the August Sound Consumer.