PCU Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee.They have, along with a small, persevering group of organizers, been instrumental in getting the PCU open and running, some as members of the original steering committee which first met in 1997. The Board of DirectorsThe Board of Directors duties are to develop short and long term planning objectives. These objectives while meeting the needs of the members should also reflect the credit union philosophy. They monitor the financial condition of the credit union, insure compliance with bylaws and state and federal regulations. It is also their task to insure adequate ongoing education for volunteers and staff.Members:Nora Haskins: I have been a volunteer for the Permaculture Credit Union since 1998, serving as it's acting president/ceo for the first year upon receiving our charter in May of 2000. I have served on the Supervisory Committee from May 2000 unttil Dec. 2004, and am at present, a member of the Government Affairs Committee for the New Mexico Assn. of Credit Unions. I have been a member of the PCU Board of Directors since May of 2005. I held the position of Chairperson of the Board for two years (May, 2005 to May 2007) and am presently a member of the Board.In 1999 completed a Permaculture Design Course taught by Scott Pittman and can truly say that the course had a major impact on how I now choose to live my life on this earth and why I am still committed to the mission of this credit union and will continue to support it in any way that I can. Since completing the course I have been a Permaculture intern at Apache Creek Ranch,Santa Fe, have attended various organic growing confrences and have aided in the establishment of a market gardening system for Apache Creek Ranch. John McAndrew: I began volunteering with the PCU's Marketing and Communications Committee last year after the PCU financed my new solar panels. I worked fifteen years as a sales rep for HarperCollins Publishers in California before moving to Santa Fe, where I earned a Master's Degree from St. John's College. My undergrad degree, from Cornell College, is in Religion and Philosophy. I think action without an underlying philosophy is like a ship without a captain or rudder, and philosophizing without action is simply no good to anyone. I led the local meetings for the Dean campaign until after the general election. Before the election I conceived of and implemented, with help from friends, the Eager Voter Project in New Mexico, in which I drove to all 33 counties and posted flyers in English and Spanish, instructing voters where and when to vote early. While at HarperCollins, I launched a campaign to get the company to use recycled paper, lease more fuel-efficient cars, and so on. My interest in serving the PCU continues this desire to apply a worthwhile philosophy, in this case Permaculture, which mandates care of the earth, care of people, moderation of consumption and population, and the return of surpluses to serve the care of the earth and people. I look forward to working with the board and for the members to achieve those goals and to grow the PCU sustainably, and am honored to find myself in a field of such worthy candidates. Brendan Miller My personal mission is to promote permaculture and sustainable communities. I do this by working as a project manager building energy-efficient, mixed-use, infill real estate developments here in New Mexico. But that's just a complicated way of saying that I am trying to knit communities together socially and economically, make them more walkable and bikeable, and do it in a way that conserves land and requires as little energy and resources as possible to operate. One of the biggest challenges in building the kind of sustainable homes and communities we-d like to live in is that the people that control the money - the banks - do not understand what we are trying to do or believe that it will work. That is why the Permaculture Credit Union is so important: PCU does understand and does believe, and proves it! As a Director of the Permaculture Credit Union, my priorities would be to 1) grow our membership base and assets to give more loans, and 2) ensure that PCU stays a national leader in providing innovative loans for permaculture and sustainability that mainstream banks are not providing. A variety of banks are starting to provide "green" loans, which is wonderful and certainly partly a result of the work done by PCU. PCU may not be big, but the ripples effects of its leadership are. That is why it is important to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible. I have a business degree from MIT, and a public policy degree from Harvard. I have been a student of permaculture and sustainability for a long time. I have taken a permaculture course from Scott Pittman at EcoVersity, as well as a course on raising goats, and look forward to talking more courses there. I was born in New Jersey but moved to Santa Fe after getting engaged to my fiancee, Tamara Bates, who went to the College of Santa Fe. I have lived in the Northeast, the Southeast, the Northwest and now the Southwest and love the variety of landscapes and people across the United States. Barbara Mueller: For ten years (1989-99) I served at Asian Rural Institute in rural Japan as a missionary from the United Church of Christ. We were a school for adult rural leaders for third world countries of Africa and Asia and taught sustainable agriculture, community development and leadership. We were also a working farm and raised most of our own food for a community of about 80 people from 18-20 different countries. About 20 years we "discovered" Permaculture and I was instrumental in producing the first Permaculture event in Japan. At ARI we had the smallest legal credit union in Japan. For several years I taught the subject of credit unions and also supervised the running of our credit union, including designing the bookkeeping, creating forms and teaching materials, and training our participants in the operations. I am now semi-retired in Santa Fe and teach Gyrotonic exercise from a studio in my home. My own land is designed and developed using Permaculture principles and I strive to live by those principles. Arina Pittman: Arina is a teacher and practitioner at her Lots of Life in One Place Permaculture Gardens and Bee Yard. Her experience includes working as the executive director of EcoVersity, a school of sustainability in Santa Fe, and design and installation work on permaculture projects. Arina teaches dryland gardening, food forestry, food preservation and animals in permaculture. Hugh Roberts: My commitment to the philosophy of cooperatives in general and credit unions in particular occurred over fifty years ago when I