Our National Members’ Council is ‘Co-operating for a Fairer World’

It’s been a busy first half of 2022 for myself, our Members’ Council and our Co-op, with some new challenges and a lot of change. On behalf of Council, I’d like to share our deepest condolences with the Royal Family following the sad passing of Her Majesty The Queen.

Before I update you on how Council’s been working for Co-op Members and what’s coming up next, I want to say a big ‘welcome’ and ‘congratulations’ to everyone who joined Council as part of our 2022 elections cycle, it’s fantastic to have such a keen group on board who can bring new perspectives and ideas and I’m looking forward to working together.

This year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) was my first one as President and Co-op’s first face to face meeting for members since 2019. I loved having the chance to meet with colleagues and Co-op Members from around the UK in our marketplace before heading into the main event to update those in the room and watching online on Council’s brilliant and important work in 2021.

In 2022, we’ve kept the momentum going and continued to build on what we started last year, especially in our areas of co-op difference. For me, key highlights have been around our Co-op continuing to lead on diversity and inclusion with the launch of our Ethnicity Pay Gap Report, which Council’s Diversity & Inclusion Working Group shared feedback and input on to help our Co-op meet its Commitment to Racial Equality & Inclusion and increase ethnicity representation in leadership roles. As President and a woman in politics, I want to eliminate gender inequality and bias too, so I showcased inspirational and influential women from around the Co-op Movement on social media for International Women’s Day, spoke at a Central England Co-op event and hosted a Know Your National Members’ Council session for Co-op colleagues, where I shared my career experience and top tips. I was delighted when Shirine Khoury-Haq was announced as the first female CEO of our Co-op last month and am excited to work more closely with her.

Building a stronger Co-op Movement and getting more people involved in our way of doing business is a big priority for me. I was thrilled when I was invited to speak at this year’s Co-op Congress and Co-operative Retail Conference, where we discussed how we can harness the amazing resource that is our members and make their experience more meaningful. Improving member participation in our democracy at Co-op is a huge focus for Council and our Vice President for Co-operative Performance, Democratic Processes and Member Voice, Lesley Reznicek, so it’s great to incorporate wider thinking into our work and our Member Voice Committee will be sharing its recommendations for next year’s AGM & Elections soon. We recently approved our ambitious Three-Year Plan too, which sets out how we’re going to support Co-op with achieving its vision of ‘Co-operating for a Fairer World’ and as part of this, we’ll be working closely with the Board and Co-op leaders to develop our programme of member participation activity. Now more than ever, we need you to get involved with the Co-op you own and tell us how you’d like to play your part in future.

I can’t believe we’re already well into the second half of the year already and although there’s things to look forward to, I’m very conscious of the difficulties our members, colleagues and communities are facing as we navigate the cost of living crisis. Our Co-op exists to meet members’ needs and Council has a role to play in making sure we’re providing the best value possible for our member-owners, so I’m keen to start working with our new Vice President for Business Performance, Jeevan Jones, and our Board to understand and share input on business strategy. Our Member Value & Business Performance Committee will continue to raise questions and feed into discussions on debt levels and cash generation as well.

To help members find and offer support through our partnerships, we’ll be hosting Join in Live events online and in-person in London and Glasgow this month. It’s also a great chance to meet with Council Members and put questions to Board Members on our businesses and plans for the future. Locally, Member Pioneers are back in stores around the country to talk to shoppers about living sustainably and affordably. Please stop by and share your views, as we’ll be able to raise them with our Member Nominated Directors at our next Directors’ Forum in December and build on the input we gave to our Food leaders in July as part of their strategy work.