BECOME A BOARD MEMBER

A Board of 7-9 co-op members are voted in by the membership for 2 year terms to govern and oversee the health and wellbeing of the co-op. Any member in good standing with the co-op is eligible to vote or run in the election which take place at the Annual Meeting.

Board Meetings

Board meetings are held monthly and are open to any member who would like to attend. Currently, Directors review co-op business, collectively develop operations, vote on important issues, and provide vital direction and advice for Growing Our Co-op Together.

Officers - 2022

• President – Danette Koke (2023)

• Vice-President - Karine Bouis-Towe (2023)

• Secretary – Erin Henley (2023)

• Treasurer – Open

Directors - 2020

• Dan McManus (since 2016)

• Marc Clifton (2023)

Thank you to our former Board Members!

• Jennifer Shiffman (since 2020)

• Gabriel Zeltzter (since 2020)

• Mayor Clarence Speed (2012)

• Jim Cashen (2012)

• Jeff French (2012 - 2013)

• Laura Summer (2014 - 2015)

• Irene Young (2014 - 2016)

• Charlie Doheny (2015 - 2017)

• Linda Van der Muelen (since 2018)

• Abby Laufer (since 2015)

• Michelle Koch Botta (2019)

• Lynda Akerman (since 2015)

• Bambi Bishop (since 2017)

• Eileen Ordu (2019)

• Elizabeth Angello (2012)

• Erin Corrigan (2023)

• Roxanne Wilkes (2023)

Thank you to our owner-members who formed the Collaboration Team to develop the Philmont Cooperative and its business plan.

• Kathy Abeyatunge

• Elizabeth Angello

• Sally Baker, Philmont Beautification, Inc.

• Faith Benson

• Sheri Bolevice

• Irene Young

Board Member Bios:

Board President - Danette Koke

Inspired by the untimely passing of her Father just shy of his 47th birthday, Danette became the only student attending Smithtown High School East, who joined as a member of the then, newly formed Health Food Coop in Saint James, NY.  Her interest in the healing value of food has remained an essential lifestyle element.  In 2006 Danette graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition’s year long program (IIN) to further investigate the power of healthy, natural food as medicine, an ongoing personal passion.

While she has no prior experience in holding a board of directors position, Danette remains a successful business owner.   In 1991, she established DANETTE KOKE FINE ART, WWW.DANETTEKOKEFINEART.COM an art consulting company whose clients include NYS Homes and Community Renewal’s headquarters at 641 Lexington Avenue in NYC.  Her interest in creating beauty and harmony in spaces also lead her to study Feng Shui which she offers on an informal basis to friends and associates.  In December of 2021 until September 2021, Danette worked as part time customer service associate at The Philmont Cooperative Market.

Vice President and Chair - Karine Bouis-Towe

Karine has been passionate and a dedicated cooperative market shopper since her first days on her own in Asheville, NC and continuing in Washington, DC where there are several cooperatives to choose from.  She spent a few years working as a Project Manager trying to help a community group create a new food co-op in the H Street, NE DC neighborhood, this cooperative did not come to fruition but gave her experience in forming food co-op feasibility studies, business plans and cooperative business grants.

Karine is a part-time farmer, she owns and manages Retrograss Farm on Rigor Hill Rd. about 10 minutes from Philmont.  In addition, she works part-time in the IT profession and has worked as administrative support and developing new initiatives at the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School.  She has also held the position of Board Treasurer for other community initiatives over the past few years.

Secretary - Erin Henley

Hello, my name is Erin Henley and I’ve spent close to a lifetime in Columbia County, having grown up in Kinderhook and now own a house in Ghent!

In 2017 I began Rock’n Raw Edibles, a sole proprietorship currently making tasty and healthy raw-green and raw-milk aged cheese pestos at the Philmont Coop. I sell seasonal pestos (10) along with 15+ cheeses (many in the pestos), at 3-4 local Farmers’ Markets yearly; (2023-Hudson, Saugerties, Rhinebeck)

I’m also the Owner/Director of My Sisters’ Keeper of NY Inc, an educational non-profit started in 2012 and incorporated in 2022. It is dedicated to supporting aspiring young entrepreneurs through education, training and internship or apprenticeship opportunities.

And I’ve been running an Airbnb rental out of my home/apt since 2018.

