Tag Archives: governance

Co-operative Governance and Game of Thrones

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Paul Thompson

The fabled Iron Throne of Westeros

Who should rule the Seven Kingdoms? This is the central question of the blockbuster television series Game of Thrones. In this respect, the show presents many useful questions on legitimacy in leadership.

Should the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms be the next in a hereditary line stretching back generations? Or should it be the leader of a people’s rebellion who overthrew and killed the previous, corrupt king? What about that leader’s eldest brother, or his more popular younger brother? How about his illegitimate son? A powerful and well-liked nobleman? Or a barbarian king from parts unknown? Continue reading →

Six Principles for a Successful Second-Tier

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Jen Budney and Paul Thompson

Co-ops can learn from principles that have been used to successfully manage common pool goods like irrigations systems for generations.

There are many things that make co-operative enterprises different from investor-owned firms. Chief among these is the members’ control of how the business is governed. However, this unique aspect of co-ops is not without its challenges. Anyone who has been involved in guiding a co-op can attest to this. And when a co-op’s members are themselves co-ops, rather than individuals –that is, when they are second-tier co-ops– these challenges can be amplified. Continue reading →

The Amalgamation Question

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The Amalgamation Question

Darcy Overland

From the time the first credit union was formed in Saskatchewan in 1910, 380 individual credit unions were incorporated. Today, there are 44 (SaskCentral). Co-opertives and credit unions usually start out small, serving the needs of geographically defined members. The power and appeal of the credit union is in locally-based decision making and connection to the local community. When credit unions have been in existence for multiple generations, the communities change, economies change, and environments change. The board is tasked with ensuring the credit union is sustainable both today and in the future. Can credit unions that were formed under different circumstances continue to provide quality services to their members in their new realities? When does the amalgamation question arise?   Continue reading →

Top Co-op Issues 2018 Comments and Action Items

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Nora Russell

As noted in the first post on this topic, Top Co-op Issues 2018 surveyed CEOs, board members, managers, and academics across Canada to obtain a snapshot of the most pressing concerns facing co-operative organizations today. This post will discuss some of the many action items suggested by respondents. Although they provided clear advice on all twenty themes, we will focus here on the top six. Continue reading →

Governance Challenges in Credit Unions: Insights and Recommendations

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Dionne Pohler, with Nora Russell

 Introduction

The Filene Research Institute and the Canadian Credit Union Association recently commissioned me to write a report examining the characteristics of the well-governed credit union and exploring the values and risks associated with co-operative governance models. Below, I summarize some of the key insights. You can download the full report on which this summary is based here.

Recent mergers and consolidations in the credit union system have led to a decrease in the number of credit unions and an increase in the size of the largest ones, which collectively manage tens of billions of dollars in assets and serve millions of members across the country. As credit unions diversify and grow, they face more risk and greater competition, as well as challenges to the effectiveness of their board governance. Continue reading →

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose — The Challenges Facing Canadian Credit Unions

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Murray Fulton, Brett Fairbairn, Dionne Pohler

Canadian credit unions are facing significant challenges as they attempt to reorganize to meet a rapidly changing economic, technological, demographic, and organizational environment. These problems have been well documented and can be found in reports by credit union organizations such as Central 1’s If now now, when? and in academic commentaries such as our recent blog post, “Credit Unions in Canada: Design Principles for Greater Co-operation.” Continue reading →

Co-operative Governance School — A Resounding Success!

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Nora Russell

Thirty students from thirteen countries around the world converged on the University of Saskatchewan for an intense week in early October for the Centre-sponsored and -organized Co-operative Governance School for Emerging Researchers. It was a truly remarkable event, with the kind of international pull that only a top global graduate school can exercise; it filled our classrooms and hallways with the excitement of intellectual exchange and an energy that was palpable. The Centre is indeed proud to have attracted this outstanding group of young scholars and to have established the U of S as a leading centre for governance studies.

Continue reading →

Co-ops and Universities: Seeking the Elusive Partnership

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Part 4: What Are the Prospects?

Brett Fairbairn, with Nora Russell

Part two of this blog post looked at the three I’s of co-op/university partnerships — the Individual, Incentive, and Institutionalizing approaches. Part three examined the three F’s — Faculty, Fee, or Free. It is tempting to match up the I’s and the F’s to create some IF’s. The individual networking strategy for co-ops can link up with the faculty-position-based approach of particular academics. An incentivizing offer from co-ops can match a fee-for-service mentality on the part of an enterprising professor. And an institutionalized approach by co-ops can provide core funding to support the knowledge-for-free style of engagement where faculty are interested and able to follow this model. I suggest that there are at least three equilibria for co-op–university partnerships: Continue reading →

Credit Unions in Canada: Design Principles for Greater Co-operation

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Murray Fulton, Brett Fairbairn, Dionne Pohler

The credit union system in Canada is at a crossroads. The following quotations from Central 1’s October 2016 report If not now, when? illustrate the challenges nicely:

Canada’s Credit Union system is approaching a tipping point. As the small player in the national financial services sector, Credit Unions are being consistently outpaced by the scale and marketing strength of the major banks.… Continue reading →

The Saskatchewan Disability Strategy: Why the Co-op Model Is a Good Fit

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Victoria Taras

People with disabilities face barriers to inclusion as full and autonomous members of society. Inclusion of a person with blindness on their commute, for example, requires tactile and audio signals on the bus, at crosswalks, on their cell phone, and to find the right building, the right floor, and the right room. It also requires special equipment and training on how to get around, as well as an employer, landlord, and bus driver who understands his or her needs and rights. Every element of this wide range of daily activities needs to be addressed for the person in the example and for all people with disabilities. Presently, we fall short. Continue reading →