Published once a week in Palner, Alaska for the Mat
anu3ka Valloy Farmers' Co-oporating Association for
the purpose of giving news of the Association's work,
problems and accomplishments.
- - OUR CO-OP IS GROWING UP
One of the best signs of the sure stability and certain progress
of our Co-op is the fact that the members have learned to use restraint
and better judgement in trying to determine what is wrong and how to
remedy it, in the management of the Association. There have been times
when the Annual Meeting became a sounding board for certain disgruntled
members to vent their spleen on certain personalities whom they dislik
ed for some reason. The result of such meetings was usually detriment
al to the best interests of the members as a whole. It is indeed stimu
lating to attend a meeting like the one held last ./ednesday, where per
sonalities we re pushed into the back-ground and the criticism was made
with the intention of learning what had happened so that anything wrong
could be corrected. This leads to real progress, because it encourages
the management to try to improve the weak spots and promotes a better
feeling betv/een the members and the management.
This is not stated with the thour-ht in nind that all is well and
that there isn't plenty of room for improvement in many instances. It
is true that the over-all picture is not too rood, but in comparison
with other years it is not as bad as some and worse than others--so it
all balances out to a lar-e extent. When the millennium comes then we
may have perfect management and everythin^ will run just ri ~ht. During
the meantime we have to put up with imperfect people in an imperfect
world. As we have stated before, it is not pleasant for the Board of
'Directors or the Manager and the Department Hoads to have to show a poor
~eport to the members. Even the minor employees take a certain amount
of pride in doing a ~ood job, usually.
It is pleasant to state that an overwhelming majority of the mem
bers of the Co-op have become conscious of the fact that all members
should be treated alike and that when one of them asks for favors that
are not ordinarily ~iven to all members he is imposing on the manaye
r .rt. For several years it appeared most members believed that anything
or. y could yet was all right, regardless of how they got it. This is
almost a thinr of the past. A very small number of the members even
a.-:’-' for such favors now. If we are to maintain this Association on a
stable basis it will be necessary to refuse any special favors to anyone.
Many Co-op members do not realize that the employees of a Co-op
have a hard job determining just who is their boss and what is expected
from them. Some members tell them that they should do one thing, and
other members tell them something dif f erent. ;. All members realize that
they have the power to remove the management and change policies and,
while it is not commonly practiced, the employee i*s conscious of this
power and feels the strain of such a relationship. It often affects
their efficiency. It would be well for members to remember this and
try to yet their ideas over to the Board and the Manager —they are
responsible, instead of the individual employees. It would promote bet
ter relations all around.
One of the perplexing questions for the management of the Associa
tion is whether the financial reports actually gauge the true condition
of the organization. We are not questioning the ability or honesty of
the people who make the audit; they are trained to do things a certain
way, and to deviate to any great extent wo uld probably mean that other
accountants could not read the results accurately or in line with re
cognized practices. One of the things that the balance sheet cannot
evaluate is the loyalty of the members, and in a Co-op that means more
than almost anything that can be mentioned. .Then the members loso in
terest or confidence, then the’ organization is headed for the rocks,
regardless of the figures. CRR