Once again, Three Rivers Market is leading the way!

The Board of Directors has recently made two innovative changes to our board policies that we would like to share with you. These revisions reflect an effort to put into policy current practices that we value.

Over the past year, the Board has been considering creating a Governance policy to protect Three Rivers Market’s Product Standards policy. Many of you participated in our discussions through our event Our Values, Our Shelves and at the Annual Meeting. We heard clearly how much you all value and trust Three Rivers Market’s current standards, and we appreciate that these standards reflect your values. At our March meeting, the board concluded that we should state in policy that our cooperative should establish Product Standards to ensure their existence into the future and that they should not change without justification to the Board. We placed this new language in an existing policy B5: Executive Limitations- Asset Protection, as we felt that your trust and our commitment to having robust product standards are an asset to our business.

In February, the board monitored policy D3: Governance Process- Board Officers’ Roles. The policy was written that the Chair of the Board will set the agenda for our Board meetings. However, it has been the practice of our Board Chairs to be very consultative with agenda planning, including meeting with the Executive Committee and General Manager monthly, as well as inviting suggestions from the whole board. The newly revised policy, along with the Bylaws, supports the Chair’s final authority to decide what makes it on our monthly Board Meeting Agenda. The new language captures a cooperative process that has been working well.

Thank you, again, to YOU for helping us protect the good that the co-op does for its co-owners, as well as our community! Please join us at our next monthly Board Meeting: Thursday, May 9 at 6:30 pm at St. James Episcopal Church (always the second Thursday of each month). You can also always reach us via e-mail: board@threeriversmarket.coop.