Co-operative Group National Members Council South West

The AGM was followed by my first Council meeting , after I was elected for a two year term, by members in the South West. The good news is that we have a fully functioning Council representing all sectors of the Co-operative Movement. We welcomed 15 members from the Independent Co-operative Societies, and 35 new members to the Council.   The remaining 43 Council members had previously sat on the Transitional Council, and had either qualified as a continuity member or were re-elected by the members. The Council will at its next meeting look to Co-opt 7 members on the basis of increasing representation from three important sections of our Movement. Young Members, Black and Minority Ethic members and Working Colleagues. The challenge for the Council in the next six months is how to organise its meetings to ensure that we can hold our Board to account. It is refreshing that the Chief Executive and senior Executives brief the Council on Business performance, and it was...

Following last year’s vote to change our Governance arrangements, Manchester Convention Centre witnessed the Co-operatives first ‘one member one vote’ AGM.   I was looking forward to seeing how the meeting would go, and whether there would be any surprises in the voting for the ten motions. My first impression of the meeting was that it was a long, and often bad tempered, affair. Two things struck me -   One was that the timetable should have been explained at the beginning of the meeting, so that members would know rough timings, and should have included scheduled breaks. Secondly, I was surprised how a very small minority of members took to heckling speakers.   I believe members had plenty of opportunity to put their views forward, but there was too much shouting and heckling for my liking.   I wondered if many members attending for the first time left with a positive view of Co-operators. The highlight for me, was the speech by the President of th...