became a founding member and the first treasurer of the employees credit union at Sterling Drug Company in Windsor, Ontario. In 1993, as a United Methodist minister in Northern New Mexico, I became aware of socially responsible investing and the concept of doing well by doing good. I moved my personal savings into socially responsible mutual funds, and was subsequently able to persuade a denominational missions fund of which I was treasurer to move its reserve cash into a socially responsible money market fund. In January 1999, I designed and led a workshop on how we can serve God through the way we invest and use our money. I became involved in sustainable agriculture in 1976, when I partnered with John Jeavons (author of "How to Grow More Vegetables...") to organize the first International Conference on Small Scale Food Production, which I chaired. That conference persuaded the American Society of Agronomy to officially recognize organic agriculture, and specifically biointensive food production, as scientifically sound. I chaired a five year follow-up to that conference in 1981, and the Soil, Food and People Conference at the University of California, Davis, in 2000. I am currently Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Sustainability Fund, a California-based non-profit organization created to be a funding intermediary between major foundations and small non-profits working in sustainable agriculture. Wesley Roe: was born in Hamilton Canada in 1950 to parents who were environmentalists, union members and supporters, political activists and credit union members. He was encouraged to be involved in community service. Education: High School and two years McMaster University studying Urban Planning. He opened an Alternative Health Clinic in Santa Barbara, CA in 1981 where he worked as a colon therapist and iridologist until 1988. He then moved to Hawaii and began living in Waa Waa on the Big Isle working in the small community growing food. He moved to Los Angeles in 1993 where he took Permaculture Design Courses with Bill Mollison and Scott Pittman. Wesley moved back in Santa Barbara in 1997 and with a group of people from the Design Course in Ojai, CA, helped to organize the South Coast Permaculture Guild. He was also involved in organizing the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, a nonprofit organizationin Santa Barbara that runs Permaculture Programs in the community and organizing grassroots Book Tours for Permaculture and Natural Building authors in CA and Arizona . He has opened a health clinic that was totally renovated using non toxic green building products in Santa Barbara in June of 2003 . As soon as he found that a Permaculture Credit Union was being formed he volunteered his assistance and has been an active board member for the last 3 years. Wes is married to Marge Erickson who has provided amazing financial and emotional support to allow him to do this important community work. The Supervisory CommitteeThe Supervisory Committee is independent of the board of directors and it serves as a watchdog for the members. It is responsible for making sure member's funds and interests are protected and that the credit union's financial records and operations are in order.Members:Carolyn Agard, Chair, has 17 years experience in the financial field. Most recently she was employed by the Del Norte Credit Union in Santa Fe, NM as a loan officer for 3 years. Besides serving on the PCU Supervisory Committee, she is also a member of the loan committee. She now runs a business with her husband in Santa Fe. Carolyn has been a member of the Supervisory Committee since May 2000.Elizabeth Martin, Secretary, is an attorney in her own firm offering a comprehensive practice in the areas of business (for-profit and non-profit) formation, entities and transactions including securities offerings; contract law; commercial and residential real estate; alternative dispute resolution; estate planning; philanthropy; and the arts. Licensed to practice law in Texas, New Mexico and the U.S. Supreme Court, Elizabeth received her law degree from Boston College with an emphasis in corporate finance and economics. Formerly, Elizabeth's career took her to the Office of the Attorney General or Texas, her home state, working in all phases of criminal appellate practice, resulting in 19 reported judicial opinions. In 1996, Elizabeth was selected to join an elite team of litigation experts to represent the State of Texas in highly complex and adversarial federal court proceedings. In 1998, Elizabeth left the Attorney General's office and moved to Santa Fe to open up her current practice. In 2005, Elizabeth expanded her practice to service clients in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Her present clients include the Independent Business Network, Healthy Buildings, LLC, New Mexico Womenˆ¢¬Ä¬ôs Foundation, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the Center for Contemporary Arts, the Santa Fe Girls School, Inc., Veterinary Cancer Care, Inc., Cloud Cliff Ltd., In the Black Financial, Voz, Inc., Santa Fe Weaving Gallery, Medcap Pharmacy and countless individuals. Elizabeth received her B.S. with honors in Business Administration from Creighton University. Phil Vergamini I have been a volunteer for the Permaculture Credit Union since 1998. In 1999, I completed a Permaculture Design Course taught by Scott Pittman. I worked on the committee that choose our first computer system and financial institution software. In mid February, the organizing committee selected a Board of Directors and I was elected to be the Chairman of the board, a position I held through our first chartered year. I then remained on the board for another year. I created the PCU web site and have maintained it from its start. I am the PCU security officer. In January of 2005, I was appointed to be a member of the Supervisory Committee and have held that position since then. Joseph Ellis recently (May, 2003) joined the Supervisory Committee. He has over 20 years' experience as an administrator in residential treatment in Texas. After completing a Permaculture Design Course, he and his wife, Kay, moved to Torrance County, New Mexico, where they built a permaculture homestead at the base of the Manzano mountains. Hobbies include beekeeping, organic gardening, and chicken ranching. Joseph is manager of the Estancia Valley Solid Waste Authority, and serves on the board of the New Mexico Recycling Coalition. I Home I Services I How To Join I FAQ I Brief History I I PCU Visa I PCU News I Contact Us I Directors I Links I Permaculture Credit Union Web site produced, October 2001, by Internet Services Updated Friday, July 13, 2007  
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