Greetings, Fellow Co-op Members,

As your elected Directors of our beloved 50-year-old Durango Natural Foods Cooperative, we are extremely pleased to present to you the final draft of DNF’s revised Bylaws, a document that will carry us forward for years to come! Our current Bylaws are admittedly antiquated, difficult to decipher, and lack important protections. For a long time, there has been a clear need to make our Bylaws easier to understand and better reflect the current operation and expectations of our Member-Owners.

Over recent years, dozens of Board members and a couple of hundred hours (easily) have gone into thoughtful meetings centered around the expectations of our members and charting a path to a brighter future for our Co-op. The suggestions and feedback gathered from Member-Owners in March 2024 were all taken into account when crafting the bylaws you will be voting on. In addition, the revised bylaws being cast to a Member-Owner vote have been thoroughly reviewed and vetted by a Minneapolis-based legal firm that specializes in cooperative law. We recognize that the following document isn’t necessarily a “light read,” so we thought we would highlight a few notable changes to help abbreviate it.

Notable Revisions:

  1. Separating the Annual Meeting (now commonly referred to as the Annual Harvest Festival) from the Board of Director elections
  2. Creating an optional co-presidency Board structure in lieu of President and Vice President
  3. Increased the quorum number of member votes needed for approval to enhance accountability and better reflect the interests of the Co-op’s growing members.
  4. Included several provisionary clauses throughout that decrease the Co-op’s legal exposure and risk of disclosing sensitive information to competitors
  5. We have not proposed any changes to member equity, nor have we diminished the rights of members.
  6. Simplicity. Throughout the revised bylaws, you will find that the language is written in terms that can be easily understood and interpreted. Enjoy!

Changing DNF’s Bylaws in any way requires majority membership approval, so now, the time has come, and we humbly ask our members to review and vote upon its approval. Our goal in this effort is for DNF to continue to thrive into the future as an independently owned hub for its community, committed to healthy, local, organic, and ethically sourced food and goods for all.

Thank you so much for your time and your involvement in DNF Co-op!!

Cooperatively,
Your Board of Directors


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