Through 2019 and into early 2020, the CSS Board and delegates conducted a control structure and governance review. A review is conducted every five years or so to evaluate whether the governance structure of the Plan continues to function and represent members effectively, and whether any changes to the structure are required or desirable.
The process culminated with a change to the CSS Bylaws being approved by the delegates to move all delegate terms of office to three years. Prior to this change, employer delegates were appointed for one-year terms and employee delegates held their positions for two-year terms.
Annual Meeting
COVID-19 has impacted many organizations and how they do things. CSS has been no exception. CSS was forced to cancel its 2020 Annual Meeting which was scheduled to be held in early April. Given the uncertainty as to when we'd be able to convene the delegates again to re-schedule the meeting, we determined, with the assistance of the Plan's legal counsel, that we could effect the Annual Meeting by written resolution of the delegates. The CSS Annual Meeting for 2020 has now been successfully concluded.
Director elections
One order of business that is normally carried out at the CSS Annual Meeting is the election of CSS directors to the CSS Board. We were not able to conduct elections in our normal fashion because of the changes to the Annual Meeting noted above. Again, with the assistance of the Plan's legal counsel, we were able to modify our normal practice to effect the director elections.
We are pleased to report that the following delegates were elected to the CSS Board:
Jeff Ambrose, Calgary Co-op, employee delegate (elected for a three-year term)
Heather Ryan, Federated Co-operatives Limited, employer delegate (elected for a three-year term)
Kelly Thompson, Federated Co-operatives Limited, employer delegate (elected for a two-year term)
The other directors who make up the CSS Board are:
Mike Gartner, retired, employee delegate
Jason Sentes, 1st Choice Credit Union, employee delegate
Al Meyer, Prairie Centre Credit Union, employer delegate
Finally, at its annual Board reorganization meeting following the conclusion of the Annual Meeting, the Board elected Jeff Ambrose as President of the CSS Board and Mike Gartner as Vice-President.