It’s National Co-op Month, and we would like to share what this means to the Board of Directors. Also, are you interested in Board Service? Do you know what TRM Talks are? Would you like to attend the next Board meeting? All this and more will be noted in the Board News this month.

Board Application Deadline Is Here!
If you are passionate about Three Rivers Market and you have an interest in Board service, please consider running for the Board! Wednesday, October 1, is the deadline to submit your application. Questions? Email board@threeriversmarket.coop.

Do you know what TRM Talks are? 
TRM Talks (Three Rivers Market Talks) are specific times scheduled for Board members to be in the store and available to hear from our owners. These were created to give owners an opportunity to talk to Board members about topics that are important to them. There are other ways that owners can communicate with the Board, but this way is much more personal and gives time for discussion. We hope you will join us at an upcoming TRM Talk; please keep an eye on your email and signage in the store for dates and times. We like to hear from you about your concerns, your suggestions, and of course the things that you love about the co-op. Join us, we would love to hear from you.

October Board Meeting
In the past, the Board has had an all-day fall retreat in October and the monthly meeting took place during that event. This year, we are keeping with our normally scheduled time, which will be on Thursday, October 9th, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at St. James Episcopal Church, 1101 N. Broadway. Remember to register by the Wednesday before at this link.

October Is National Co-op Month!
October is National Co-op Month, and this October is particularly special.  The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives, and co-ops and supporters around the world have been celebrating the cooperative ethos and lifting up the successes that co-ops have brought to their communities.

The National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International’s 2025 Cooperative Impact Report highlights the critical role that farming cooperatives played in ensuring communities could thrive in the late 19th century transition to an industrialized economy.  It suggests that co-ops can play a similar role in grounding all of us as the economy again shifts to service- and information-based industries.  But it warns that this is not inevitable – that cooperatives require careful nurturing, and that their role must be asserted amid the large corporations that dominate day-to-day commerce.

The theme of this Co-op Month (and Year) is “Cooperatives Build a Better World”.  It’s a bold claim.  We hope that Three Rivers Market contributes to a better world through building a better Knoxville, and a better East Tennessee.  We carry local vendors because we believe in a local and sustainable economy.  We run our Nourishing Change program because we know our member-owners and other customers want to support local changemakers.

But we also need to recognize the limitations of our intentions and our structure. A co-op is many things, but on some level, it’s merely a legal entity, capable of success or failure, and of positive or negative impact.  A slight adjustment might be that *Acting Cooperatively* Builds a Better World, because our actions as member-owners, directors, staff members, and customers determine how Three Rivers Market will affect our community and our world.

At our September Board meeting, a TRM member who works at the store mentioned receiving customer feedback about the discontinuation of our member discount program.  They mentioned the experiences they had with members finding out about the program changes for the first time – many of them positive and constructive, a few more hostile.  What they asked of us as directors was to be more present and visible in the store — to be there to explain why this decision was made, to affirm that member benefits are still very important to us, and to hear ideas for market governance with a personal connection that only a co-op can offer.

By reinstituting our TRM Talks, we’ve tried to engage more deeply with the store, and we’ve appreciated the many conversations that we’ve had with members.  We recognize that every member conversation is a time investment that you’re making to engage with cooperative governance, and we hope you come away feeling that your investment was worthwhile.  Over the next few weeks, you may run into a Board member helping to bag your groceries, or a prospective Board member at an election outreach event, as we keep trying new ideas to show up in a way that matters.

We turn “Cooperatives Build a Better World” from a slogan to a principle by building better cooperatives.  Each of us on the Board has times when we’ve taken pride in our work and feel like we’ve contributed to this process, and times when we’ve felt frustrated by the challenge of cooperative governance.  We always encourage your cooperative engagement by attending our Board meetings, participating in our committees, sending your thoughts to board@threeriversmarket.coop, or just continuing to visit the market.  Celebrate National Co-op Month by challenging yourself to find a new way to act cooperatively, and by helping to make Three Rivers Market the best cooperative it can be.

In cooperation,

The Three Rivers Market Board of Directors