2007 fall member meeting recap

• Slide show
• Menu and recipes from the meeting

More than 300 PCC members enjoyed an evening of good news and great food at St. Demetrios Hall in Seattle on October 17. This new venue for PCC's meetings was very well received by our members.

A delicious fall meal was planned and executed by Rita Condon, Leon Bloom and Jill Edwards with the support of the Fremont deli staff. The menu featured build-your-own Country Natural Beef (CNB) beef burgers and Turtle Island veggie burgers with a gourmet condiment bar. Check out our Web site for the menu and some recipes.

Each dinner table was hosted by a member of the board or management and lively conversations ensued. Here are the discussion questions and a sample of comments from the members who attended. The board encourages members who were not at the meeting to weigh in on them.

What do you think of the selection and presentation of meat and seafood in our stores?

• Oven-ready (marinated, etc.) would be good.
• Do not understand the rating on fish; would like it more clearly signed.
• Need better sampling of products in meat and seafood.

How do you feel about PCC's decision to eliminate plastic bags?

• It’s about time!
• Thumbs up! It’s changed my shopping habits.
• We should stay in front of issues like this.
• Like lowered prices of PCC totes.

Have you any more ideas about ways PCC can reduce its ecological footprint?

• Paper boxes for deli — too much plastic.
• Focus on packaging as greatest ecological impact in all store departments.
• Encourage walking, carpooling to the stores.

Dinner was followed by a brief report from board chair Julie Tempest who talked about the rise in attendance at the member meetings over the last few years. In 2003, only 25 members attended our fall meeting, Tempest noted, and this year well more than 300 members reserved for both the fall meeting and this past spring's annual meeting.

Tempest thanked the members and asked for their continued participation and input throughout the year, reminding them of the ways they could communicate with the board — by mail and e-mail, by attending board meetings and by talking with board members during the board's monthly store visits.

Our CEO Tracy Wolpert talked about PCC's accomplishments of the past six months and plans for 2008:

• As of October 1, PCC discontinued using plastic shopping bags. (See No more plastic bags.)
• PCC was recognized as Outstanding Employer by the Northwest Center (NWC), the largest community service organization serving children and adults with disabilities in the Pacific Northwest.
• The exceptional design, construction and operation of PCC's Redmond store resulted in it being the first grocery store to be awarded LEED^® Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. (See the press release.)
• PCC was named as "Best Grocery Store" in a reader's poll conducted by Seattle Weekly. PCC was named as "Best Grocery Store" by ParentMap magazine.
• King County named PCC one "The Best Workplaces for Recycling." The award is given to companies that have shown leadership and commitment to making recycling and other waste reduction practices part of routine business operations. (See PCC's awards & recognition page.)

Wolpert reported that PCC is on solid financial ground, projected to end 2007 with sales of $115 million, and ready for expansion to Edmonds next spring.

Kathryn Gardow, executive director of the PCC Farmland Trust, brought everyone up to date on farmland preservation and fundraising efforts.

Trudy Bialic, PCC's director of public affairs, then led a discussion of the farm bill currently being crafted in the U.S. Senate. Linda Condon, WSDA's Organic Crop Certification Coordinator, and Andrew Stout, owner of Full Circle Farm, joined Bialic. PCC is encouraging members to contact the Senate in support of a fair Farm Bill.

Our special guests of the evening were Doc and Connie Hatfield, co-founders of Country Natural Beef (CNB), and several other representatives of the rancher cooperative. The dinner tables were decorated with photos of the CNB ranches to help our members connect to the ranchers' world. Some of those photos are included in the meeting slide show.

Doc and Connie charmed the audience with stories about the origin of CNB and their way of life and doing business. They were presented with a plaque commemorating the two-decade partnership between PCC and CNB.

Each ranching family also received a set of hand-forged metal barbecue skewers designed especially for us by local artist blacksmith Lauren Osmolski. Several of the PCC members in attendance also won skewer sets.