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Get 'em out to

engage members in director elections BY ALISON MACALPINE • ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANE DENIS

redit unions are democratically controlled

financial institutions, yet

a majority of members

aren't exercising their right to vote for the board of

directors. Often, the same

people, passionate about contributing to their organization, vote year-after-year, but where are

all the rest? How can boards and management

teams best connect with them?

Across the count:Iy, organizations are experimenting with different strategies, with

the hope that members will understand the

importance of their role in governance and

be spurred to participate. Some are already

achieving significant results in the form of higher

voting rates in director elections. And, as Garcy

Loewen, chairofManitoba's Assiniboine Credit

Union, points out, there are additional benefits

to increased engagement, including getting

meaningful information from members, reducing

strategic risk, and building trust and loyalty.

"We can do all of those things, but our main

reason for doing it is because we believe that as a cooperative, one of the principles is democratic

participation and to be member-focused. And

we think that it's just incumbent on us as a cooperative to make sure that our members

have a strong voice in what we're doing," he says.

Make voting as convenient as possible There was a time when credit unions offered

members only one way to vote for directors: at

the annual general meeting (AGM). Today, more

and more organizations are experimenting with other choices - though it's important to note

that the methods available are subject to credit

union legislation in each province.

"Our members were asking for online

voting," says Joanne Shad bolt, acting director

of governance at Vancouver City Savings Credit

Union in British Columbia. "We conducted a

survey in 2009 on our board election and we asked our non-voting members what would

encourage them to vote . Surprisingly, 51 percent of them said that if we had online

voting that would lead them to vote."

This year, turning research into action, Vancity introduced online voting for its directors and experienced a 20 percent increase

NOVEMBER 2011 ·ENTERPRISE 19

in ballots cast to 19,159 compared to last year's

16,017. One in four ballots was cast online,

with the 62 percent put in the mail and the rest

submitted at select branches. Altogether, 4.8 percent of eligible members cast a ballot in

2011, compared to 3.9 percent in 2010.

"We looked around at what was on offer in

the market for online voting and we recognized

that there was a gap, so we opted to work with Central 1 Credit Union to ensure security and

authentication of voting members. It also allowed us to develop a product that would

meet our needs and that would be accessible to

other cooperatives," Shad bolt says. (For more information, visit http://bit.ly/rnWfOWw).

Thee-ballot, accessible when members

log into the MernberDirect Integrated Services online banking system, provides the name and

photo of each candidate, with the candidate's

statement and resume just a 'click' away on the credit union's regular website.

"This was a way to make sure that voting was convenient but still provided the information

necessary for our members to mal<e an informed choice," Shad bolt explains. "Online

voting actually provides more information. It's

more connected. It gives you an opportunity to read up on the candidates as you're going through the voting process."

Offering a mail-in ballot as of 2009 has been

a stepping stone for First Calgary Financial in Alberta towards an eventual move to e-voting,

something the credit union hopes to implement next year. "Ifwe think about our membership,

not all of them are coming into the branches.

We have a high number that sign up for online banking, and they're used to dealing with us

a little bit more remotely," says Jackie Barber,

First Calgary's senior vice-president of human

resources and governance. "Through online

banking access, we already have high security

in terms of how people access their online

accounts. We will find a way to plug into that

method of security to make sure [e-voting] is as

secure as doing online banking." Mail-in ballots alone boosted director

election votes at First Calgary from fewer than

1,000 in 2008 to 5,600 in 2011. That's one in

10 of the 56,000 members who are qualified to vote. In fact, mail-in ballots have been so

20 ENTERPRISE· NOVEMBER 2011

Central 1's online banking system now

has the capability to offer a safe and secure e-vote to

credit unions

successful that the credit union has moved away from in-branch voting entirely.

Assiniboine also introduced e-voting last

year through the Credit Union Executives Society (CUES), based in Madison, Wisconsin

- a service also used by Saskatchewan's

Affinity and Ontario's Meridian credit unions. At Assiniboine, members can also vote by mail,

while the credit union hasn't had in-branch

voting for more than a decade. "When we used

to do voting at the AGM, we might get 300 or

400 people out to an AGM and, at that time, that would have been on a membership base

of maybe 60,000. That would be half a percent.

Now, ourvotingwould be tenfold that, " says Loewen, the credit union's chair. (In this year's

director elections, 4.4 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, up from last year but noticeably less

than the 6 percent rate in both 2008 and 2009).

Assiniboine's success was a double-edged

sword, however. "Lots of people used to show

up at the AGM because they wanted to vote on

directors and on resolutions, so when we made

it possible for a much larger percentage of our

membership to vote without coming to the

AGM, we also saw our AGM attendance drop, "

Loewen acknowledges.

