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 … Read More »

Did you know Legos make great financial
building blocks? I didn’t. I also didn’t know the first food cooperative opened
in 1844. Thanks to the Cooperative Board Leadership Program 101, I am now
equipped to serve you, members of the Three Rivers Market, as a newly elected
director on the board.

Cooperative Board Leadership Development
(CBLD) is an innovative program of the CDS Consulting Co-op and designed
specifically for members of cooperative boards that focuses on four pillars of
cooperative governance: Teaming, Accountable Empowerment, Strategic Leadership,
and Democracy.

Saturday, January 5, 2019, I joined three
of my fellow board members and Jacqueline Arthur, the general manager of Three
Rivers, for a one-day training hosted by the French Broad Co-op in Asheville,
North Carolina. Throughout the day, we learned what it takes to be an engaged
and effective member of a food cooperative.

The day kicked off with an overview of the
history, values, … Read More »

A new year, a new board! Thank you to all co-owners who participated in the 2018 election for Three Rivers Market Board of Directors.

Congratulations to our newest Directors–Amanda Womac, Elizabeth Gentry, and Joy Wilson–who were seated at the December board meeting. We are lucky to have Three Rivers Market co-owners who are willing to volunteer their time towards stewardship of the cooperative. The Board is elected by Three Rivers Market co-owners to serve and represent the best interests of the cooperative and all co-owners collectively.       

Three Rivers Market Board of Directors recognizes departing directors for their service and work while on the board. Sincere thanks to Amy Brooks, departing Vice Chair; Gabrielle Boudreau, departing Member Linkage Committee chair; and Crista Cuccaro, departing Election Committee chair!        

Three Rivers Market Board also elected its new officers for 2019 during the December meeting! The … Read More »

Welcome to the Board of Directors!

Amanda Womac

Elizabeth Gentry

Joy Wilson

Three Rivers Market’s Board of Directors has been studying diversity and inclusion since spring 2016, and we hosted a discussion of diversity with members at the 2016 Annual Meeting in December.

Three Rivers Market is also a supporter of CDS Consulting Co-op’s work exploring issues of racism and oppression. CDS recently released “Everyone Welcome? Personal Narratives about Race and Food Co-ops” by Jade Barker and Patricia Cumbie. In this report, fifteen co-operators from a variety of backgrounds — class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation — talk about their introduction to co-ops and respond to two questions: how did food co-ops become so white and what can be done to make food co-ops more racially inclusive? You can find the report and here: http://library.cdsconsulting.coop/everyone-welcome-personal-narratives/

More material will be forthcoming from this project, including case studies of individual co-ops exploring their challenges around … Read More »