Tara-a-bit

I'm off for my summer holiday next week, so blogging service will not be resumed until the 10th July at the earliest.

Cheers,

Sam

More Survey Success

I think that the entire Group Board must have got themselves permenently hardwired into some market research company's sample list. A survey (different to this other one) has again put the Co-op top.

This time we came top of the list for "being green", "being part of the community", and "ethics".

By Jove I think they've got it.

Phone Co-op (Again)

Further to my gushing post about the fabulous Phone Co-op, I spotted (pdf file, 34k) that they have recently provided each of their staff with a new bike to celebrate national Cycle-to-Work Day and as part of their environmental policy.

And the bikes were provided by the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative as well, so fulfilling Co-operative principle number six: Co-operation among Co-operatives

Superb.

Congratulations

Warm congratulations to Steve Watts, Area Committee member for Cambridge and East Anglia, on being elected to the position of Deputy Chair of the Group Board.

When is a Member not a Member?

The Co-op Group has a vast membership: 1.4 million "potentially active" members according to the 2004 accounts (I think that "potentially active" is a polite phrase for "not dead"). The cost of delivering membership magazines and ballot papers for elections to all of these would be huge, and so in practice these items are only sent to a rather small subset of these: the 63,865 members in the "Members' Network".

It must be said that this is the subject of some controversy within the society, but the main point is to ensure that you are in this Network if you are currently not! If you aren't, you still have the right to vote in elections - but you won't get told about them. You will have to spot an election poster in a store and write in to request a ballot paper.

Unless everybody who is interested in the membership side to the Co-op Group is on the Members' Network, we run the risk of accidentally disenfranchising potentially active (there's that phrase again!) members. To join the Network, go to the Co-op Group Membership pages, pick your region and look for contact details. If you are in the Central and Eastern region, the contact page is here.

Co-operative Ethics in Action

I missed this to start with, but it looks as though CIS (Co-operative Insurance Society - part of the Co-op Group, is using its power as a large institutional investor to raise concerns with First Group (the bus and train company) about human rights of its workforce in the UK.

Nowhere to Be and All Day to Get There

Those of you lucky enough to be in the possession of tickets for this year's Cambridge Folk Festival will be able to see the Central and Eastern Co-op Group membership team in action. Those without a ticket are probably too late, unless you wish to endanger your eternal soul by buying one off a tout on eBay.

Once again we will have our membership stand up on site, with various games and giveaways in order to promote the value of Co-op membership. The Folk Festival is good for talking to a cross-section of people who are often very in-tune with our values and principles - and is one of those occasions where everybody is in a good mood and willing to chat.

And if you are very unlucky you might catch sounds of my accordion drifting on the breeze from my tent.

Sad News

More news here on the Houghton Regis fire.

Store Forums

When the Rochdale Pioneers set up their co-op shop in 1844, it was never envisaged that the society would run more than one - they expected that new shops would be set up by new co-operatives. As it happened, it was found to be more efficient for the same co-op to operate a chain of shops throughout the town. 160 years later, and we have one large national society (the Co-op Group), lots of large regional societies (United, East of England, Midcounties etc.), and a few small societies as well, such as Wooldale and Tamworth.

However, this means that even if a large society is split into areas, such as the Co-op Group which has 49 area committees, there are an awful lot of co-op shops that do not get visited on a regular basis by an elected member of the co-op. In the case of the Cambridge and East Anglia area, the majority of the committee live in Cambridge, ensuring that any Co-op there is likely to have regular visits simply due to day-to-day shopping trips. But despite both formal and informal visits made by the committee it is inevitable that the committee's knowledge of issues relating to other co-op shops with no elected member living nearby will be limited.

This is where an active membership can pay dividends! A regular customer of a shop will be far more aware of quirks, room for improvement and potential sources of competition than will an elected member who only drops in once a year or so. Of course, contact with any committee member (via the medium of the regional office, a members' meeting or this blog) will ensure that the issue gets raised, but I personally think that given high enough levels of customer involvement, store forums might be a great idea.

A store forum just means a group of regular members who are customers at the store who meet occasionally to raise concerns or points regarding the store. The report of the meeting can then be passed to the area committee for consideration of the issues raised. As well as providing a mechanism for information and views to be channeled to the elected members from the wider membership, store forums might help build a sense of community between members.

I see no reason why a group of interested members could not informally start their own store forum along the above lines, although it may be difficult to attract enough people to make it worthwhile. Email me if you would like more information or help.

