CoopZone Board/Staff Annual Report 2017[1]

Submitted by

Pascal Billard (President), andHazel Corcoran (Executive Director)

It’s been an exciting year for CoopZone with a major focus by your Board of Directors on envisioning a new future, through an in-depth strategic planning process. This year’s AGM marks the eighth anniversary of CoopZone, which continues its important networking role among co-op developersand its close ties with the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation (CWCF), which has been contracted to manage CoopZone. Our membership now includes 43 individuals who are developers, allied members or professional service providers, and 34 individuals associated with the Legal Network. However, many are part of organizational members.

Strategic Planning Process: Over the last year, the Board struck a Strategic Planning Committee, whose members are: Peter Hough, Pascal Billard and Ben Prunty with Hazel Corcoran as staff support. The Board then conducted an in-depth survey of CoopZone members in March and April 2017, which 40 people completed. The Board held an in-person/ video-conference strategic planning meeting in early May in Ottawa- the first in-person meeting ever held by the CoopZone Board. At that meeting, the Board agreed upon the Strategic Objectives. Through a series of conference call sessions, the following were agreed upon: Mission, Vision, Values, and within each Strategic Objective: Activities, Indicators, Time frame, and Results. Throughout the process, the Board was ably assisted by facilitator Éric Charlebois whose guidance was greatly appreciated. Various issues continually arose. These included: lack of profile of CoopZone within and outside the co-op movement, the need to strengthen the value proposition with members; confusion caused by sharing staff with CWCF; the need to be more bilingual and inclusive of francophones; the need for more revenues and more staff; and the high quality yet low enrolment in the training programs. All of these issues and more are addressed in the new strategic plan, the short version of which is included in the AGM package as item 14b. One planned change going forward, in early 2018, is that CoopZone will hire a new Executive Director, and this is done with the full agreement of CWCF and its Executive Director. There is general agreement that, although the relationship has been mutually beneficial, it is time for CoopZone to become more independent. Discussions are underway on which, if any, back office functions will stay with CWCF on contract. The Strategic Plan has been presented in one member webinar, will be the subject of another webinar, and will also be one of the featured workshops at the CoopZone Dayat the bilingual CWCF-CoopZone Conference, Nov 2nd in Gatineau.

Webinars, now hosted on Adobe Connect, continue to be a popular way to share information. We hosted or co-hosted eightwebinars from April 1st 2016 through the present. We would like to thank the following members and others for contributing their time to present in these sessions.

1)CoopZone’s New Strategic Plan, September 11, 2017, by Peter Hough and Pascal Billard

2)The Similarities and Differences between B Corps and Co-operatives, June 14, 2017, by Brian Iler and Marty Donkervoort

3)Understanding Worker Co-op Financial Statements, May 31, 2017, by Russ Christianson (co-hosted with CWCF)

4)Learning from Co-op Failure leads to Success, March 29, 2017, by Russ Christianson (co-hosted with CWCF)

5)Co-operative Accounting, Feb. 22, 2017, by Tom Webb and Daphne Rixon

6)HowCoopZone and CMC can work effectively together, Sept. 23, 2016, by CMC Board PresidentLucie Moncion and Executive Director Denyse Guy – at CoopZone AGM.

7)Questions in Worker Co-op Law, July 5, 2016, by Brian Iler (co-hosted with CWCF)

8)Best practices in co-op development (international, national, local), at CMC Congress; also available as tele-learning, June 14, 2016,by Bruno Roelants, Blair Hamilton & Denyse Guy

We are always open to your suggestions for new topics, including topics which you would be willing to host. Notes and/or PowerPoints from most past sessions are available on the CoopZone web site. In addition, in the summer 2017 newsletter, we listed with links all webinars done from 2012 through 2016. Click on this site: click here to see it.

The CoopZone Listservscontinue to be well used by members. The topics have been varied and the responses have been excellent. Thanks to all who have contributed! There are three listservs for use by CoopZone members:

1)Legal Network:

2)Other CoopZone members, primarily developers:

3)All members, combining both of the above listservs:

The general listserv including all the members is the one most commonly used.

CoopZone Newsletter, produced every 3-4 months, is edited by Kaye Grant, CWCF’s Communications Manager and also a CoopZone member. The newsletters can be viewed here: Kaye is continually seeking ways to make the newsletter more engaging for members. We invite members to share a short update on a recent project they are working on or one they have asked a question about on the listserv. Kaye is adding links to co-op development sites and other information that may be of interest to developers. If anyone has articles, clips or suggestions to contribute, please get in touch with Kaye ().

