The Jersey part of the CIs COOP AGM took place at Hautlieu School, St Helier on 17 May 2016.
About 150 attended out of about 80,000 Jersey shareholders.
The President Ben Shenton and CEO Colin Macleod were interviewed following the AGM.....
Ben Shenton below
Two days after the Jersey AGM and it's the same old story as ever from this Co-op management: failing to use basic online communication methods to provide members with key information. For starters, what was the result of the Jersey Director's election? I have checked the Co-op's Twitter page - nothing; the 'Latest News' section on their website - also nothing. They even have a facility for members to log in with a pin number on their website but there is nothing there either. It seems that unless you actually attend the AGM in person, the Board just presumes that you have no interest in the way the Society is being run or what took place at the AGM and therefore doesn't bother putting the information into the public domain.
ReplyDeleteSame thing with confirming the date when members can start withdrawing the latest annual dividend - nothing posted online. I only found out that dividends could be withdrawn from today (Thursday 19th) because I happened to notice a very small sign placed inconspicuously in the Grande Marche store. If this isn't the type of information that is ideal to be communicated to a mass membership via social media and the Society's website then I just don't know what is. If they can't even get these very basic things right then how can we have confidence in them to take decisions worth millions of pounds?
Re the Director's election: I wanted to cast a vote but like most members I didn't want to go to the hassle of attending the AGM in person. There was only one single day where members could cast their vote at the St Helier Grande Marche but the ballot closed at 5pm. What about those people who work 9 to 5 hours and don't have a chance to do their shopping until later? Are they all supposed to give up a whole evening in order to attend the AGM? There appear to be no alternative facilities for members to vote by post, online, or even to nominate another person to attend the AGM and cast a proxy vote on behalf of them. If such facilities do exist then why didn't the Co-op mention any of them them in its information pamphlet produced ahead of the 2016 AGM?
To me, it appears that the present management are only too happy to maintain the status quo, where just a relatively small proportion of members who bother to find the time to personally attend Society meetings are entitled to know what is really going on and able to exert any influence at all on the Board. That is not good enough. They are running the Society like a branch of government now, with a small unrepresentative elite business clique happy to take important decisions on behalf of the voiceless majority.