Back to School

Part of the support that the Co-op Group give to Area Committee members is a structured training package supplied in partnership with the Co-op College. This helps to ensure that committee members are up to the job, and equips them with skills that they might need to perform it well. Area Committee members can work towards the "Certificate of Co-operation". Because this year is a bit busy for me, I'm not able to get to many of the real-life teaching sessions, so I've been doing the online versions instead. I've completed "Good Governance" and "Member Involvement", and the next step is "Understanding Management Accounts". While I'm not too bad with figures generally, there's a couple of things on the accounts we get sent that I've got some questions about - so this seems like a good opportunity.

Paraguayan Spirit

OK, so their football team might not be winning any awards at the moment, but in terms of rum production, they're doing fine. As soon as the good weather returns, fans of cool drinks on hot days could do a lot worse than try the Co-op "Premium" Fairtrade Rum in a fruit cocktail or with coke. Unlike a lot of bog-standard rums (including the Co-op's own brand, I'm afraid), this rum actually tastes of something - which tends to help with portion control! And for extra "right on" points, its all organic as well. It's also actually quite cheap considering its credentials - about £10 a bottle, I think, though it isn't available at some of the smaller shops in the area. It's definitely stocked at the Mill Road Co-op.

Sorry about the shameless advert - I'll try not to let it happen again.

Age Rule

At present, the Co-op Group has an "age rule", whereby there is a maximum age above which the elected representative is barred from the committee or board. This limit is currently 70 for area committees, and lower than that for regional and Group boards. The purpose is to encourage a healthy turnover in the make-up of the committee, but there are a number of points to make about this:

To begin with, if a healthy democratic culture was in place there would be no need for the age rule. As new candidates put their name forward, the ranks of the committee would be refreshed, and if a member was re-elected time and time again, then they must be pretty popular with the membership. At present, however, many areas have no contested elections.

Secondly, as a method for encouraging turnover of committee members, the age rule is a little flawed. I am 25, so could happily sit and ossify on the committee for the next 45 years before falling foul. By contrast, a 70 year old who would like to stand for election, and provide some democratic competition to the current encumbents is barred from doing so.

But perhaps the final death-knell of the age rule will come when the new ageism laws come into place. These demand "objectively justified" reasons from the employer if employment is brought to end because of an age limit. Such reasons would be hard to find in the elected structures of Co-operative societies, because older people are objectively able to perform the roles of elected representatives.

The Phone Co-op

I am a member of three Co-operative societies: The Co-operative Group, the East of England Co-operative Society, and The Phone Co-op. I joined the Ipswich and Norwich Co-op (later to merge with the Colchester and East Essex society to become the East of England Co-op) while I lived in Ipswich for a year, and I am ashamed to say that I never did notify them about my change of address. (I always wondered how Co-op membership records got so inaccurate - well now I know.)

The Phone Co-op is very exciting - its a rare example of a new consumer society being set up on the same basis as the original co-ops back in the 19th century. It has also experienced fairly fast growth, which puts it in the position of having a turnover of over £5 million pounds despite only having been set-up not that long ago.

In the true spirit of Co-operation, a members' dividend is paid in proportion to an individual's spend with the society, and directors are elected by the membership. Another signal of health is that these elections are extremely fiercely fought, with many more candidates than vacancies on the board. Capital is provided by the members' share accounts, and although there is a reasonable rate of interest payable on this, return on capital is limited - as it should be!

A proportion of profits equal to the members' dividend each year is put into a Co-operative development fund, to help with the capital requirements of new co-operative ventures.

The Phone Co-op has implemented an excellent environmental and ethical policy, which means that the business offsets not only their own carbon emissions, but also those of its suppliers. Paper usage is carefully controlled, and a breakdown of employee travel by transport type (car, plane, bus, train etc.) is included with the annual report.

The total cost of line rental and call charges can, I think, come out either slightly higher or slightly lower than BT depending upon usage. I didn't notice any difference either way when I switched. But the ethical, environmental and Co-operative advantages are huge.

Football Fever

Yesterday was the busiest I've ever seen the Hills Road Co-op. I popped in at around 1 o'clock on the way to a mate's house to watch the (somewhat sleep-inducing) football, and the place was heaving. It must be said that the majority were purchasing stuff for the barbecue, crisps and booze, so its fair to say that yesterday was not a good time for Cambridge waistlines - but its hopefully done our bottom line the world of good. Thankfully, the shop was well-staffed, and all the tills were open - a situation that might perhaps not have been the case in the not-too-recent past. In addition, despite the truly Herculean effort made by football fans to consume the entire Co-op stock of beers of all kinds, the shelves were replenished by this morning, with very few gaps remaining - this again may not have happened not all that long ago.

See - some things do improve!

Cambridge Fans United

In my rundown of Cambridge Co-ops I foolishly left out an exciting, relatively new, Co-op - the supporters' trust of Cambridge United Football Club - Cambridge Fans United. Supporters' Trusts are co-operatively owned organisations that allow supporters of clubs to get more involved in the running of the club. The involvement of the Supporters' Trust varies from place to place, ranging from minor, where perhaps a few shares in the football club are held co-operatively, and AGMs attended, through to situations in which the supporters collectively run the football club, such as at Exeter City and York City.

