It has been a year since my trip to Bologna when a group of 15 Vancity staff studied co-operatives in this region of the world where co-ops are modern, big, profitable and also progressive and responsible. A new group of Vancity employees just wrapped up their adventure in Italy and from those I’ve spoken to, it sounds like they’ve had an equally amazing and inspiring time. Bringing back this knowledge and experience to strengthen our own financial co-operative is incredibly important as Vancity gets more in touch with its roots and focuses on our new vision of Redefining Wealth.
A couple of weeks back, Corporate Knights released a list of responsible companies in Canada and the top three are all co-ops. Vancity ranked third behind Mountain Equipment Co-op (Canada’s equivalent of REI) and The Co-operators, a large national insurance company (whom Vancity sold its Insurance division to last year).
In thinking about co-ops in a 21st Century context, it seems to me focusing on the seven co-operative principles and our system of governance is a bit of a non-starter. It is my opinion that as co-operatives, we should be adjusting our message to fit with the times. The co-operative message will still resonate with some, but I think that to many it seems outdated and esoteric. People don’t get excited about governance, or voting for a bunch of people for a Board when they don’t really understand the role of a Board or the impact of their vote.
But there is an increased consumer focus on the behavior of the companies they deal with. Social connection equals social responsibility and people can learn more about the behind-the-scenes actions of companies than ever before. Through social media, people are used to participating, and co-ops can offer ways to participate and engage that perhaps other companies cannot.
In Vancouver, where the term 100 mile diet originated, I think we have something in common with the locavore movement. Eat local, shop local, keep your money local. When Vancity talks about Redefining Wealth, to me that’s what it means. Profits can go to shareholders in another part of the country or world, or the profits from your bank accounts, mortgage, investments and credit card can stay local and be invested back into your neighbours and community.
Vancity has become a slang word for Vancouver and the idea of “keep your money in Vancity” seems like a strong value proposition.
In the art of acting there is a practice of memorizing your script and stage directions and character attributes perfectly so you can forget it all and improvise knowing you have that base to work from. I would say the same is true here. Internalize the co-operative principles, live by them, socialize them within your co-op, and then forget them and start improvising so you can increase the relevance of this movement to fit into today’s modern, connected world.
PS: I must credit Morriss and Gene for their posts that inspired me to write this.
My friend Tim has decided to create an advent calendar in September for credit unions.
Every day he is publishing one thing for credit union leaders to ponder or implement. Here’s how he puts it:
Since September has 30 days, I am going to present 30 things that I would implement or consider implementing at my credit union if I was a credit union leader.
I have been remiss in commenting much on his blog lately, but this series has brought me back. So many good ideas, so much good dialogue amongst his commenters.
What is striking to me is the diversity of information he presents. Here’s a sample:
My final Guest Column on ChangeEverything.ca has been published. It’s called Reflections on Bologna – It’s all about the Social, and attempts to sum up my main takeaways from my amazingly inspiring adventure in Bologna. (check out parts 1 and 2 of my journey, or all my blog posts about it).
It also gives me a chance to explore the term social. Something I’ve been wanting to do for a while.
What I know is, it was all about the social. The connections we developed among the group of participants are strong and deep, and will serve a great purpose as we all struggle to make full sense of, and take action on, what we learned. The personal social connections made the greatest impact on me; but I also come back with a greater sense of the social fabric of our society and how it can be both fragile and incredibly enduring and forceful.
So, it’s led me to think a lot about what social is.
So check it out, and please leave me a comment there with your thoughts.
The last thing I want to do is upload a boatload of photos from the trip. All in good time…
I have a blog post on ChangeEverything.ca about something I’ve been thinking about on this trip I call Independent Collectivism. Take a read.
There is one area in Vancouver that I think comes closest to this model. After several years of living in the Commercial Drive neighbourhood, it strikes me that the attitude of that area, the number of coops, both retail and housing, the defiance but focus on equity, and the Italian roots is perhaps something we should be looking closer at for inspiration.
Those funky areas in your town where the coop bookstore is and the indie bands play may be that same kind of neighbourhood in your town. Maybe there is something we can learn from those neighbourhoods and how they operate.
I’m alone in Bologna today, the last Vancitizen left.
It has been an intense trip. Full of experiencing the local culture, understanding new business models, learning economic theory, leadership development and powerful bonding with other Vancity employees and Board members, labour leaders, city councilors, not for profit directors and some fantastic spouses and partners of the participants. It has been intensely social and I leave here with a real love for all of those I was lucky enough to be in Bologna with, some of whom I had never met before our orientation just three weeks ago.
