Weaver Street Market’s 2016 Elections ended Tuesday. Owners elected a worker owner and a consumer owner to serve on the Board. Congratulations, Alicia and Charles!
Consumer owners elected Alicia Altmueller to serve as a consumer-owner director for WSM’s Board.
Worker owners elected Charles Traitor to serve as a worker-owner director for WSM’s Board.
Alicia and Charles will begin their terms as directors at the Board retreat in January. Both have attended leadership sessions given by the Board, and the Board will sponsor their participation in a training course for new Board directors in Asheville later in January.
The Elections Committee which oversees the election process presents the following results from this year’s two elections:
Results for Consumer-Owner Election
For the first time in many years, consumer owners had three candidates running for the open consumer-owner seat: Alicia Altmueller received 105 votes (47.9%), Jim Porto received 79 votes (36.1%), and Lisa Best received 35 votes (16.0%).
The Election Committee reports that improved processes, including ballot design and voting instructions, have significantly reduced the number of invalid ballots cast.
Results for Worker-Owner Election
The worker-owner election also included three candidates running for the open worker-owner seat. The number of workers voting increased by more than 50% from the previous year’s election with 56.9% of the eligible worker owners voting: Charles Traitor received 61 votes (52.6%), Cait Williams received 33 votes (28.4%), and Curt Brinkmeyer received 22 votes (19.0%).
The Elections Committee notes that five of the 10 invalid votes cast were employees who are not worker owners. Employees must have made their first share payment to be eligible to vote as a worker owner.
