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3. 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
experimentingwith differentstrategies, with
the hope that members will understand the
importance oftheir role in governance and
be spurred to participate. Some are already
achievingsignificantresults in the form ofhigher
voting rates in director elections. And, as Garcy
Loewen, chairofManitoba's Assiniboine Credit
Union, points out, there are additional benefits
to increased engagement, includinggetting
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 strongvoice 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 Shadbolt, acting director
ofgovernance 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 ifwe 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

4. in ballots cast to 19,159 compared to lastyear'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 ofeligible members cast a ballot in
2011, compared to 3.9 percent in 2010.
"We looked around at what was on offer in
the marketfor 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 ofvoting members. It also
allowed us to develop a product that would
meet our needs and that would be accessible to
other cooperatives," Shadbolt 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 ofeach 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," Shadbolt 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
nextyear. "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 ofhuman
resources and governance. "Through online
banking access, we already have high security
in terms ofhow people access their online
accounts. We will find a way to plug into that
method ofsecurity 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. "Whenwe 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
ofmaybe 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 ofeligible 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 ofpeople 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 ofthe board is to be the keepers of the
vision of the credit union.And part ofour
job is to make sure that we are representative
of the member-owners ofthis 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 Calgarywanted to familiarize its
members with the director role, too. Lastyear,
the organization decided to experimentwith a
less formal approach. It invited members to an
informal "meet the illrectors" fireside chat at a
local cafe. "Itwas somethingdifferent thatwe
tried to get the message out that it's fun to be part
ofour director team, and you don't need to be

5. 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 ofoffsite, 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 Facebook 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 ofour 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
ofoverall 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."~