The Co-op Developer Training Program is an important service that CoopZone offers. The program is led by Course Director Eric Tusz-King. CoopZone’s training program provides a developer’s perspective to learning effective ways to work with co-ops. We decided to offer only the Introductory level last year; 6 students enrolled, and 5 successfully completed the program.

If members are aware of people who may have interest in joining the Introductoryor Advancedcourse, starting in mid-October 2017, please have themcontact Eric . Additional information is available here:

The CoopZone Legal Network (CZLN) enters its sixth year. A report from the Steering Committee is being presented separately.

Annual CWCF-CoopZone Conference 2016: The annual CWCF-CoopZone conference is always a great time for learning from and connecting with others in the co-op sector, and this past year was no exception. The theme was: Solidarity Works, and it was held in Vancouver, BC. Highlights included The Co-operators’ CEO Kathy Bardswick as keynote speaker on “Solidarity in the Co-op Movement,” and Andy Broderick, Vancity VP of Impact Market Investment, on the new Canadian Co-operative Investment Fund. This was also a celebration of CWCF’s 25th anniversary. The CoopZone members present met at a caucus meeting.

The 2017 CWCF-CoopZone Conferencewith the theme “Radical Roots/ Routes of Worker Co-operations / Nous avons le pouvoir / Vivons l’évolution coopérative!”will be held inGatineau, Quebec, on November 2-4. Highlights include The Senators Lucie Moncion and Murray Sinclair as keynote speakers. There will also be a special CoopZone / Developer day on Nov. 2nd. There will be great opportunities for networking including at the CoopZone day, and for learning new tools and approaches for developing co-ops. The early-bird deadline to register is Sept. 30th. See the Program, registration details, and the on-line registration link. The French version is available here: .

Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC): CoopZone has been engaged in CMC, including:

  • CoopZone was represented at the June 2017CMC Congress in Ottawaby Board President Pascal Billard as our delegate,with Board Vice President Ben Prunty andExecutive Director Hazel Corcoran also present. At the fall 2016 delegates meeting, both Pascal (as delegate) and Ben also participated. Past Board member Erwan Bouchaud was the delegate to the 2016 CMC Congress in Winnipeg.
  • CWCF-nominated Stephanie Guico, who is also a member of CoopZone, has continued as a CMC director, after being elected in June 2016. In addition, CoopZone nominated Ben Prunty as a board candidate in the election held in June 2017, but unfortunately he was not elected.
  • CoopZone Board member Peter Hough continues on the Board of theCanadian Co-op Investment Fund, as Vice President. The Fund has been legally constituted, and it is expected that it will begin operating in the very near future.

Board of Directors – Fall 2016 to Fall 2017

The 2016-2017 Board consisted of the following Directors:

The CoopZone Board is made up of the following members (as of Sept. 19, 2017). The year beside each director indicates the year in which his or her term expires.

Pascal Billard (President – Quebec Region Director) 2018

Benjamin Prunty (Vice President - Quebec, At-Large) 2019

Jill Kelly (Treasurer –BC Region Director) 2019

Peter Cameron (Ontario Region Director) 2018

Mary Childs (Legal Network member – Ontario (At-Large)) 2017**

Ethel Côté (Ontario, At-Large) 2017

Billy Granger (Manitoba, Prairies Region Director) 2018

Peter Hough (NS, Atlantic Region Director) 2019

*The year indicates when their current director’s term ends.

**This dedicated Legal Network seat was added by Board resolution in May, 2017. Part of the reason at the time was to assist member BCCA in having a national organization director on its Board.

Thanks to these Directors for serving on the Board!

______

Acknowledgements:

Departing Board member:

Ethel Côté, whose term ends at this AGM, has decided not to run for the Board again. Ethel joined the Board of CoopZone three years ago in an at-large seat. She has made many valuable contributions to the CoopZone Board, including advocating a closer link with the social economy and that CoopZone become more bilingual. Ethel took the lead to convince the Board to focus on a new strategic planning process over the past year and in crafting various sections of the Plan, which has brought CoopZone to the launch pad where it is currently. Merci, Ethel!

We thank Ethel sincerely for herimportant service to the Board! She will be missed.

Staff:(by Pascal Billard):

Thanks as well to all our capable staff who work hard to keep CoopZone functioning just about everyday of the year! We couldn’t do this without their expertise and commitment! Thanks from the Board to Hazel Corcoran, Kaye Grant, Kristin Glenn (bookkeeper until Dec., 2016) and Kristin Van Hattem(bookkeeper in most of 2017).

Thanks also to all who represent and contribute to CoopZone in so many ways!

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[1]Note that some of this report covers activities up until recently, not only the legal financial year which ended on March 31st, 2017, as noted. The report was written in September, 2017.