electronic ballot

Hey, Owners! It’s time to vote!

September 22, 2016 By Kristin Summerlin 2 Comments

What? Are you sick of all the election rhetoric already? Think your vote doesn’t count?

Well, at the co-op, it does. In fact, we need votes from at least 10% of our Owners for our election to be valid. That means we need at least 327 votes this year.

What are you voting for? We have four open seats on our nine-member board of directors. This year we have five candidates for those four seats. Our directors serve three years.

Having a knowledgeable, strong board is critical to the continued health and success of your co-op. Board members serve as stewards, ensuring that the co-op is legally and financially sound. They represent you, their fellow Owners, in a democratic process, making sure your values are reflected in long-range goals and decisions

How can you vote? There are several options.

If you have an email address on file with us, we have sent you an invitation to vote on-line using My Direct Vote from Survey and Ballot Systems. The on-line election process is very easy, and the ballot includes profiles of each of our candidates.

Note: The emails went out at 8:30 a.m. today (9/22). If you didn’t receive an email, please check your spam folder. The email is titled “Important: Login Info for Co-op Market Board Election,” and it was sent by Kristin Summerlin at Co-op Market from noreply@directvote.net. (If you didn’t receive a ballot and want to vote on-line, please email marketing@coopmarket.org with your name, Owner number and correct email address. We’ll send another copy of the invitation to you.)

We are mailing candidate profiles and paper ballots to Owners who don’t have emails on file. You can vote and return your ballot by mail or drop it off at the ballot box at Customer Service.

We’ve posted the candidate profiles and ballot here. You can print it out, vote, and mail it or bring it to the store.

And of course candidate profiles and paper ballots are available in the store.

Voting continues until 5 p.m. October 20th, and results will be announced that night at our Annual Meeting. As in years past, the Annual Meeting will be held at Birch Hill Recreation Center, with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and a light soup supper provided by our Deli, followed by a short business meeting and door prizes.

Last year, nearly 14% of you voted. Let’s see if we can get that number up even higher this year!

It’s Time to Vote: Board Elections and Amended Bylaws

September 14, 2015 By Kristin Summerlin 2 Comments

COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLE #2: DEMOCRATIC MEMBER CONTROL. Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions.

Every year, our Owners help shape the future of our co-op by voting for a Board of Directors. In 2015, we have five open seats on our nine-member board. The ballot also includes Owner confirmation of one director who was appointed by the board to fill a vacancy.

This year, Owners also have the opportunity to approve amendments to our bylaws, which have not been updated since they were adopted in 2011. Bylaws are the written rules that govern our co-op. They are a legal document that sets forth the structure of the board and co-op, determines the rights of our Owners and the procedures for exercising those rights. Bylaws guide our board in conducting business, ensure fairness and provide legal protections.

You can view both the amended bylaws and the original version adopted in 2011 by clicking here.

Voting is your right and your responsibility as an Owner of Co-op Market.

Last year we offered our Owners the option to vote on-line for the first time. Electronic voting was a great success, so we’re doing it again this year. If we have a valid email address on file for you, you should receive a link to the on-line ballot via email. Click here for helpful suggestions on how to vote electronically.

If we don’t have your email address, we will send a paper ballot via the USPS. Paper ballots are also available in the store, or click here to print your own copy.

(BTW: You can help us leave trees in the ground, reduce paper waste and save money on postage by making sure your email address is current. We’ve provided a space on the paper ballot for an update.)

The deadline for voting is 5 p.m. October 15. Election results will be announced that night at our Annual Meeting at Birch Hill Recreation Area.

We must have ballots from a minimum of 10% of our Owners for the election to be valid, so your vote is very important! (Each Owner number gets one vote: Please confer with others who share your Ownership before voting.)

THANK YOU FOR INVESTING IN OUR COMMUNITY-OWNED GROCERY STORE – AND FOR HELPING GUIDE IT!

How to Vote for Your Board of Directors Electronically

September 23, 2014 By mary.christensen 1 Comment

This year we’re again offering electronic voting through DirectVote by Survey & Ballot Systems. Every Owner with a current email address on file should receive an email invitation to vote on-line.

Voting electronically makes voting and tabulating the results a lot easier, but it does require some ability to be “tech savvy.”

So, to help you we, we offer these words of advice.

1. WAIT – If we have your current email address, you will receive an email directly from DirectVote by Survey Ballot Systems on September 14th.

2. PREPARE – Your internet server might think the email is spam. To avoid this, add noreply@directvote.net to your approved email list (whitelist).

3. CHECK YOUR SPAM – If you don’t receive an invitation email by noon, please check your spam folder. Look for this email header: “Important: Login Information for Co-op Market Board Election.”

4. COPY AND PASTE – DirectVote will send you a username, password and URL address to use when voting. The URL may or may not appear as a clickable hyperlink depending on your email service. If it isn’t clickable, simply copy and paste the address into your browser address bar.

5. WATCH FOR POP-UP BLOCKERS – You can read about each candidate before voting, but you will have to click a button on the ballot to do this. The candidate biographies will pop up. Some browsers don’t allow pop-ups, so you will need to disable the pop-up blocker for this ballot.

6. READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS – Be sure to read everything on each screen of the ballot so that you do not miss important instructions. This will help prevent frustration and problems.

7. SUBMIT your ballot. Your vote will not be complete until you hit the “submit” button on the ballot confirmation page.

If electronic voting is troublesome or if you don’t get the invitation email, please send an email to Kristin Summerlin, Marketing and Owner Services Manager, at ksummerlin@coopmarket.org. She will also be able to help you if your email address has changed.

We will mail paper ballots to Owners with no email address on file. We will also offer paper ballots at the check-out registers. You will need to have your Owner number to vote. If you don’t know your number, ask a cashier to look it up for you. Remember that there is only one vote per Owner number, even if several people in your household use that number.

Thank you for helping us save trees by voting on-line! And thank you for participating in the democratic management of your co-op.

Hey, Owners! It’s time to vote!

It’s Time to Vote: Board Elections and Amended Bylaws

How to Vote for Your Board of Directors Electronically

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