Owners, Vote to Keep Your Co-op Strong

Every fall, Co-op Market Owners have the opportunity to help shape the future of the co-op by voting in the Board of Directors election.

Co-op Market Grocery & Deli is a member-owned corporation. By electing members of the Board of Directors, you are participating in the democratic operation and oversight of your cooperative.

The Board of Directors we choose acts on behalf of all Owners. The board oversees our co-op’s financial condition, connects to our Owners, shapes our co-op’s vision and works closely with our General Manager to set long-term strategies. Directors must be current Owners in good standing.

There are three parts to the 2019 election.

1. Election of a board member.
2. Confirmation of two appointed board members to serve the remainder of their terms.
3. Approval of an amendment to the Bylaws. 

There are two ways to vote: electronic ballot or paper ballot.

• Electronic ballot: Instructions will be emailed after noon today to all Owners with a valid email address on record. Look for an email entitled, “Important: Login Info for Co-op Market Board Election.” It will be sent from “Kristin Summerlin, Co-op Market Election Coordinator,” with the email address noreply@directvote.net. Be sure to check your spam folder, too. If you didn’t receive the email and would like to vote online, please contact Kristin.
• Paper ballot: If you’d rather vote by paper ballot, they’re available in the store and are being mailed via USPS to Owners with no email address on file. If you receive a paper ballot in the mail, you can bring it to the store the next time you shop, or drop it in the mail.

Click here to view the 2019 ballot, including candidate bios and an explanation of the proposed Bylaws amendment.

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IN GOOD STANDING

What does it mean for an Owner to be considered “in good standing”?

Our Bylaws state that Owners must be in good standing to receive Owner benefits. This is especially important for voting in our annual Board of Directors election.

To be considered “in good standing,” Owners must either have paid their full $200 investment or have made a payment of at least $5 toward their investment within the last quarter.

We have made a special effort to help our Owners get up to date in the months leading up to this election. We sent reminder postcards to those who had fallen behind on payments. Cashiers have also been reminding Owners about the requirement. We appreciate those who have responded positively.

Many of the postcards we sent were returned to us as not deliverable. It is critical that we have current contact information for every Owner, so if you haven’t updated your mailing address and email recently, please do. Cashiers may also ask you to review your contact info at the register.

We compiled our voter database from records pulled on September 6th. On that date, we had a total of 4030 Owners. Of those, 3064 were eligible to vote.

For our election to be valid, at least 10% of eligible voters must participate. This means that we will need at least 306 votes.

Remember: Each Owner number gets only one vote, so if you share a number with other members of your household, please consult with them before voting.

Our election ends and results are announced at our annual meeting on Saturday, October 19th, at JP Jones Community Center at 2400 Rickert Street. Doors open at 3 p.m.