Thanks to the Georgia Straight for paying attention to the Vancity credit union election [Straight Talk, March 19-26]. Vancity is the province’s greatest cooperative and deserves our attention if only because one-third of our profits are paid out to our members and our community each year. But, of course, it is much more than that, as the credit union serves 400,000 member-owners. (It’s also worth noting that this is National Co-op Education Week.)

Your editor, Charlie Smith, focuses on the issue of our support for the arts, partly because of his clear understanding of Prof. [Pier Luigi] Sacco’s report on the arts in defining Vancouver’s future, a report commissioned by Vancity. The Action Slate, which has dominated the Vancity board of directors, has never given the report the attention it deserves. For those who care about this city and its creative future, that’s reason enough to vote for Wendy Holm, Kim Griffith, and Lisa Barrett, who fully support the professor’s views.

It goes without saying that these are troubling times in the banking world, all the more reason to turn to local democratic organizations like Vancity. At the same time, experience counts, and Holm, Griffith, and Barrett bring 27 years of credit-union experience to the table. Thoughtful folks might compare that to the lack of experience of the Action Slate candidates, who would simply provide a supermajority to a group that has become soft in office.

> Bob Williams / Vancouver

A proposed 33-percent increase in fees for Vancity directors is the main issue in the current election for Vancity board members. Now is not the time for a significant hike that would boost directors’ fees to more than $26,500 a year. At a time when most households are trying to hold costs down, B.C.’s largest credit union should focus on holding the line on fees and improving services to members.

Jan O’Brien, Tod Maffin, and Hugh Legg, the Action Team candidates in the Vancity directors’ election, are the only candidates that are speaking out against the directors’ fee increase. The uproar in the United States over massive executive bonuses underlines the big difference between banks and credit unions: in a credit union, the members elect the directors. Of course, there is no comparison between the crisis in the American banking system and Vancity’s financial performance. Vancity saw profits improve over last year, despite the economic turmoil.

But when the credit union is trimming costs, at the expense of up to 100 jobs, directors have to lead by example. A major increase in directors’ fees is the kind of thing a big bank would do. That’s where the focus has to stay at Vancity: on the members. Directors’ fees can wait.

> Jan O’Brien / Vancouver