Greetings, Co-op Members for Fairness participants and sympathizers— we are aware that it has been some time before the last update.
CM4F is mobilizing for the Saskatoon Co-op Virtual AGM and Board Election that is coming up fast, on Thursday, October 15. As it is a virtual AGM, unlike in previous years, you must pre-register to attend and vote, and the registration deadline is coming up fast, on Wednesday, Sept 30. Information on pre-registration and how the virtual AGM will work can also be found on our 20200 AGM page.
This is an update about the slate of four board nominees we endorsed at our March meeting.
Like many of you, our lives have been somewhat tossed around by the pandemic and its fallout. This began immediately after March and led to a hiatus from regular meetings. From then until the end of summer, we also were not able to keep up with posting regularly to our page or mailing list, or news items on our blog.
Our slate of board nominees that we endorsed at our March meeting was similarly affected in the areas of employment, schooling, and family/childcare responsibilities, and had to drop out of the running for the Saskatoon Co-op Board. As a result, only one of our endorsed candidates – Pat Atkinson – is still standing for election to the Saskatoon Co-op Board, after the Saskatoon Co-op Board re-booted the nomination process and moved the date of the AGM forward to October.
While this is disappointing in a year where so many Board seats are up for contention, we are extremely proud to endorse Pat Atkinson as a Board nominee. As a former MLA for the Saskatchewan Nutana constituency, she will bring a wealth of experience to the Board— as a former minister of social services, health, education, Crown corporations, and finance for Saskatchewan. We are confident that she will represent and champion the sorts of reforms that we have advocated for as Co-op Members for Fairness. She will be a strong and progressive voice on the Board and we consider electing her to the position to be a matter of urgency.
In the coming days, we will be posting a lengthy interview with Ms. Atkinson, so that all Saskatoon Co-op Members can get a better sense of her values, vision and plans, and what she sees as challenges and solutions for concerns we’ve all had about the Saskatchewan Co-op, and Co-op in general.
We are also finally up to speed again and meeting regularly. These are virtual meetings, so if you haven’t already, please join our mailing list, so that we can continue to send you links to joining our meetings. Signing up is easy and done on the home page of our website.
A silver lining about being compelled to meet virtually is that we will have the capacity to host hybrid in-person/remote meetings, when we are meeting in person again, which some of you have been requesting to do.
We will also be resuming publication to our blog, and have several major items of interest to Co-op Members in the works.
Federated Co-op Ltd’s assault on Saskatoon workers’ wages, on Refinery workers’ pensions, and Calgary Co-op opting out of the FCL grocery system have sounded the alarm loud and clear. It is up to us as members to right the Co-op ship by championing a return to Co-op values and practices. The recent, shocking news of Mountain Equipment Co-op’s board outright selling the Co-op — against the wishes of the membership — gives us a pretty clear picture of what is at stake.
So your participation is needed more than ever. Please register for the AGM and our mailing list if you are not on it. Attend the AGM. Elect Pat to the Board!
Get on our mailing list: https://www.coopmembersforfairness.ca
AGM Registration (page on Saskatoon Co-op website)
Board Nominee Profiles (PDF on Saskatoon Co-op website)
Don't like the direction FCL and the Boards are taking Co-op?
Neither do we!
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