REI COOP Election Mockery

REI is an oligarchy as the "co-op" with a theoritical 25 million members has been confiscated by an oligarchy of 9 self appointed, unaccountable board members, plus the CEO chosen by said board, so that's 10 people, a small clique, a simple synonym for oligarchy .

  I found yesterday on reddit this image  Is it really a message from REI's Board? If so when was it produced and put out? Is it part of a "defensive" campaign against withhold votes? Could it be organized by Alliance Advisors under a contract with REI?

  Seen today on reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/AppalachianTrail/comments/1qixmew/rei_board_of_directors_voting_thru_end_of_january/

 I wanted to revisit the story told by Nate Sanford in June 2025 and find out when the case will be heard: it should be June 16 2026  while the filing was received on June 5, 2025, more than one year later. How much did REI spend to refuse to communicate those results? Were they so bad for the board of directors that they refused that way to share them with the membership? Are they going to do the same this year?

Read the REI's  amended and restated Fall 2025 bylaws  (pdf).  1. If Reddit had not provided the pdf link, how would you have found the bylaws on the REI website? By Googling it. On the website go to the page devoted to the board of directors , scroll down past the pictures of the all smile directors, go to the very bottom, click on board responsibilities, but there is not a direct link, scroll down again and here they are in a pdf format, hidden at the very bottom. Amended in Fall 2025: when exactly? by whom? 2. Calculate how many times the words 'board of directors" are mentioned in the bylaws 3. How absolute is the power of the board of directors?  4. What power (if any) is left to the membership? 5. When do you think the bylaws were most recently amended and why?  Source: REI new 2025 bylaws on Reddit (Thank you so much "Markilo") "First the board election procedure was changed.   In the 2022 bylaws if a nominee did not receive more “For” votes th...

  See the October 2, 2024 article by Alex Halverson in the Seattle Times .  According to the research I did the last profitable year was 2021: + 97 million 2022: -164,7 million 2023: - 311 million 2024: - 156,4 million A very interesting conversation on Reddit (once again) about The financial health of REI: 2025 and forward.  9 months ago (july/august 2025?)

  There is no other way to fight the oligarchic approach of the present board of directors that chose to amend the bylaws to allow (in violation of the WA coops regulations?) 3 people they coopted but were not validated by a vote from the membership to remain on board for 3 years. If they also lose the 2026 election, are they going to do the same? and the same in 2027?

 Read the information given on the REI site about voting and eligibility. You do see the mention of a "record date" of December 19 but no detailed explanation about what this means like "you cannot vote if you become a member after this date") while at the very bottom you can read " * to be eligible to vote ... or become a new member in 2025" that is where they should have mentioned clearly "before December 19, 2025".  By not doing it, they misled people who became members later in 2025, only to be denied the"important' right to participate in the 2026 election.  How many people were deceived that way, like I was? How do they plan to compensate for their faulty description of the eligibility? Is there any way to hold them accountable?  Last but not least, why was this date chosen as it discriminated agaisnt people becoming members in late 2025 between December 19 and December 31?  What was the rational not to start the voting process in ...

Did you know there was an "eligibility date" ("record date") to be allowed to vote for the 2026 REI board of directors election?   The truth is finally coming out about why I was denied the possibility to vote. I became a member after December 19 that Kerry Reynolds (senior vice president Alliance Advisors) just informed me was what she calls the "eligibility date" ("record date"), claiming in her email she had already mentioned it when this "eligibility date" was never publicized anywhere by REI or by Alliance Advisors.  No apologies, nothing. I wonder how many people were deceived the way I was.

 How many REI members eligible to vote (how many are we, the board does not say) know that their directors still refuse to say how many members voted in the 2025 election and how many votes the respective candidates received (see all the 9 questions still unanswered ).

  This morning I tried to vote, via the reivote.com  then  the page devoted to the vote , reproduced below.

  Excerpt from Alex Halverson's article on March 7, 2025 for the Seattle Times. Note at the end that none of them responded to requests for comments. 

  Excerpt from WHO OWNS REI? by Andy Ryan, June 18, 2003 The precise chronology and details about when and how the bylaws were changed to control the election process is still secret and it goes also for the most recent amendments.

