Precisely four years ago, on November 21, 2020, as a result of the Covid pandemic, Suara was the first cooperative to hold an online assembly and to equip itself with digital mechanisms to be able to vote.
At Suara Cooperativa we held the Extraordinary General Assembly this Thursday, in which 1,496 members participated, 84% of the total number of members. In addition, 1,452 voted, which represents 87.47% of the people on the cooperative's electoral register. This figure is slightly higher than the Ordinary General Assembly that took place in person last May and which had a participation of over 80%.
To guarantee participation, and that all members can exercise their right, Suara, the largest worker cooperative in Catalonia, has made different tools available such as an APP through which it has been possible to vote since early in the morning. Voting closed at 18:15 and was announced at the end of the Assembly, which ended at 19:00.
In addition, from the internal portal, Suara workers were able to follow the Assembly while an immediate communication channel was enabled to socialize the monitoring of it live.
Participation before the Assembly
However, the right of participation of members is not limited to the day of the Assembly, but from Suara Cooperativa we enable different spaces and channels during the days prior to it. In this context, so that members can build and reflect together on the issues addressed in the Assembly, online, face-to-face, hybrid spaces have been made available to them,both synchronized in the case of live online meetings and asynchronous such as materials, documents and explanatory videos.
In this context, more than 900 members have participated in the General Assembly Preparation Spaces (EPAG), in which both the Governing Council and the General Co-Directorate inform attendees in detail about the different issues that will be voted on during the Assembly while resolving any possible doubts they may have or collecting their contributions.
In addition, 13 explanatory videos with key content have been produced, which have had a maximum of around 1,600 views. Between the different participation spaces, members have been able to make more than 200 contributions, including questions, reflections and proposals to the EPAGs, by email and EspaiSuara, the portal for the cooperative's workers, which is a collaborative intranet where members can express their opinions and leave their comments.
The first cooperative to hold a virtual assembly
In 2020, due to the covid-19 pandemic, the May General Assembly had to be suspended and could not be held until Saturday, November 21, exactly four years ago today. It was the first time that a cooperative held an Ordinary General Assembly in digital format and it was a success in terms of participation, as it had more than 1,047 members registered to exercise their right to vote.
We were not able to recover in-person attendance at an assembly until May 2023. However, we have decided to maintain virtuality in the Extraordinary General Assembly in November; while in the May one we recovered in-person attendance to reinforce the feeling of community and belonging. However, in both cases, we have preserved the digitalized voting systems, which facilitates the count and guarantees confidentiality, as well as the traceability and guarantee of the votes.
Participation, a path to commitment
In worker cooperatives like Suara, the working members are the owners of the company, so participation is one of the key values of the organization, since it is the working members who decide on the direction of the company.
The Assembly, the highest body of Suara, is the sovereign space where members can exercise their right to participate in decision-making on everything that affects the organization.
In a horizontal and democratic governance model like Suara's, participation is one of the organization's key values. Beyond that, participation also builds a sense of belonging to the organization and commitment to it.
A good example of this is the commitment survey carried out in June 2023, in which 96% of participating members (more than 1,000 people) said they were proud to work at Suara and that they would not change jobs; 81% indicated that they perceive that the team they work in facilitates and enhances participation and 80% stated that they were committed to the organization.