I’m always surprised at how quickly fall comes to the Sierra foothills. It seems like it was just days after plucking the last plums off of our tree that the leaves began to turn. I love autumn and everything it brings to our community, and to our shelves!

Throughout the last year we have continued to see steady growth in the store. Sales have continued to rise, driven by an increase in the number of people who are choosing to shop at the Co-op. I am also delighted to say that we have continued to see many of our new shoppers quickly decide to become card-carrying owners of the Co-op, joining the ranks of nearly 1,500 owners. As you can imagine, though, this continues to exert significant pressure on our capacities and operations.

Internally, we have reshuffled the responsibilities of some of our staff to support this work. Cynthia will work on Volunteer Services, Haley is doing Special Orders and Evan will help us with Social Media.

You may have noticed some changes in our store, we have re-set our baby items, all child-related items can now be found in our Wellness Department. Our cheese case has many new plant-based and dairy-free cheese options. Our gluten-free set has many new baking items and several Paleo items. We have heard from many of you and we're working hard to have offerings for the varied needs of our shoppers.

Please continue to reach out with your thoughtful feedback. It is truly wanted and appreciated. I can be reached at regina@placervillecoop.org

Stronger together!
Regina, Store Manager

From the Board
Thank you for voting!

A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op or coop) is an autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled business. Democratic member control is one of the cooperative principles and serving on the board is one way for owners to participate in the life of the business. We are grateful to past and current board members for their service and to our owners who voted in our first contested election to date!

Over this last month owners have used our annual election to increase the number of Board Directors from 7 to 9 members. We received a total of 68 ballots. Ballots were counted and recorded by HR Manager, Julie Silvey. The proposed change to Bylaw, Article V, Section 5.01 (increase in board members from 7 to 9) received 56 Yes votes and only 4 No votes.

As a result we now have 5 new Board members!

Please welcome Craig Thomas, Ben Hanson, Angie Carocci, Andrea Crimmins and Jorden Mingle.  Existing Board Director, Robynn Paxton Katz, has been re-elected for a 2 year term. These Directors have varied professional backgrounds and are rich in passion, experience and knowledge that has already served as an asset to the coop and the existing board. We are very anxious to officially begin working together to assist management in making the coop better for our owners and our community! We greatly appreciate your trust and we are committed to fulfilling our leadership responsibilities.

We would also like to recognize outgoing board members, Pamela Roberts, Ruthie Loffelbein and Justin Abramson for their time and dedication to the coop. Their invaluable efforts & leadership have strengthened our board for the future. We thank you and and wish you well!

Looking forward we are each planning to spend additional time at the store during the week to meet with current and prospective owners. We will be available to answer any questions and help educate our shoppers on the benefits of ownership. We are also establishing committees as we develop new goals and task lists. Please let us know if you are interested in volunteering as you do not need to be a Director to participate in some of these committees.  

We welcome your input, questions, concerns, and ideas for making PFC an even better store and resource for our community. We look forward to seeing you at the store, at our monthly meetings and stay tuned for announcements for new quarterly owner meetings beginning in 2017.

Thank you again!
On Behalf of the PFC BOD,
Robynn Paxton Katz