New Board Directors welcomed at ACCA’s 13th Annual General Meeting

Stony Plain, AB – 18 delegates from 9 member co-operatives joined Alberta Community & Co-operative Association (ACCA) staff and board members at ACCA’s 13th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday. The meeting marked the appointment of Earl Graham and Joe Bowhay to the board of directors by delegates including Brad Schultz (Chair, Federated Co-operatives Limited) & Kevin Hoppins (Chair, United Farmers of Alberta Co-operative [UFA]).

Recognizing the superb contributions of retiring board members Tara Burke & Ben Vanden Brink; ACCA Chair, Randy Taylor presented Tara with a framed certificate and thanked her for the progress she has made upon the associations governance during her tenure. Ben could not be in attendance but will be recognized in the upcoming weeks.

ACCA would like to congratulate and thank its membership and AGM delegates for all their development work & continued collaboration in growing the co-operative sector. The board is eagerly anticipating an exciting year and are looking forward to welcoming our members and the wider sector at the Gathering of Alberta Co-operatives conference on 17th & 18th October 2018.

AGM Key Takeaways

Ahead of the Canadian Co-operative Investment Fund (CCIF) announcing investments over the coming weeks, Paul Cabaj from Co-operative Mutuals Canada (CMC) kick-started proceedings, dialing down on improving federal awareness of co-operative models and demonstrating how sustainable co-operatives have “steady growth & steady jobs”.

Embracing video technology, Terry Geib explained her close collaboration with ACCA on a forthcoming 2018-2021 strategy and delegates learnt from the renowned Bill Oemichen who shared insight on how the co-op sector can be an effective government lobbyist.

In a week where the Alberta – British Columbia pipeline debate took a step towards resolution, British Columbia Co-operative Association (BCCA) vice-chair John Kay updated membership on the partnership forming between ACCA and BCCA; and there was keen interest from UFA on developing future inter-provincial relationships with Saskatchewan as we move towards the end of 2018.

2017 Milestones included:

• Support for 5 newly incorporated co-operatives.

• Educated & directly collaborated with 922 stakeholders across academic, government and municipal institutions.

• Launched a new Co-operative Youth Leadership Program curriculum & engaged 13 new program sponsors.

• Delivered a successful Leadership Summit, our second MLA reception and 7 educational webinars.

2017 Finance Overview

Executive Director Michele Aasgard and Audit & Finance Chair Harvey Hagman were pleased to report on a financially sustainable, small operating surplus for 2017. In comparison to 2016, overall revenue has grown faster (+6.4%) than total expenditure (+3.8%). Registrations and Membership have seen little change over the year and therefore continue to account for a large part of revenue; however, the challenge to secure grants (-4.3%) and program funding (-4.5%) is evident as the Alberta economy continues to recover and evolve.

ACCA’s full 2017 Annual Report can be accessed here.

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 Membership, media or sponsorship inquiries can be directed to Will McGlynn, Community Relations Specialist wmcglynn@acca.coop | linkedin.com/in/willmcglynn