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!