REI COOP Election Mockery

Boycottrei.com , details the many problems with REI improper governance, including their manipulation of the bylaws to have unelected board members.  Here is a good video posted on instagram .

  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 the unexpired term of the predecessor in office. [  2003 c 252 s 1 ;  1989 c 307 s 10 ;...

  Some Democrats in Olympia think employees should have more representation on REI’s board of directors. The co-sponsors of house bill 1635 ( pdf ) were Cyndi Ryu , Beth Doglio , Mia Gregerson . Below copy of the story by Nate Sanford . The bill was reintroduced on January 12, 2026. The WA law on cooperatives . Directors, election and appointment, RCW 23.86.080  that could be amended to assert members voting rights.

 The REI-COOP reality is that since 1982 the REI-BOARD of directors has taken over the institution by concentrating all the power with the board of directors and effectively denying any to the membership. The history and "justification" of this take over is best described by Andy Ryan in his 2003 article, titled Who owns REI?

My source on Reddit  Below an extract centered on how the board of directors took over sometime after 1982. 

  Naively I though the term "annual report" meant there was some sort of useful information shared by REI about their performance. It's 2 pages long, filed for $10 fee, completely useless :( Look for yourself . It seems that nobody holds REI-COOP board of directors and management accountable. They do as they please.

  You can read below how the Secretary of State extremely fast declines to do anything and sends to the WA Attorney General.

  March 23, 2026, Dear Secretary of State, It is my understanding that your office has an oversight over the cooperatives registered in Washington State.

  The information is posted here  is from REI's website followed by a personal  commentary. It starts with their usual self-congratulating, laudatory blah, blah, without any real info about the supposed work they perform for a quite hefty $ amount.

  The video by The Outgear Review  of october 26, 2025. Not a word about the union but plenty about the bathrooms of the New York city store and a very short recap about the present financial problems. REI still has not yet published the "audit" for 2025. See on the page Reports and disclosures . The 2024 financial statement was signed by KPMG on march 24, 2025 ( pdf ). 

While condemning the refusal of the REI Board of directors to make public the detailed results of the election to the board, we don't wonder about the responsibility of the company put in charge of organizing this democratic process.

  From the KPMG audit for the year 2024 ( pdf look on page 12)  posted on the page Reports and Disclosures

Find below the chronological list with dates titles of all the posts of this blog 

  Excellent story by Nate sanford on March 13, 2026.

  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 and illegally modified) bylaws in September 2025 to appoint  Lisa Bougie ,  Eric Sprunk , and  John Vandemore .  Their positions should have been ratified by a member vote in the next annual election in 2026.  That did not happen. Therefore those 3 people have zero legitimacy and no legal mandate to sit on the REI-Coop board of directors and should immediately resign. People should ask for their resignation on all the platforms where they appear, starting with Linkedin as it is a favorite place for 'decision makers'.

  The info is shared by the union on their Facebook page  and Instagram although without much details except" illegally implementing drastic wage and benefits cuts on union workers". We are told to wait until March 17. Sorry to find that I was right from the start: you could not trust one bit this oligarchic entrenched board of directors. I hope you push now for the only realistic strategy: