Co-operative Group National Members Council South West

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...