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 The co-operative message will still resonate with some, but I think that to many it seems outdated and esoteric.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.
I was fortunate enough to be on the selection committee for a new agency of record for Vancity. We have a wealth of very good agencies here in Vancouver and Vancity wanted to ensure that we have the right partner to help us move forward towards our vision of Redefining Wealth.
Redefining Wealth is our vision of growing wealth for our members in a way that directly benefits our communities. We have only started communicating it publicly, and the first place it shows up is in our new Annual Report. The title is obviously provocative, intended to get members questioning what we’re doing and reading on to discover what Vancity’s doing for the “wealthy”.
As we embark on this journey, we met with many agencies in Vancouver, some very large and some very small. It was a great process, helped by a consulting firm, Reynolds & Fyshe. Dan and Mike (Reynolds & Fyshe) helped us steer a transparent, fair, thorough selection process that focused mostly on fit. This was not a beauty pageant where agencies simply wowed us with some superlative work (although we did get to see lots of great work), but a process evaluating our DNA to ensure we found a real partner in our mission.
In the end, we were very excited to discover our amazing fit with local agency, Wasserman + Partners. They demonstrated amazing knowledge of our brand and alignment with our vision. Their work resonated with us, they asked profoundly good and tough questions and have demonstrated real business results with their other clients. It doesn’t hurt that they are a member of our credit union and have been since they launched. They show a deep understanding of iconic local brands, and Vancity is an important player in that field.
I know W+P from their work on the province-wide projects they do on behalf of all BC-based credit unions (see their TV ads). They have been the agency for Credit Unions of BC for over ten years, and their knowledge of this sector is a real plus. I have seen their work get stronger and stronger and the results of their work break through barriers identified as chief obstacles to increasing credit union membership. I have seen the early results of their upcoming campaign, and it is truly impressive.
So, a new chapter opens in the storied history of Vancity. I feel very fortunate to be able to play a role in all of this, and am excited to roll up my sleeves and work with our new partner, Wasserman + Partners.
Each one sent adds $1 to a donation pool at the Foundation, and senders can decide whether they want to support enterprising nonprofits, housing and homelessness or food security. It’s all contained here on a description page on ChangeEverything.ca.
I hope it’ll be an engaging way for people to connect over the holidays while supporting local issues.
Selfishly, it’s nice to see our main website and ChangeEverything.ca work together. For me, it’s putting together the pieces we already have to work harder together.
One area of Vancity that I’m excited to get more involved with is the Vancity Community Foundation. I didn’t have much to do with the Foundation until fairly recently when I chose them to receive the donation made in my name when I was named GonzoBanker of the Month back in March.
And then recently, I went to their 20th anniversary celebration, and was in awe of what they accomplish in our communities every day. Brave, inspiring work that reminded me of all the reasons I work at Vancity.
Here are those videos, and I urge you to check them out.
Community Stories
History
Donor Stories
I have written before that one of the main things I love about doing what I do at Vancity is that it is an organization whose presence would be sorely missed by many in our area if it were to disappear. It is an organization that matters, which is not a sense I’ve ever had about the companies I’ve ever worked for before. It is a profound thing.
I’ll be writing more about the Vancity Community Foundation soon, we’re about to launch a very cool way to support their work.
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…
Things have been so busy, I haven’t written much about BCBBC2 recently, but I am very excited about this banking innovation event.
It’ll take place on Saturday, September 26th from 9am to 5pm at Vancity’s head office at 183 Terminal Avenue in Vancouver (map below). I especially want people at local banks and credit unions to attend and join the conversation.
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.