Cambridge Fans United is not yet in the position where a majority of votes at the club AGM are controlled, and I'm not sure that they have any current desire for this to be the case. But they do have a considerable stake in the club, which lends weight to their voice in the club.

There are lots of advantages of having a strong supporters trust at a club. First there is the advantage to the club of a communication route to the supporters, which can only be beneficial. The existence of a supporters' trust can act as a focus for social (normally fundraising!) events at the club, helping to build a sense of community. And if the club gets into problems, in some cases the supporters' trust can be part of the solution with both practical and financial help. From the Co-operative Movement's point of view, supporters' trusts can provide an excellent introduction to the principles of mutal ownership.

Its my opinion that co-operative or mutual structure is far more natural for sports clubs than the profit-making limited company that is dominant in British football. If a football club in some sense "belongs" to the community as a whole, not a plutocrat owning a majority share, then it makes sense for the legal ownership to be similarly distributed throughout the community through the medium of a mutually owned trust.

Each for All and All for Each

An amazing array of photos of Co-op shops and premises is displayed in a blog format here. Co-operators in the 19th century certainly knew how to build.

June's Area Committee Meeting

Last night's committee meeting focused on three things: reports of trading for the businesses in the area, including verbal reports from an operations manager and a HR manager from the food retail business in the region; a verbal report from Simon Butler, a Group Board member from the Central & Eastern region on matters of Group strategy across the various businesses; and the decision on the distribution of the Community Dividend.

The trading reports started with the sad news of the fire at Houghton Regis. Although this store is not within the Cambridge and East Anglia area, the committee was saddened to hear of the serious damage done to the Co-op shop there. On more local matters, the committee was pleased to hear that the refits of stores in the area have generally been successful, and was impressed by the obvious enthusiasm that the two managers present displayed for the business.

Simon Butler's presentation worked through the different businesses in the Group, in each case looking at the actions to date, and future prospects. I asked a question regarding the integration of a newly-purchased funeral group (Fairways), and was informed that integration into Funeralcare would be forthcoming, but that the renaming of individual funeral directors would be carried out with due sensitivity to local factors. This development is of particular interest to the Cambridge and East Anglia area, as it increases the number of funeral directors we are responsible for from 3 (Cambridge, Newmarket and Haverhill) to about 20.

The Community Dividend allocation was extremely difficult, as groups had requested a total of over £16,000 for various projects, but we only had around £2,500 to allocate. I do hope that those projects chosen will find the help the Co-op can give valuable.

Finally, in any other business I raised the point of the absence of a members' noticeboard in the newly refitted Mill Road store. I have some hopes of this being acted upon, as I noted on the way to the meeting that a similar request for the Hills Road store had been fulfilled.

Structure of the Co-op Group

For those visitors who are unacquainted with the rather strange structure of the Co-op Group, I thought that it might be useful to have a post describing the different democratic structures and how they interact.

The Co-op Group is a strange beast - a combination of a secondary Co-op (most other UK Consumer Co-operatives are themselves members of the Co-op Group, in order to co-ordinate wholesaling etc) , and a normal, primary Co-op that runs shops, has individual members, etc. This means that the Group Board (the top level of control in the society) has both representatives from "corporate members" - i.e. other Co-ops - and from Regions of the Co-op Group itself. It is interesting that while the regional representatives are ordinary lay members much like you or I, the representatives from the other Co-ops are usually employees of those Co-ops - for example the current Group Chair, Bob Burlton, is also Chief Executive of the Midcounties Co-op.

The Regional Boards, from which the regional reps to the Group Board must come from, look after a large chunk of the country each, and have to approve large capital expenditure within their region. There are eight regions making up the Co-op Group - the one covering my own area is the Central & Eastern region, which covers from Nottingham, Northampton and Milton Keynes out to the East Coast. In practice though, a lot of this area is covered by other Co-op societies - mainly the East of England society, so we don't have many businesses in Suffolk, Norfolk or much of Essex.

The Area Committees are the lowest rung on the Co-op Group ladder of democracy - they have the least power and influence, but are the closest to the ground so to speak. Much of what we do involves co-ordinating local membership events, distributing Community Dividend, or referring matters higher up the food chain to the Regional Board. We do get to speak to a representative of the management in the area though, to raise our concerns and comments.

The Area Committee members vote from themselves to form the Regional Board, and from Regional Board members to form the Group Board. Clear? Good.

