BoycottREI.com

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.

I think this is a key point because my personal opinion is that the only way to change things at REI is to take control of the board by getting rid (via elections) of the present board or to start with a majority of them: the 3 unelected and the 3 that will have to run in 2027. It would also help to amend the WA law regulating cooperatives to force REI to respect the voting rights of the membership. Anyway I copy below the part devoted to this aspect and I can only invite you to read the whole list of the bad deeds of the REI board and management. So contrary to what a coop should be.

Of course the board of directors should have no right to pre-select who can be a candidate and should not limit the number of candidates. I don't know when those restrictions were inserted in the bylaws. According to Andy Ryan's 2003 article, REI refused access to their archives to figure out when it happened, when they prevented what was called "petition candidacy", ie any candidacy independent from the board, supported by x number of members (like 50 at one point).

"After a record number of Co-op members voted to reject REI’s proposed board candidates, REI promised to bring democracy and transparency back to the Co-op.

 

Instead, they have only made the Co-op more anti-democratic. They changed the  bylaws in August to allow the board to appoint new directors to a full term without a member vote, changed its board elections to open voting the day after Christmas, and stopped publicizing executive compensation information.




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How the REI-Union made a deal with the REI Board of Directors to stop getting involved in the 2026 election!! and left thousands members in the cold :(

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