Co-op board should address issues out loud

By Angela Gyurko
Posted 12/18/24

 

 

I have been attending the monthly meetings of the PT Food Co-op Board for the last four months. The Dec. 4 meeting’s 90 minutes of public comment were a welcome …

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Co-op board should address issues out loud

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I have been attending the monthly meetings of the PT Food Co-op Board for the last four months. The Dec. 4 meeting’s 90 minutes of public comment were a welcome change from September’s meeting, when public comment was limited to 20 minutes. Unlike in October and November, Board President Owen Rowe allowed discussion, and gave board members and member-owners a chance to talk to each other. This was an important first step to repairing the Co-op’s relationship with the community.

Almost everyone present at the meetings I have attended understands that the Co-op board’s first duty is fiduciary. It needs to make sure that the money the community spends at the Co-op is managed well for the benefit of the community. It also must exercise oversight of the general manager.

But lingering questions remain about the treatment of People of the Global Majority and people with different gender expressions who visit and work at the Co-op, and these must be addressed. The community continually expresses its frustration that the Co-op board still hasn’t addressed racial and gender issues, nor have they even communicated a plan for addressing the issues.

What struck me most at the Dec. 4 meeting is how much the community members who attend meetings want to help the Co-op board heal the rift. Experts in managing conflict, in bridging language, in healing circles, and in running hybrid meetings have all volunteered to help. As much as members understand that the Co-op is bound by certain bylaws, they emphasize over and over that when the bylaws inhibit discussion and dissent, the bylaws have to be changed. 

In my comments to the Co-op board, I specifically noted  what we, the community, would like to see from the board. I would welcome a statement from them along these lines:

“We have heard your messages. We understand now, in ways we did not before, that the Co-op has not been serving the entire community equally. We understand now that People of the Global Majority and folks with differing gender expressions in the county have had more negative experiences at the Co-op than we realized.

“We pledge to do more, we pledge to do better, and we pledge to be completely transparent in our processes.

“We understand now that we must change our way of doing business, and move away from the rigid bylaws that have bound us. The bylaws we operate under have created distance between the community, our Co-op workers, and rigid management structures. We therefore pledge to reform our bylaws so that they can never again be used to silence dissent.”

If the bylaws can’t be changed, indeed if serious change in the culture of the Co-op isn’t going to happen, the Co-op Board needs to tell the community honestly and openly. We value the Co-op, but we also value the lived experiences of the people in this community, and we would not be good allies if we did not speak up.

Angela Gyurko has been part of Citizens for Healthcare Access since 2016.