Thursday, May 15, 2014

@Coast_Capital credit union members could set Board pay by median vote

In April 2013, Coast Capital Savings Credit Union members approved by 79.7% majority a special resolution that “...the members of Coast Capital establish the remuneration for the directors of the credit union...” The resolution, put forward by a group of members called Compensation Watch, did not specify a process for members to do that.

In April 2014, Compensation Watch and the Coast Capital Board put forward two duelling resolutions to specify how Board pay would be determined. However, neither resolution got the 2/3 member voting approval required for implementation. Details are in my previous blog post and in this Victoria Times-Colonist article: "Credit union votes fail to resolve board pay dispute".

So I am proposing another way that we Coast Capital members could determine our Board's pay: Vote using a menu of possible total Board pay pay levels, and set pay at the median voted amount. For example, we could submit it to member vote like this:
How much should we Coast Capital members pay our Board, as annual total compensation?
□ $200,000
□ $300,000
□ $400,000
□ $500,000
□ $600,000
□ $700,000
□ $800,000
I've fleshed out the proposal, with an example, in this 3-page pdf.

I emailed it to the Board on May 8, and promptly got this reply: "Your email has been received and will be forwarded to the Board of Directors. Please expect a response in due course." No further response yet, but when it comes I'll post an update in this blog.

Friday, May 2, 2014

@Coast_Capital vote results: Board oligarchy maintains its power

At the Coast Capital Savings Credit Union Annual General Meeting on Wednesday April 30, results were announced for the member votes in the director election and on the 8 special resolutions. Unfortunately, none of the democratic reform candidates were elected, and the 4 member resolutions did not get the 2/3 vote required. The Board used its control of information sent to members, to maintain its grip on power for a while longer. On the plus side, the Board's 4 undemocratic resolutions also failed to get 2/3 voting approval. Details are in these links:
- Director election results

- Resolution vote results

- Compensation Watch post: A sad day for democracy

- Times-Colonist article: Credit union votes fail to resolve board pay dispute

- Coast Capital news release

- My previous summary post: Vote for Member #Democracy @Coast_Capital Credit Union
Coast Capital members will continue to work for democratic reform. I will still be involved, but perhaps not as vocal on this blog and twitter; so to hear what's going on, I recommend the Compensation Watch blog. You can "Follow" them to get an email when they post something.