Welcome to the 313 new Co-op members who joined in January and February. The numbers of people joining each month has gone up dramatically from last year and no wonder: it’s an exciting and important time to be a Co-op member. We’ve got so much good stuff happening* we’re in danger of letting one very important piece of business slip by without fanfare: welcoming the new board members who were elected in our March elections and saying a big THANK YOU to the two board members who completed their terms.

At press time in late March the election results were not in, so I can’t welcome the new board members by name in this newsletter. But WELCOME to new Board member A and new Board member B.

And I want to thank all of the candidates (Dena Neese, Chris Norden, Bennett Barr, and Mark Jacobs) for running for the board, taking the time to answer all our questions, and for caring enough about the Co-op to make the very big commitment to serving on the Board of Directors. Thanks, too, to the members who voted. Please check the bulletin boards at the Co-op or check our website to see the results of our March elections.

And THANK YOU to retiring board members Joe Thompson and Kathleen Ryan, who served faithfully on the Board and on several committees, and who both, in my opinion, brought a fair, clear-minded, and succinctly eloquent style to meetings. They will be missed at Board meetings, but we’re fortunate to be keeping both of them on the sustainability committee for the time being.

Our outreach and membership work is ongoing: at the Washington State University Wellness Fair in February, I gave away lots of samples of products we carry in the Wellness department, and we’ll be going to the KLEW Inland Northwest Green Living Expo at Schweitzer in Pullman in May. One of the fun things about these events is the number of people who stop by and say, “I’m already a member!”

We also hosted several field trips at the Co-op recently, including the Building Blocks kindergarten from Pullman and a group of junior high cooks from Orofino (thanks to our bakery manager Hunt for his special role in hosting this group).

We’re hoping that our Tuesday Grower’s Market will soon be part of Backyard Harvest’s “Shop the Market” program, which allows customers with food stamps to buy fresh produce direct from the farmers; watch for more news about this in next month’s newsletter. Also watch in next month’s newsletter for detailed info about our new Essential Cookery series, offered through the City of Moscow’s Parks and Rec department.