Member Economic Participation: The Third Cooperative Principle
Get in there. It’s your credit union, and it’s there to help you out, along with your fellow CU members and the community as a whole. The third organizing principle of the International Cooperative Alliance’s seven principles of cooperation continues to differentiate what makes cooperative entities like credit unions different.
Member economic participation – What it means to you
Better rates, lower fees and services that benefit the entire credit union. The more that members participate, the more there is to go around.
Please Note: I want to take a moment once again to acknowledge this handout prepared by Synergy Credit Union in Saskatchewan. It does a beautiful job of presenting these principles in simple and straightforward terms.
For me, this is where the rubber meets the road. You have joined your local credit union, and you’ve helped to select the board of directors. Now, you get to begin making a difference in your own life and the lives of those around you.
The purpose of any credit union is to offer economic and financial benefits to its members. And that means you.
We make the rules
Because the credit union belongs to its members, rates and fees are set to benefit everyone in the credit union. And services are put in place to help each of us. This may sound quite simple and straightforward, but it makes a real difference.
The money the credit union charges helps to maintain the credit union and not shareholders. At times, those differences may seem small, but they are significant.
Recent controversies here in Canada about increasing food prices that go beyond normal inflationary pressures are the most recent example of Canadians’ frustration with large economic entities they don’t believe serve their interests. That frustration extends to the Big Five banks as well. And that is where credit unions offer to bring your economic affairs closer to home and your community.
The benefits are real – Make use of them
I hope I am not just “preaching to the choir” with this post. Most credit union members know all of this already. It’s a major reason why each of us signed up. But there are many other of you out there who are not credit union members who should be. You deserve it.
So, if you are a credit union member, I believe it is your moral duty to share the news. And if you aren’t a member, please check it out.
One place you can start looking is on the Canada Credit Union Association website. Because we both know you want something close to home, it seems to me that a web-based search tool would be ideal.
Otherwise, I offer you this list of credit unions by province. The Desjardins Caisse Populaire are basically Quebec’s version of the credit union. In fact, Alphonse Desjardins is generally considered the founder of the credit union movement in Canada. And the Caisse Populaires are named in his honour. Most, but not all, are in Quebec.
Provincial Sites
Ontario https://www.central1.com/list-on/
British Columbia https://www.central1.com/list-bc/
Alberta https://albertacreditunions.com/find-a-credit-union/
Saskatchewan https://www.saskcu.com/find-a-credit-union/
Manitoba https://www.creditunion.mb.ca/join.html
Ontario https://www.central1.com/list-on/
Quebec https://www.desjardins.com/qc/en.html
Atlantic Canada https://atlanticcreditunions.ca/find-a-branch/
Get in there. It’s your credit union, and it’s there to help you out, along with your fellow CU members and the community as a whole. The third organizing principle of the International Cooperative Alliance’s seven principles of cooperation continues to differentiate what makes cooperative entities like credit unions different.
Member economic participation – What it means to you
Better rates, lower fees and services that benefit the entire credit union. The more that members participate, the more there is to go around.
Please Note: I want to take a moment once again to acknowledge this handout prepared by Synergy Credit Union in Saskatchewan. It does a beautiful job of presenting these principles in simple and straightforward terms.
For me, this is where the rubber meets the road. You have joined your local credit union, and you’ve helped to select the board of directors. Now, you get to begin making a difference in your own life and the lives of those around you.
The purpose of any credit union is to offer economic and financial benefits to its members. And that means you.
We make the rules
Because the credit union belongs to its members, rates and fees are set to benefit everyone in the credit union. And services are put in place to help each of us. This may sound quite simple and straightforward, but it makes a real difference.
The money the credit union charges helps to maintain the credit union and not shareholders. At times, those differences may seem small, but they are significant.
Recent controversies here in Canada about increasing food prices that go beyond normal inflationary pressures are the most recent example of Canadians’ frustration with large economic entities they don’t believe serve their interests. That frustration extends to the Big Five banks as well. And that is where credit unions offer to bring your economic affairs closer to home and your community.
The benefits are real – Make use of them
I hope I am not just “preaching to the choir” with this post. Most credit union members know all of this already. It’s a major reason why each of us signed up. But there are many other of you out there who are not credit union members who should be. You deserve it.
So, if you are a credit union member, I believe it is your moral duty to share the news. And if you aren’t a member, please check it out.
One place you can start looking is on the Canada Credit Union Association website. Because we both know you want something close to home, it seems to me that a web-based search tool would be ideal.
Otherwise, I offer you this list of credit unions by province. The Desjardins Caisse Populaire are basically Quebec’s version of the credit union. In fact, Alphonse Desjardins is generally considered the founder of the credit union movement in Canada. And the Caisse Populaires are named in his honour. Most, but not all, are in Quebec.
Provincial Sites
Ontario https://www.central1.com/list-on/
British Columbia https://www.central1.com/list-bc/
Alberta https://albertacreditunions.com/find-a-credit-union/
Saskatchewan https://www.saskcu.com/find-a-credit-union/
Manitoba https://www.creditunion.mb.ca/join.html
Ontario https://www.central1.com/list-on/
Quebec https://www.desjardins.com/qc/en.html
Atlantic Canada https://atlanticcreditunions.ca/find-a-branch/