That won't stop the credit union from

continuing to strive for greater member

engagement in governance, of course. As

Loewen puts it, "I thin!< the most important

role of the board is to be the keepers of the

vision of the credit union . And part of our

job is to make sure that we are representative

of the member-owners of this organization, that we're in touch with them, and that we 're

bringing their perspectives to the board table."

ttract the best director

At Ontario's United Communities Credit Union, Jim Lynn, president and CEO, believes

that an important prerequisite to higher voter

turnout is to clearly communicate to members

what it means to be a director - something

he says is not widely understood. Coupling

that with being able to attract the best slate of

candidates is ideal. United Communities creates a detailed

information package for potential candidates

and invites them to an information night

attended by current board members. Current

directors also interview the people who put

their names forward, giving them another

opportunity to ask questions . The goal is to

make sure members who are considering

joining the board fully grasp the time, training,

development and other commitments that will

be expected of them if they become directors.

"We position it by saying, this is beneficial

both to the organization and also to you as

an individual in terms of [building] your skill

sets," Lynn says.

First Calgary wanted to familiarize its

members with the director role, too. Last year,

the organization decided to experiment with a

less formal approach. It invited members to an

informal "meet the illrectors" fireside chat at a

local cafe. "It was something different that we

tried to get the message out that it's fun to be part

of our director team, and you don't need to be

NUMBER OF TERM VOTING DIRECTORS LENGTH METHOD AT A GLANCE

ASSINIBOINE 10

FIRST CALGARY 9

UNITED 12 COMMUNITIES

VANCITY 9

worried about hierarchy or egos because we don't

have those in the boardroom," explains Barber.

In the end, eight interested members

attended and five of them applied to run for the

board. "It was successful," Barber says. "The

directors enjoyed it, and I think it really worked

to be in that kind of offsite, local coffee-house

scenario."

Ensure me'!lbers get to know

United Communities helps its members

familiarize themselves with director candidates

through two information nights - one in

each of the Essex and Huron-Perth County

regions where the credit union operates. These

sessions give members an opportunity to listen

to candidates' presentations and ask them

some questions. "We went through a merger in 2006 and

one of the outcomes of that merger was a desire, as we got larger, to ensure that we

were intentional about increased member

engagement in the governance process, " Lynn

emphasizes.

Since the merger, the number of ballots cast for the credit union's board has risen each

year, and it leapt from 494 ballots to 1,309

between 2010 and 2011, accounting for 4.0

percent of eligible voters. The introduction of

the OneMemberOneVote.com website was an

innovation that certainly helped.

When United Communities' members

22 ENTERPRISE· NOVEMBER 2011

3 YEARS MAIL-IN, ONLINE

3 YEARS MAIL-IN

Credit unions are offering

their memberships a variety

of ways to cast ballots.

THE CHALLENGE

3 YEARS IN- BRANCH

Credit unions want to increase the general

awareness about director elections and connect

members with the method

that works best for them. 3 YEARS IN- BRANCH, MAIL-IN, ON-LINE

vote for directors, they must indicate their

preferences in both regions. As a result,

Lynn says it was important to "personalize"

candidates for those who hadn't met them -

and that's exactly what the OneMemberOneVote

site aims to do. Candidates posted three­

minute video messages, recorded by a

professional videographer, outlining why

they were interested in running for the board,

along with their relevant qualifications.

These video messages complemented more

technical information about each candidate's

background. They were also run in a

continuous loop on screens at the branches .

"Because we have in-branch voting, there's

an entire process that goes on during a voting

period, making sure that our employees are

speaking with our members and encouraging them to consider voting or to watch the videos,

or to tal<e information home or to go to the

OneMemberOneVote site," Lynn says. "Having

staff engaged in talking it up with our members

has been effective."

Promote governance through nl 1

Social media can be a powerful tool in credit

unions ' efforts to promote governance and

encourage a larger number of members to

vote in director elections. First Calgary uses

online tools, such as Face book and Twitter,

to increase awareness of elections, including

voting timelines, voter eligibility, and how

to vote. The feedback received guides the

information the credit union then sends

back out, for example, to fill in any gaps in

understanding that may exist.

"The more that we can get individuals in

the community wanting to understand a little

bit more about our credit union, wanting to be

members of our credit union - I think that's a

very critical thing for credit unio~s, " says Barber.

Meanwhile, Vancity encourages employees

to get directly involved in its social media

strategy, communicating their thoughts

about Vancity in tweets that the credit union

retweets through a corporate Twitter account

(@Vancity). "We're trying to really empower

the voice of our staff," explains Richard Seres,

Vancity's vice-president of marketing. "People

want to hear from other people versus a

corporate, organizational view. That's the idea

behind mal<ing sure that our messages are

authentic; that they're coming from a real place

and real people worl<ing here within Vancity."

The bottom line for many credit unions is

that as long as voters represent a small fraction

of overall membership, credit unions will

continue to struggle to meet the cooperative

principle of democratic member-control -

an absolutely critical area that merits being

addressed. As Shadbolt puts it, "members,

when they vote, set the strategic direction of

Vancity, so it's essential that we find ways to

encourage that engagement. and to.make sure that they're making informed choices."~