If you'd like to see a nice diagram with all this made fairly clear (with a couple of extra complications such as AGMs and the subsidiaries of CIS and the Co-op Bank thrown in), you can see it here

Most Trusted

There's some good news from a survey by the National Consumer Council, which shows that the Co-op Group is the most trusted retailer in the UK, coming above Marks and Sparks and The Body Shop in 2nd and 3rd.

Of course, a consumer co-operative should be the most trusted retailer, as the interests of the consumer are the reason that the co-op exists. However, its good to see that the Co-op's messages on food additives, animal testing, the environment, Fairtrade, etc. is getting through to the public.

Want to become a committee member?

The closing date for nominations to the Area Committees is July 1st, so if you think that this sort of involvement would suit you, now is the time to act! To be nominated, you need to fulfill various criteria:

• You must be committed to the Co-operative status of the Co-op Group
• You must have been a member of the Co-op Group for at least a year
• You must have at least £25 in your share account (this is easy to top up when you are nominated)
• You must live within the Area concerned (apart from exceptional circumstances)
• Be under 70 when you take office (in October)

You also need to get another member to nominate you!

The elections will be held in late summer by post, and results declared in the Half-yearly members meeting in October.

Having been an elected member of an Area Committee for quite a few months now, I can testify that if you would like to know more about the workings and goings-on of the Co-op then this is how to do it! There is a limited variety of things about which the Area Committee has power over (although the distribution of Community Dividend is a noticeable exception), but you do get to hold to account both management staff and the higher levels of democracy (Regional Board, Values and Principles committees, and the Group Board).

In my area, there are 11 normal meetings of the committee per year, with additional things to attend such as the regional AGM, conferences and the like, and you should aim to attend as many as possible. There are also various membership events at festivals, carnivals, fairs etc., at which committee members need to be. Formal store visits are undertaken every now and again, and personally I like to pop into as many stores informally as I can whenever possible. In return, you get paid about £500 for your trouble - though be warned that if you're in it for the money, there are probably easier ways to make it!

Ultimately, the success of the Co-op depends on the vitality of the democratic structures within it, and contested elections are a part of this - so go ahead and get involved.

To receive a nomination pack, get in touch with the membership department on 01908 843207 or 01908 843208.

Mill Road Co-op

Today was my first opportunity to have a look around the Mill Road Co-op since it reopened last week after a refit. The changes are for the most part quite subtle - the most noticeable being the fact that the sit-down tills have been removed, with extra room at the fags counter. The result is much more room at the front of the store, and a more open feel.

As for the rest of the store, it just feels a little lighter, with newer shelves in some places. A nice touch was the specifically Fairtrade display case for the Co-op own-brand chocolate.

Still no members' noticeboard though! I'll raise this point at the Area Committee meeting on Thursday.

Consumer Co-operatives Performance Report 2005

The results of the 30 Consumer Co-operatives for 2005 have been amalgamated by Co-operatives UK to show a combined profit of £467 million (up 6.1% on last year) on a turnover of £12.8 billion (down 2.8%). The share of the food market has continued to decline, but this has been compensated for to some extent by an increase in the turnover of Co-operative travel agents and funeral directors.

The return on capital employed, which crudely is a measure of how well the Co-ops are investing our collective assets, is down very slightly to 8.6%, although this is much higher than the figure at the end of the 1990s, which was around 4%. The Co-operative Commission gave 10% as a target for this measure, so there is still some way to go.

The full set of results, including breakdowns by society can be found here

Altogether, not a disastrous set of results given the current very competitive situation in supermarket retail, but we are still witnessing the gradual decline of Consumer Co-operatives with time. To turn the Co-operative sector around will require increased engagement with members as well as good commercial management.

Strawberry Fair

This Saturday sees Strawberry Fair hit Midsummer Common. The Cambridge and East Anglia Area Committee will be there to spread the word about Co-operation and invite new members to join. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this one, but other members of the area committee will be there, ably assisted by Ranjit Singh, our co-operative affairs officer.

I sincerely hope that our attendance at this event will continue in future years, as the guiding policies of the Fair have a distinct Co-operative ring about them - equality, equity, democracy and self-responsibility ring any bells?

United Co-op says no to brand project

The Brand project was supposed to be a way of creating a common look and bond for all consumer co-op businesses, across different societies and sectors. But the second largest co-op in the country, United Co-ops (based in Rochdale) has announced (Co-op News article - registration required) that it will not be participating further in the project.

Along with distinctly lukewarm responses from other large societies, this means that the project has become a rebranding of mainly Co-op Group stores with the odd independent society going along for a ride. But does this matter?

From a Co-op Group point of view, the major benefits of the Brand Project were always that the different businesses within the group - Food retail, Bank, CIS, travelcare, funeralcare, etc. - would become linked in the consumers' minds and become mutually stronger. The common branding of different societies may actually have caused confusion in areas where more than one society was operating, and so maybe this news will turn out to have a silver lining.