My Bologna has a first name…

In a few short days, I head off to Bologna, Italy on behalf of Vancity staff and members. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about it. But why is Vancity sending its Web Director to Italy?

Emilia Romagna, the area surrounding the city of Bologna, is a region whose economic growth and development has been driven in large part by co-operatives. Over the last 30 odd years this region has transformed itself from ranking near the bottom of Italy’s 20 regions in terms of economic performance to being at - or near - the top. It has remarkably low unemployment and poverty, as well as high voter turnout and GDP per capita. Thirty percent of the GDP in Emilia Romagna is driven directly by co-operatives. They have worker-owned co-operatives, consumer co-operatives, agricultural co-operatives and social co-operatives, meaning that many of the social services provided to residents of this area are delivered by co-operatives. At over four million residents, this area has some similarities to British Columbia, but our estimates are that only 2-3% of the GDP in BC is driven by co-operatives. Could co-operatives play a role in transforming our economy so it grows sustainably, equitably and innovatively?

Every year Vancity sends a small group of people, usually executives and some of our Board, to Bologna to learn more about successful co-operatives so we can bring that knowledge back to inform how we run our operations. As a credit union we are a financial co-operative, and the more we can learn about our co-operative roots - as well as what some of the world’s most progressive and strongest co-operatives are doing - the better we can serve our members, our staff and the community.

This year, any employee at Vancity and its subsidiaries could apply to go to Bologna, and a group of us were chosen who represent different areas of the organization and different levels of seniority. The goal is to bring what we learn back and embed it throughout the organization, so its impact can be more widespread.

For me, this trip will help align some of our new online initiatives with our co-operative principles. It is a way for me to be more conscious of our values while finding ways to innovate. I believe that this ChangeEverything.ca community is an excellent example of how the online world and co-operative ideals can come together in a compelling way.

In the coming months, we will be starting a discussion around Vancity’s new vision called Redefining Wealth, where we take our triple bottom line approach and go even farther with it, looking at everything we do through a lens of economic, social and environmental sustainability. This online community of changemakers will play a key role in refining what Redefining Wealth means.

In the meantime, I have gotten my Euros, renewed my passport, and made whatever preparations I can before I leave my family for two weeks to study wtih Stefano Zamagni, professor of co-operative economics, at the University of Bologna,.The University of Bologna is Europe’s oldest university, founded in 1088, and it is in this environment where I will be learning about how the co-operative model can help drive good business decisions, create innovation and be a pillar in a successful economy. Given our economy’s recent tailspin, this knowledge couldn’t come at a better time.

I look forward to sharing this journey with you in my next two columns. In the meantime, please leave comments with your thoughts.

William 

ps - I am a long time ChangeEverything member, and head up the WEB (Web Engagement & Banking) Team at Vancity, meaning that I get to work with all the amazing people who bring our members Online Banking, our employees our intranet and the community ChangeEverything.ca. I am a recovered filmmaker, soon to be living in Strathcona with my wife, son and cat. You can follow me @wazaroff.