I’ve had 20 years of experience in various aspects of education, predominantly with the Career and Tech and Special Education population, and in particular as a Grant Administrator/Coordinator of the Learn and Serve Grant from 2004-2011 for Questar III (BOCES). In this capacity I was able to use resources to bring students, educators and farmers together through various volunteer and project-based learning activities specifically related to farming, food projects, healthy eating etc. ironically just as the local farm, farm to table scene began to take off in Columbia County around 2005/2006. Educators focused on programming, and I was able to get students volunteering in their communities.  Students were able to experience first-hand real farm-work, they created their own school gardens, volunteered at sites such as the Regional Food Bank in Latham, the Albany Rescue Mission and the Hudson Salvation Army kitchen. They delivered food to seniors regularly through two Meals on Wheels routes in Columbia and Albany County. These activities and many others focused on illuminating the gross food disparities and inequities in their own communities. Great work!

But sadly all good things come to an end and when our government began practicing austerity with the beginnings of the Tea Party movement in 2010, my grant was cut and I lost my job. 

Luckily you can reinvent yourself in this area, and I did!  And as I’ve been steeped in this movement from both sides for decades, I thought I might be of service to the Philmont Coop and joined the board in 2022. Although I have no real Board experience, I believe in the power of the Philmont Coop and would like to help it thrive! 

Dan McManus - Board Member

Dan McManus is the co-founder and owner of Common Hands Farm and Common Hands Farm Stone Masonry.

An entrepreneur and alternative economics scholar, Dan put his passion for community and cooperative economics to work.  He studied at Goddard College and started his first business with Castle Masonry, a cooperative masonry company. He then moved on to Create Common Hands Farm,  a family farm which has offered stable employment and farmer training to 120 employees and apprentices over the course of 12 years.

Dan was involved in bringing forward a blueprint for the Philmont Market and Café which was first put together by PBI, and the founding team of the Co-op.  This model struck a chord and stood out in particular to him as one with the most potential.  As a vendor at the Philmont Farmers Market for many years, Common Hands Farm garnered firsthand experience in the Village’s needs and saw the Co-op’s potential to provide affordable access to healthy food for the community.

Dan has served on the Philmont Cooperative’s board for six years, a term which is soon coming to a close. Dan has remained on the board in the hope that the Co-op can try a different approach towards engaging our wider community and providing a structure and trellis for food entrepreneurs to plant and grow their ideas.   He looks forward to a new chapter of clarity, accountability, and clear presentation of our truly revolutionary and vitally important ideas. Dan is a believer in the Idea that a community can strive towards engagement and mutuality in our food system. 

Dan McManus has also had the pleasure of serving on other boards, including Cornell Cooperative Extension, Agrarian Trust and The Hudson Midweek Farmers’ Market.   

He is a local farm inspector for the “Naturally Grown” certification label.

As Dan phases out of his board position, he looks forward to forming a committee of producers who can work together to put effort into our store’s presentation, the availability of product, and the never ending puzzle of general food affordability for our community. 

Marc Clifton:

Marc Clifton grew up in several places across the country - Palo Alto CA, Ann Arbor MI, North Haven CT and Eden NY -- yes, there is actually a small town called Eden in NY. Marc enjoys a career in software development and technical writing. His son, now 31, lives in Texas and went to Waldorf School K-12, which is how Marc discovered Anthroposophy and the works of Dr. Steiner. Software development requires a lot of listening to people and helping them discover and communicate their goals, and Marc discovered a particular talent in the art of listening, which was further developed in his Dale Carnegie and Non-Violent Communication coursework. He took up with great interest the ideas of Goethean Conversation as described by Marjorie Spock and in general the spiritual concepts described by Rudolf Steiner. Besides software development and prolific technical writing, he publishes a monthly newsletter, The Philmonter, which almost always includes an interview of a Philmont NY resident. Marc has also developed an experiential workshop on the practice of Goethean Conversation. Marc plays the lyre (though not very skilled at it!), participates in local study groups, and enjoys doing collaborative proofreading for his friend's essays on Eurythmy. In addition to this website, Marc is the web administrator for Inner Fire, a proactive healing community offering a choice for adults to recover from debilitating and traumatic life challenges with minimal use of mind-altering, psychotropic medications. Marc is very excited to participate in the development of the Berkshire Taconic Branch’s new website as it embraces his passion for Community, Collaboration and Conversation, which also happens to be the byline for The Philmonter, a monthly local paper he published between 2021 and 2023.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND PROGRAMMING

Philmont Beautification, Inc., provides ongoing technical assistance and program development continuing our long-term collaboration with the not-for-profit community development organization who funded the re-adapt renovations of the co-op building and site, equipped the kitchen and market, and was a member of the Collaboration Team. To make a donation to support ongoing technical assistance and educational programs for the Philmont Cooperative contact PBI at info@pbinc.org.