Annual Directors Report Saturday, April 25, 2015 What a year! Twelve months ago, we had 3 open seats for Directors and only one person interested in running for a seat. As you know, Paul Kosnik and I agreed to serve one extra year after our terms ended to help bridge the gap until 2015 elections. Here we are today with five open seats and ten people filling out applications seeking election and ending up with seven on the ballot. We am thrilled with the renewed interest and engagement on the part of our member/owners. Thank you all! In between elections, the Board worked hard on a General Manager search to replace Joshua Jackson, many Policy Governance matters, an opportunity to merge with La Montanita Food Coop and finally development of our new 5-‐Point Promise clarifying our brand story in the marketplace. Those of you who have served as Directors at DNF know that a General Manager search, when it occurs, is one of the most time consuming things a Board has responsibility for. We spent over six months on this process and are thrilled to have hired Brian Gaddy this past fall as our General Manager. We believe he is the right person for the job and is doing a great job juggling a rather difficult period in the store’s journey. We spent time on annual review of the policies which we are governed by. Most of our policy work this past year was focused on communication between the General Manager, his staff and managers and with the Directors. The merger opportunity with La Montanita Food Coop consumed six months of our time as we eventually recommended that the member/owners of DNF consider a discussion of the opportunity. Those of you who understand Policy Governance know that a recommendation to discuss such a significant opportunity as a merger is all the Directors are able to initiate under the rules of Policy Governance as well as the DNF Bylaws. The entire drama than ensued after we made our recommendation was an unnecessary distraction to our work as Policy Governance and the DNF Bylaws strictly and clearly state that all the Directors can do is recommend an open discussion. This Board believes in Policy Governance and has operated within its guidelines as well as the Bylaws 100% over the all the years. Policy Governance, for those of you who are new to it, is a framework of governing an association (or other group) that is driven by policies rather involvement in operations. The Directors hire and oversee a General Manager to be responsible for the operation of the Store and serve up policies that the General Manager must adhere to when setting plans and executing those plans. The final big thing we accomplished this past year, most recently, was adding some clarity to the DNF story. This resulted a 5-‐Point Promise to hand over to Brian and the marketing team. This brand statement is as follows: We promise you, our community, 1. More member-‐owner benefits and a voice in all decisions 2. More communication of the cooperative principles 3. More local product 4. More of your money stays in the local economy 5. More value from our Non-‐GMO policy In closing, I would like to mention the one thing that is common among all the Directors I have been honored to serve with. We are a Food Cooperative, meaning that we all choose to be part of a cooperative lifestyle and business model. When we disagree, and this group of Directors certain has had our moments, we cooperate with each other, work it out and end up with a consensus that serves the best interest of our owner/members and the DNF brand. Geoff Wolf President Durango Natural Foods Board of Directors