Co-op changes on the way
Proposed bylaw amendment lowers membership fee to $1
Karen K. Ho
Northern News Services
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Co-op's membership fees could dramatically fall this year.
New resident Tegan Monforton shops in the snack aisle at the Yellowknife Co-op. The store is proposing to dramatically lower its membership fee from $60 to $1. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo |
The 34-year-old organization is officially proposing to lower its membership fee to $1 from $60. "We want to make it as easy as possible to join," general manager Ben Walker Sr. told Yellowknifer.
"But we can't just change the rules to the game without the membership approving it and us explaining why we want to."
The change is part of a resolution being voted on at the Co-op's annual general meeting on April 27.
Currently, the organization has 3,700 members, but only 200 people are expected to attend the annual general meeting, with only 100 of those being voting members. Members also pay a weekly service fee of $1, with discounts for when it is prepaid for a period of six months or one year.
Business development manager Jeff Kincaid said the reason behind the change was to remove some barriers of entry and feel less intimidating financially.
"A lot of people don't have $60 to join what they think is a grocery store," Walker said. "They don't understand it's more than that."
Kincaid said tmembers who paid the old membership fee won't suddenly see that money go away. "Once you're a member, no matter what you've paid, that money is in your share capital account and will be returned to you once you move away from Yellowknife," he said.
As for why the change was being proposed at this annual general meeting in particular, Walker said the membership of the Co-op and its board of directors had resisted change for years. "The more business we have, the more successful we'll be," he said.
Kincaid emphasized there would be no difference in treatment and benefits between members who had paid the old amount and the ones that had paid $1; each one would get one vote at the AGM. When it came to patron refund cheques, Kincaid said the amounts for all members are based on share capital. This is calculated using the total amount a member has spent at the co-op the prior year, as well as the organization's profit for the year. "It has nothing to do if you've been a member for 20 years or a member for two minutes," he said.
When asked how many members the Co-op hoped to attract with the proposed changes, Kincaid had a simple reply. "Every single person in Yellowknife."
