A Q&A with PCC Board member Megan Karch

Editor’s note: Elections are approaching for the PCC Board of Trustees (see here for details.) The board — currently composed of 11 trustees serving three-year terms — has broad oversight responsibilities for the operation of the co-op. Trustees are required to fulfill their responsibilities in accordance with what are known as “fiduciary duties.” One, the duty of loyalty, requires trustees to put the interests of PCC and its members ahead of all other interests, including their own, and to maintain the confidentiality of information discussed by the board. Another, the duty of care, requires trustees to make decisions after careful study, discussion and debate.

In advance of the 2024 elections, Sound Consumer talked with Megan Karch. Karch is currently serving her second term as a trustee and is the Chair of the Governance and Membership Committee, which oversees PCC’s election of trustees to the Board of Trustees. She is the CEO of Islandwood, a nonprofit environmental education organization, and previously served as CEO of FareStart, the James Beard Award-winning nonprofit organization providing job training in the restaurant industry and other services to people experiencing homelessness.

Karch began shopping at PCC soon after moving to Seatle in 2000, and said she found the co-op “aligned with everything I believe in.” Here is a condensed, edited version of our conversation:

Q: Can you tell us about the key responsibilities of PCC’s board?

A: We’re a governance board, and as a governance board we help with vision and strategy. We support the CEO and the leadership team. Our responsibility is to make sure PCC is meeting the needs of our community and, most importantly, our members. Our job is to hire a great CEO. And our job is to provide leadership for the CEO — and then the CEO provides leadership to the staff. We do not get involved in the day-to-day operations.

Q: What does the job look like in practice?

A: The entire board meets at least four times a year with full-day meetings (plus usually working the evening before, and absorbing a significant amount of pre-reading and prep materials).  There’s also typically a two-day annual retreat, which is more forward-thinking and involves more strategy work. In the full-day meetings the topics range widely based on what’s most important for the co-op at the time. Then we serve on board committees — each committee has its own work. We have a finance committee, a governance committee (which is what I chair), and a management and compensation committee. At the committee level you meet more often and typically work with a staff liaison. For example, for the governance and membership committee, we focus on what skills the board needs in order to take us into the future. This year, because there are so many challenges in the grocery industry as a whole (as well as in organics, natural foods and coops), we got really specific with what we need the most this year, and it is specific grocery expertise. We are looking for merchandising/operations/supply chain expertise and multi-channel expertise and we would love it if (a candidate’s background) is in natural foods or co-ops.

(Board duties) have been more time-intensive now as we face new challenges. which includes the landscape of Seattle changing so much during the pandemic, and looking to try to take care of our staff while we build a sustainable model.

Q: How do you recruit candidates for the board, and who is eligible?

A: The number one eligibility requirement is that you need to be a member of PCC. Other requirements include being at least 21 years old and meeting the overall eligibility criteria (online here).

In our recruitment process we first look at what skill sets we currently have on the board. What do we need as we move forward over the next five years? For example, I bring more of what I would call an executive level perspective on social enterprise and social purpose benefit. Somebody else may come with a lens of knowing retail or other areas. We look at what skill sets we need right now, but also what we will need over the next five years, and then we come up with recruitment profiles so we can be as specific to the community as possible about what we’re looking for.

Then there is an official process of putting a notice out (for candidates)we typically have a full month where the applications are open. The Governance committee reviews all of the applications that come in and looks at how they align to the skill sets, then we do interviews and come back as a committee and talk about who we would recommend to the board as our slate of candidates.

In addition, we proposed to UFCW3000, the union which represents our store staff, that whenever the two Board seats currently filled by staff members come up for reelection (if the incumbents are not running or are ineligible), our unionized staff will provide us with nominees from their ranks to be placed on the ballot for a vote of the membership.

Q: What did the process look like for the upcoming 2024 elections?

A: There are four seats on the board up for election this year and three of the four incumbents submitted applications to be considered to serve another term. Kim Vu chose not to run as an incumbent — we really appreciate her service to the co-op over the past three years. Laurae McIntyre and Donna Rasmussen are staff members and have provided invaluable staff and customer perspective from those roles. Rodney Hines is the CEO of Metier Brewing Company and a longstanding community leader with a balanced perspective that includes public policy. The board recommended that all three of those incumbents be placed on the ballot — of course, the three incumbent applicants abstained from the recommendation process.

For the remaining open seat, the board reviewed 11 submitted applications and interviewed six candidates who appeared to meet some of the criteria we had initially set. As an aside, I will mention that we saw an unprecedented level of interest in the position, with over 30 people expressing their desire to learn more about the application process. Two of the six candidates interviewed had the grocery experience that we were looking for this year, but only one candidate — the one we ultimately recommended for the ballot — had all of the grocery experience and skills that we had identified as necessary, as well as an alignment with our mission, vision and values; a passion for natural and organic foods; and a long-standing familiarity and experience working with grocery co-ops.

Because of the enormous value our incumbent trustees provide to the co-op, their familiarity with the co-op’s future challenges, and the deep grocery experience and cultural alignment of the outside candidate, the Governance committee decided not to have a contested ballot this year, meaning we will not have more candidates on the ballot than there are seats.  Of course, members may vote against any candidate and any candidate who receives more “against” votes than “for” votes will not be elected to the board.

Q: Are there some especially challenging decisions that have been made in your time on the board?

A: Probably the most recent one, which was to close the Downtown PCC store. Clearly, we had signed a lease way before the pandemic happened, and the hope was that downtown would recover more quickly. That was probably one of the most difficult decisions, because it involved people. I was really pleased to hear that we could find jobs in other stores for everybody (who had worked at the Downtown PCC).

Q: Do board members get a lot of feedback directly from the public, or do people tend to send that to the customer service department or the CEO?

A: We get formal reports of what (PCC stores) are receiving from members. Staff give membership feedback reports to the board and also reports that are specific to the board recruitment process. There were maybe 30 comments last year on the process, and we always put it in context (that more people probably held those opinions but didn’t write in), and we definitely read them. Our members are why we exist.

Q: Is there anything about the board’s role and work that you think would surprise members?

A: I often find people are surprised that we might not have the answer or be involved in something specifically in in the day-to-day operations. That’s really up to the leadership team and the store directors.

Q: You make some very serious decisions with a broad scope, in a field with a lot of challenges.

A: The grocery industry is a really challenging industry right now, as it changes more and more and is consolidating. The board does talk about how we have to be really clear about who we are and double down on who we are. We have to make sure that our members feel the — to use a corporate term — the true value proposition of what they’re getting from our grocery stores. I am surprised that more of our members don’t know how rigorous our standards are and what they’re receiving when they walk through our stores — the confidence they can have in anything that is in our stores because those standards are very high.

I think that is what sets us apart, we do the hard work. We are trustworthy — and it is not an inexpensive thing to do. I think people might be surprised at just how hard it is to operate a co-op model for natural foods in the environment we’re in now, and how small the margins are in the grocery industry.

Q: Is there anything else you want to make sure people know?

A: Our members are owners of PCC, and I do want to hear more from them about what they want as owners of PCC, and their feedback. You asked the question, do we see their feedback? Gosh, yes, because that’s critical. They’re the people that we want to hear from. The co-op was founded and exists for our members.