 On her Linkedin account Lisa Bougie has the nerve to write: "Attention all REI members: I encourage you to review this year's board candidates and cast your vote by Saturday, January 31."  Lisa herself preferred not to ask the membership for confirmation. Atfer all, what is membership for when it has the nerve to reject the board candidates!

  2025 Election Conflict:  In May 2025, REI members voted to reject the board's uncontested slate of candidates for the first time in the co-op's history, amid a "Vote No" campaign led by the  REI Union . Board Appointments:  To resolve the resulting vacancies, the board utilized its (conveniently modified) bylaws in September 2025 to appoint  Lisa Bougie ,  Eric Sprunk , and  John Vandemore .  Their positions must be ratified by a member vote in the next annual election.  That did not happen.

  Current Board Members (as of late 2025/early 2026)

RCWs  >  Title 23  >  Chapter 23.86  >  Section 23.86.080   RCW  23.86.080 Directors — Election and appointment. (1) Associations shall be managed by a board of not less than three directors (which may be referred to as "trustees"). The directors shall be elected by the members of the association at such time, in such manner, and for such term of office as the bylaws may prescribe, and shall hold office during the term for which they were elected and until their successors are elected and qualified. (2) Except as provided in RCW  23.86.087 , any vacancy occurring in the board of directors, and any directorship to be filled by reason of an increase in the number of directors, may be filled by the board of directors unless the articles of incorporation or the bylaws provide that a vacancy or directorship so created shall be filled in some other manner. A director elected or appointed to fill a vacancy shall be elected or appointed for ...

  After I found out that the REI Board of Directors had amended the bylaws to authorize them to coopt new directors for a longer duration than the next annual election so that they don't have to be approved asap by the membership, I asked the above question to google AI: Can a board of directors amend the bylaws as it pleases? AI's answer below and my reaction is How long until their decision to amend the bylaws is contested? and by whom?

  Wanted watchdog for the board of directors of the REI COOP. Let us read those recent articles from Skadden about corporate governance: Watch out for the Watchdogs , Activists say Yes to Vote No campaigns in 2025 (and hopefully for 2026)

  But for this discussion on reddit I found by chance I would have missed that after its defeat at the 2025 election the Board amended the bylaws to give itself the power to coopt new directors for the vacant seats for a whole 3 years period while before it was just for one year, ie they have had to resubmit those seats for an election confirmation. No more. Basically with this preemptive strike they could keep coopting themselves for ever ! Faced with a defeat of their candidates they immediately reacted with this plot to amend the bylaws to confort their oligarchy. Amazing. And nobody seems to mention it but for this small forum on reddit.

  On January 10, 2025 Susan Cottrell signed an Op Ed in the Seattle Times about the then upcoming 2025 election to vote for 3 new Coop Board directors.

What the 2025 withhold negative vote expresses is not only a refusal of the candidates it is also a clear vote of no confidence in the board's capacity to choose adequate candidates.

  This article explains that Activists say Yes to Vote No campaigns in 2025 . Let us keep withholding in 2026. Why do they vote No? Dissatisfaction with the Directors.

  " REI calls itself a coop but that does not mean it's worker-friendly" , is the title of the article by Emily Hofstaedter published 4 years ago in February 2022 in Mother Jones. It was about how hard REI was fighting against unionizing efforts. She now works for WYPR-FM in Baltimore. Maybe she could revisit REI and tell us what she found. Her email: ehofstaedter@wypr.org

 Here is the announcement posted by Chris Carr (I reproduced it below as well as I find it such a pathetic and arrogant example of oligarchic leadership). The only sentiments expressed are disappointment with the outcome and gratitude and appreciation to the incumbents who have been rebuffed by the membership.

  I have started contacting a few journalists I knew, some from my previous experience as a union organizer and President of Temporary Workers of America where we fought to win benefits for Microsoft's contractors workers (including 15 days of paid time off for all of them when they had none or very little before).

  I have copied the text of the official page introducing the 2026 election at  https://reivote.com/  and inserted my comments  in  bold italics about this fairy tale version of you beautiful members support the excellent candidates handpicked by the beautiful board and thanks a lot for your gullibility. 

