Regular Worker Co-op Membership
The goal guiding the democratic structure of the CWCF is to be a national, bilingual organization that is responsive to needs of worker co-ops, and provide a unified voice for the worker co-op sector on national issues of common concern. The regular membership is open to any worker co-op (this may include other corporate forms provided that the organization is democratically controlled by the workers) which supports the objects of the Federation. The list of worker co-op members is available here.
Regional Federations
The CWCF currently has three regional federation members, la Fédération québécoise des coopératives forestières (forestry co-ops), la Fédération des coopératives des Paramédics du Québec (paramedic co-ops), and le Réseau de la coopération du travail du Québec (other sectors).
Other Classes of Members
Besides Worker Co-ops and Regional Federations, the CWCF also has three other classes of membership: Associate Members, Worker Co-op Developer Members, and Friends. Associate membership is open to any organization that supports the objectives of the Federation. The main Associate members are listed here. There is also a sub-category called RRSP Associate Members, those entities (besides worker co-ops) which join to get access to CWCF’s RRSP/ TFSA Program. Worker Co-op Developer membership is open to individuals that are working in or supporting cooperative development initiatives; to join CWCF as a Worker Co-op Developer member, one joins through CoopZone. Friends membership is open to individuals who work in solidarity with the Federation and lend it their support. The members, from all classes, must be approved by the CWCF’s Board of Directors.
Voting
The CWCF has a delegate voting process at its general meetings. There is a maximum of 50 delegates for the Worker Co-op Member class. They are allocated equally between the five regions of the country; thus each region has a maximum of ten delegates. If at a general meeting, a region has more than ten worker co-ops represented, then the representatives from that region (one from each worker co-op) elect ten delegates from among the representatives to vote at the general meeting.
The Associate Member, Worker Co-op Developer Member and Regional Federation member classes each have up to five delegates. As noted above, if there are a greater number of representatives than the allowable delegates at a meeting, the representatives from the particular class will elect from among themselves their five delegates.
Board Structure
CWCF’s Board is made up of 7 directors, who come from the Worker Co-op member class, Regional Federation member class, or are “Friends” (individuals who work in solidarity with the Federation and lend it their support). This 7-person Board is made up of 2 at-large directors, plus 5 regional directors, representing respectively BC/ Yukon, Prairies/ NWT/ Nunavut, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic.
The term of office is three years, and there are 3 officers chosen by the Board: President, Vice President and Treasurer. Click here to read more about the Board Member role, eligibility, and expectations.
For a list and biographies of the current Board members, as well as staff, please see: Board & Staff.
A key goal informing CWCF’s board governance model is that worker co-ops should be in control of their national Federation. There is a diversity criteria matrix which the membership has approved and which is shared with all members during the call for nominations as well as at each annual meeting.