PCC 2025 Elections

Editor’s note: Elections are approaching for the PCC Board of Trustees. The board — currently composed of 11 trustees — has broad oversight responsibilities for the operation of the co-op. Meet this year’s candidates in our 2025 Election Guide.

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, Last year, Sound Consumer talked with trustee Megan Karch, Chair of the Governance and Membership Committee, which oversees PCC’s election of trustees to the Board of Trustees, about Board responsibilities. Updated excerpts from that conversation are reprinted below.

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.

Each year, the Board identifies the skills currently lacking on the Board that would be most helpful in addressing future challenges. For 2025, the Board identified executive experience in grocery/fresh food operations and organizational transformation experience as desirable skills of candidates.

(Board duties) have been more time-intensive now as we face new challenges. which includes the landscape of Seattle changing so much during and after 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.

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. (Editor’s note: This proposal was later approved.)

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 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. (Note: Members can email the board at board@pccmarkets.com.) 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.