Regular Worker Co-op Membership
The goal guiding the 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 two other classes of membership: Associate Members and Worker Co-op Developer Members. 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. 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 or the Regional Federation member class. 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.