Help Raise Funds for Duwamish Legal Defense!

As in the past, the Olympia Food Co-op acknowledges that for some Co-op members, Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate the harvest of the season with friends and family, while for others, Thanksgiving marks a long, often hidden history of broken treaties, forced assimilation and genocide. 

Acknowledging these realities, the Olympia Food Co-op would like to call attention to land and treaty rights of First Nations people. Members are invited join with the Duwamish Nation––First People of the Seattle area––in their struggle for federal recognition. Information about Duwamish history and culture, treaty rights, and current fundraising needs can be found in the pamphlet “We Are Still Here,” near the pencils and clipboards at the front of the stores, at www.duwamishtribe.org, or by visiting the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center at 4705 W Marginal Way SW Seattle.

Donations will be taken at the registers. Tribal Chairwoman Cecile Hansen says, “If everyone in Seattle gave us $1, we could pay for our legal defense.” Well, let’s see what a couple thousand Co-op members in a little city south of town can do!

Donations for the Duwamish Legal Defense Fund will be collected through April 2011.

OFC Board of Directors Election Results

Results

After a long count of the record-breaking 1093 valid votes received, the results of this year’s Board election are complete.

The following five candidates will join the Board of Directors this January (the total votes received by each candidate follow their name):

TJ Johnson (693 votes)
Rochelle Gause (635 votes)
Erin Genia (568 votes)
John Regan (551 votes)
Eric Mapes (545 votes)

All of the top 5 candidates have accepted the position.

The first runner-up was Susan Trinin with 315 votes.

From there, in order of votes received, were Teresa Young (289), Suzanne Shafer (277), Karen Bray (255), Kent Davis (242), Andrea Lipper (241), Kim Henderson (219), Linda Sternhill Davis (195) and Joshua Simpson (132). Susan Schaeffer, who withdrew from the race, received 86 votes.

Process

A total of 1133 ballots were received. 38 votes were not counted due to unverified or inactive memberships. With a 230 vote difference between the lowest winning candidate’s votes and highest runner-up candidate’s votes, these uncounted ballots had no effect on the final outcome. Inactive membership is defined in our bylaws as a membership without a current address or whose dues payments are not up to date. You can read our full bylaws at http://www.olympiafood.coop/bylaws.html.

Ballots were counted in a three-part process. First, membership information on the front of the envelope was verified. Second, ballots were separated from their envelopes and piled in stacks of 100. Lastly, the votes were tallied by hand.

Ballot counting began shortly after 9pm last evening and continued into the early morning. Staff members Diana Pisco, Jayne Kaszynski, Jason Baghboudarian, and Grace Cox were joined by volunteers Raelyn Pisco-Eckert and Jaime Kaszynski in counting ballots. Many thanks to Mo Tobin, James Scott, Jason Baghboudarian, volunteer Scott Bishop, and Board member Jackie Krzyzeck for their work updating the membership database and verifying memberships. Several people contacted the Co-op about observing the counting (and were invited to come), but none of them did so.

All envelopes were saved, as were all ballots. Ballots were bundled in batches of 100 with their tally sheets and locked in a secure location at our downtown office.

Although we were prepared to continue counting during a power outage with flashlights and candles, the Co-op office was not affected by last night’s blackouts!

Thanks to everyone who ran for the Board, and to all members who took part by casting a vote.

Boycott Policy Subcommittee Application

Apply to join the Board Subcommittee on revising the Boycott Policy

The purpose of this application is to create a formal process for general members of the Olympia Food
Cooperative to become involved with the Boycott Policy update process. It is the intention of the Board of
Directors to build a subcommittee made up of individuals representative of the diversity of the Olympia
Food Cooperative. Four members will be selected to join the committee.

Boycott Subcommittee Application

Annual Meeting Accessibility

Wheelchair Accessibility at the Annual Meeting

The Co-op's Annual Meeting planners recently learned that the site of our meeting, the Cherry Street Loft, is not wheelchair accessible. A staircase is the only method of access to the room. We sincerely apologize to our members for this oversight.

Because our bylaws do not permit us to relocate the meeting this close to the event, we are opening our downtown office's meeting room to members who may have difficulty entering the Loft. We will stream a live broadcast of the meeting to this space, and food and beverages will be available. We are working to create a way for members at this site to be able to take part in the "question and answer" period with the Board.

Again, we sincerely apologize that our annual meeting will not be fully accessible. We strive to keep the Co-op "welcome to all," and we realize we've fallen short of this goal. We hope that our off-site, live-broadcast location will be a sufficient solution for this meeting, and we will ensure that accessibility remains a high priority in planning future events.

Sincerely,
Your Co-op