There is obviously a lot to reflect on. What is exportable back to Vancity and British Columbia, and what is unique to this region’s attitudes and culture that might not be effective back home? What does Redefining Wealth truly mean, and how do we bring that to life? What role can cooperatives play in our local economy and how can Vancity play a role in their development and success?
Some people started catching their trains on Wednesday afternoon, most left Thursday morning, a few left today. I am the only one who stayed in through Saturday. It seemed like a good idea when I booked the trip. The last time I was in Europe was exactly twenty years ago when I traveled with a good friend who is now my brother-in-law. I wanted an extra couple of days to soak it all in.
But after absorbing everything we have done in the last two weeks, and going from such an intensely social time to being alone, and missing my wife Amy and son Ivan back home, I just feel done.
So today is a day of reflection, exhaustion and a small touch of loneliness and homesickness.
I am not looking forward to a long day of flying tomorrow, but I can’t wait to be home.
Thanks for reading my blog. I write my blog as a way of making sense of my thoughts and experiences, and am so gratified and humbled that people find it worth reading. Each comment people left on my blog gave me a wonderful moment of elation. I thank each of you who left a comment, it made me feel connected to you at home, which was a much needed feeling.
Monday, I’m back in my office and will try to just be around to catch up an email and connect with people and projects. If you’re in head office, please drop by at the NE corner of the 7th floor to say hi. I’d love to see you!
And now I’m going to do something for the first time since arriving – take a nap!
In our time here, we had three lectures by Stafano Zamagni, professor of cooperative economics at the University of Bologna. He is a leading economics scholar.
On Monday evening we all had dinner at his summer home in the hills outside Bologna. That day he had been in Rome meeting with Prime Minister Berlusconi about economic models that could relieve the economic crisis in Italy. It was pretty amazing that his day consisted of meeting with the Prime Minister to debate economic policy and spending the evening with a bunch of cooperators from Vancouver.
The next morning was to be our last lecture with him. But our schedule was changed and he was moved his lecture to the afternoon, and then, when the time came, he was an hour late for our lecture. The reason? He was in Rome again meeting with the Pope to work with him on his upcoming encyclical on poverty.
That has got be one of the best excuses for running late I’ve ever heard.
And it got me thinking: Who do we make time for in life? Here’s a busy man, meeting with the head of state one day and the Pope the next and yet he doesn’t cancel his sessions with us. He sees the value of his time spent with us.
Are there groups in your community that are worthy of your time but somehow never get it? Are there small cooperatives running on a shoestring that are doing good work but struggling that could use our help as credit unions?
That balance between what is large and what is small, but seeing the importance in each is pretty powerful.
I really wanted to write something meaningful today, but it’s 1am and I need to sleep.
Lots of thoughts, and I will write up a thoughtful piece for ChangeEverything.ca in the next couple of days. I’m inventing a theory I call Independent Collectivism that I am eager to share.
I spent a day in Florence and one in Venice. Fantastic times!
Too many ideas swirling around. How to sum it all up in a post? I really have grown so fond of my fellow travelers. Having a group of people across the organization aligned in this experience is in itself an accomplishment and should prove to bring some good action back with us.
I add this one photo from a session with a union yesterday.
It is remarkable having so much time with a group of people spread throughout Vancity. It is a treat to not just be in a meeting or have a lunch, but spend so many days, have so many meals and really get to understand each other. So much of what we need to do involves building networks, and the network we are building should prove totally useful back home.
We are here with labour leaders, the head of a not for profit focusing on integrating those with addictions into productive roles in our society and a Vancouver city councillor. Hearing their reactions and getting to discuss our experiences with them is truly a treat and keeps us from getting too in the weeds about Vancity stuff. If we are to be inclusive we gotta keep it high level.
In other news: I bought a nice Italian suit. It’s being altered, so I hope I can find the little shop again when the time comes to pick it up.
The food is truly excellent, and is a critical part of our experience.
The city is really lovely. Over the weekend I plan to go to Florence, and perhaps someplace else. We’ll see what the trains have in store for me.
My brain is working overtime with thoughts about what this all means and what I can do differently once I’m back home. I feel a tremendous obligation to the rest of the Vancity employeees to find something useful, not a new money making opportunity, not a short term fix, but something meaningful to help Vancity along its mission. I also owe it to future years to discover something tangibly useful about this trip, so others can go too. Any thoughts? How do you prove this isn’t a junket, but is relevant to our organization at large?
