For the fourth year running, a survey of Canadian co- Concern about governance dropped to fourth place in the operatives leaders found that the most pressing challenge 2021 survey, down from second in the 2020 survey, which was facing the sector is a general lack of awareness about the co- distributed a few weeks after the sale of Mountain Equipment operative model. [...] As one respondent noted, “too many mid- co-operation in our society.” sized co-operatives have no director training and there is a lack of understanding as to what the role of the board is and Respondents tended to link the awareness issue to a concern what their role means in the context of a co-op.” about the dilution of the meaning of ‘co-operative’ due to increasing use of related terms like ‘. [...] Of the 282 respondents that indicated that they are currently working at a co-operative For the fourth year running, the need to improve awareness (as opposed to working at a university or recently retired), about the relevance of the co-operative model was cited as we found that the median number of employees in their co- the number one challenge for the co-operative sector. [...] the challenge of getting their senior leadership to understand Governments need to give cooperatives the same attention as the uniqueness of the co-operative model, the need to any other corporation in terms of financial support and access put members’ first, and that a co-operative is not just to markets like any other business.” To address this issue, some another business. [...] Nurturing cooperation amongst co-operatives that are particularly suited to the challenges that co-operatives face (e.g., the need to bring a social face to decision-making) The seventh most pertinent issue identified in the 2021 and that management can easily pick up and implement.” As survey, with 7% of the overall vote, was the need to numerous respondents noted, this is currently lacking.
- Pages
- 18
- Published in
- Canada
