Cooperatives are different.
Instead of an exclusive group of investors or executives, co-ops are governed by the voices of their owners. Elected democratically from the ownership, a Board of Directors guides the vision of the co-op and all owners have a voice in how their co-op is run. It’s a pretty empowering system that has helped us grow together since 1973. Oryana’s Board consists of nine directors who each serve three-year terms. The Board is tasked with establishing and monitoring the co-op’s governance policies, as well as hiring, monitoring, and evaluating the general manager. They also maintain a fiduciary responsibility to the owners to ensure a fiscally sound and viable co-op, protecting the owners’ assets. If you would like to contact the Board directly you can do so HERE.
SAVE THE DATE!
GENERAL OWNERSHIP MEETING
Thursday, April 17th at 5:30pm
Traverse City Central High School cafeteria
1150 Milliken Dr., Traverse City, MI 49686
Learn more about our board and what we’re up to:
join us at our next Board
of Directors Meeting
The next board meeting will be on Thursday, March 20, at 5:15 pm in the Oryana West Community Room. Everyone is welcome.
Policy Governance
Oryana has adopted Policy Governance as its means of governance. Policy Governance is described as:
- Written expectations (policies) that include four areas: Board Process, Board/General Manager Delegation Relationship, Executive Limitations, Ends policies.
- It assigns authority: BOD responsibility (vision and governing) vs. General Manager responsibility (operations.)
- It monitors the system through a series of General Manager reports to the Board. See more about Delegation to the GM here.
- It creates the Ends Policies, which are comparable to goals or visions.
How is our community different because of Oryana? This is the question of impact that is answered by our Ends. The policies are set forth to help guide the operations of the co-op and ensure that our viable business continues to have a positive impact in our community.
