Cooperative Management and Governance

1. The Initiators

2. The Program

3. The Talk

4. The Outcome

The General Assembly of a certain Cooperative or its stakeholders allowed the Board of Directors, Appointees, Management and Staff and its members (GA itself) to participate in the series of seminars.

Pursuant to the Republic Act #9520 under the tutelage of Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), cooperatives are required to undergo series of trainings and seminars in order to manage their organization proper.

Such invitation enticed the Parañaque City Union of Cooperatives and Quezon City Union of Cooperatives to join hands in order to accomplish the directives coming from the Philippine government thru CDA.

The program concentrates on one of the series of trainings.

The three-day (August 17-19, 2012) seminar is about the Committee Management and Governance held at PAGCOR Forum Hall in Parañaque City.

For most of the participants who are still grasping for knowledge about the topics, as most of them as new members, the timely theme of managing and governing a cooperative is not only a training requirement to the board of directors, but also for committee appointees, members and staff.

The intention of the union is to make the board members truly capable of making policies effectively for their primary cooperatives, regardless of its services.

Participants felt like they're in school again as the facilitators handed out the materials to be discussed by a prolific lecturer, Eduardo 'Boyet' Dolor of QCUC, an accredited speaker for the following subjects that comprised the three-day training.

1. Director and Manager: Duties, Responsibilities and Accountability
2. Cooperative Governance: Definition, Benefits, Characteristics, Architecture and Abuses
3. Code of Ethics and Ethical Standards
4. Board Manager relationships
5. Managing a Successful Board Meeting
6. Labor Laws Applied to Cooperatives
7. Cooperative Annual Performance Report (CAPR)
8. Regulatory Compliance Requirements: Reports and Schedule
9. Policy Formulation and Process
10. Cooperative Management
11. Balanced Score Card

The marathon discussion, through the aid of visual presentation (Microsoft Powerpoint), was never noticed by the participants because the speaker inserted relevant scenario that usually happened in the cooperative which he belongs.

Participants only rejected the idea of writing a particular policy during workshop period as it will consume a lot of time.

Dramatization of conducting a board meeting, committee meeting and staff meeting with the manager were performed by selected participants, using Parliamentary Procedure.

Not to forget the grueling recapitulation and the open-book test after the last day's topic, it will also serve as tangible measures in weighing the capacity of the participants as to whether or not, they were able to absorb the importance of the seminar.

The training will be part of a primary cooperative's compliance to the law being implemented to all cooperatives in the country.

Each certificate will last for five years.

The participants will re-echo the events that transpired during the seminar through a special board, committee and staff meeting.

Each cooperative will also review, adopt or revise policies and regulations that will help the stakeholders to continue supporting their association.