After reading an  excellent article about the 2025 election, by Dave Jamieson in The Huffington Post , I came to believe that the best solution for the 2026 election is to withhold vote for all 3 candidates, including Chuck Sams as the strong message we should send to the board and to the public opinion, if that they will never get any support from the membership as long as they don't change the bylaws to abandon their oligarchic grip on the coop.

I emailed today at board@rei.com the 9 questions below. It's the only address I found to reach out to the board. It was posted on the page dedicated to the Board of Directors.

Unfortunately, the program refuses to install the image by Folon in a small format on the side!  Rats!! Click below on red more and you'll get it :( In May 2025 REI-Union was able to mobilize more than 100.000 progressive members of the Coop to withhold their vote and block the candidates pushed by the board of Directors, that said it was "disappointed" by this democratic rebuttal. But 5 months later, on September 24,  the Board was back in full force with a coopted corporate oriented slot , refusing to take into account the withhold campaign, basically saying FY to the 100.000 people that had refused to agree with their choice. 

                  WITHHOLD, WITHHOLD, WITHHOLD, WITHHOLD 26 days until January 31st to organize with progressive members, push for a massive withhold the vote movement, find journalists to investigate and report, spread the information as widely as possible. 

  The answer is posted on the REI-Union Facebook page  published on December 26, reproduced below. What a shame :( Same message posted on instagram,   twitter , but not on their main site. Apparently not posted on tiktok . abd REI-Union answer is Yeah, shame on you. Can you give us the details of the "agreement we reached with REI in september" and you kept secret? What did you get in exchange of this betrayal of all the members who trusted you were into making the board accountable? Who were the Union reps who agreed to such a deal? Shame on you, whomever you are. Progressive members of the Coop you have misled by leaving them in the dark now have 26 days, until February first to show the oligarchic REI board of directors they will again be defeated and then insist that the bylaws that installed this completely corrupted system be abolished. Interestingly they posted the info on their socials but not on their website, only glorifying with the same arcane language the "...

 Source:  https://www.ourrei.com/2025-rei-board-elections 8 months later, on January 2026, where does the REI Union stand? A troubling silence.

Navigating on Google I found 2 interesting pieces produced by for History Link. Then I found this podcast about the launch of REI's living archives . The History Factory podcast of May 20 2025 is on Soundcloud. Still have to listen to the whole thing. I wonder if they would provide the missing info about how the bylaws were changed to create the coopt system that protects the board of directors from the members dissent. Why do I doubt it. I'll try.

  I extracted and copied this part of the excellent article June 18 2003  by Andy Ryan, titled Who owns REI?   Also this March 1, 2005 article by Craig Medred : "Has REI gone too big for its britches?" "For those who believe you can't make a good omelette without cracking a few eggs, it might seem reasonable that one of the casualties of REI's steady growth has been that most essential principle of the old cooperative movement, democracy. Members have virtually no say over the way things are done today, and the co-op's monolithic, self-perpetuating board of directors has changed the organization's bylaws to make insurgency virtually impossible.

  This article about how workers are mistreated at Starbucks was published in December 2025 in In These Times . The title is "They don't want working people to have a voice". The present Chairman of the REI-Coop, Chris Carr ( Linkedin ) is a former executive at Starbucks from May 2006 to May 2019. He is part of the Board that blocked self nominated union backed candidates  :( His mandate lasts until 2027.

  Looking for additional info I found  this post about a lawsuit filed by Mark Lloyd   to obtain the detailed results of the 2025 "election". It led to a much more detailed and again excellent article of June 17 2025 by Nate Sanford . Thanks Nate for the great reporting :) Here is a link to the legal filing but it looks like nothing will take place until after the 2026 "election", apparently in June, see below :( Just spoke with a friend of my daughter who was visiting: are you a member of the Coop? Yes. Have you heard about the problems with the election to the Board of Directors? No. Had no idea. The information gap is huge. On purpose. Let us fill it. The fight is on. Interestingly Harvard Law School notes an increase in the number of "Withhold campaigns" . I think they greatly underestimate the potential damage to the image and credibility of the Board and the company sanctioned that way. Week Of 06/02/2026 DEPT 04 - JUDGE REEDER (Rm. 822 ) Unconfirme...

  I guess the first reason I care is that I don't like being mistreated as a dummy. The present and previous members of REI-COOP have consistently for years abused the membership that it's true let itself be abused by so called elections that are anything but a mockery.