By Jeff Trotman
The Guyana Public Service Cooperative Credit Union (GPSCCU) held a two-day workshop at Watooka House, Linden, for its members in Region Ten, on March 12th and 13th.
The workshop, part of activities to commemorate the GPSCCU’s fiftieth anniversary, was intended to increase its Region Ten members’ understanding about the credit union movement and to expand the GPSCCU membership with the medium to long term plan of opening branches in Linden, New Amsterdam and Essequibo.
Jermaine Hermanstyne, the youngest member of the twelve-member Board of Directors of the GPSCCU, said that apart from sensitizing people and letting them know what is happening, the workshop was also intended to inform them “on what we have been doing over the past fifty years; how we started and where we are now”.
He said in this thrust to boost membership and increase knowledge on the credit union movement, the GPSCCU intends to hold workshops across the country and that a similar exercise was held last week in New Amsterdam, which attracted participants from Regions Five and Six. He said a workshop is slated for Essequibo after the Linden one.
History
Pointing out that the GPSCCU was formed on 2 March 1964, Hermanstyne highlighted that the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) and the GPSCCU are two entirely different entities. He explained that the GPSU was known as the Civil Service Union and during the eighty day strike, civil servants like a lot of people in the country were hard pressed economically. This influenced a few civil servants “to form a core group for the credit union members”.
Noting that all public service workers can join the GPSCCU, Herman-styne said when the organization was formed, one paid $1.00 to join and one could have borrowed as much as $5.00. He added: “We’ve moved from that – from not having enough money in the bank to give people loans – to an organization that is worth over $2B.” Hermanstyne, who also has responsibility of running workshops, targeting young people between the ages of eighteen and thirty five years of age, explained that such workshops focus on succession planning in the credit union and moving the credit union forward to the twenty first century.
Hermanstyne explained: “We first want to educate people on what the credit union is.
The next step, we want to find out what are the issues that are affecting them – what are the service and things that they don’t like within the credit union and now that they have a knowledge and understanding of the credit union, what they would like to see the credit union do to become more beneficial to its membership. So, they will bring recommendations.
For example, home mortgages, like setting up shops, (and) supermarkets. These are common in the region and internationally. But we want our members to say what it is that they want.”
Hermanstyne further disclosed that he will take the recommendations to the board for assessment and possible implementation as an alternative to such recommendation being made at the Annual General Meeting.
Format
The two day exercise was conducted in a manner in which the first day – Wednesday – was geared to older members – those above the age of thirty five years. This workshop was directed by Vera Naughton, one of the credit union’s twelve directors. She said: “This is the very first time we have had interaction with our members at a level like this. Last week, we had one in New Amsterdam where we had cooperatives represented from Regions Five and Six attending.”
Referring to the theme of the 50th anniversary commemoration: Moving Resolutely Forward for Sustained Development, Naughton noted that the second day of the workshop targeted young people since the Directors feel that it is important to get the young people involved “because we know that we have to move on”.
She said: “The persons that started the movement fifty years ago, have moved on and obviously we are to move on and we have … succession planning; we have planned for others to succeed us and this is the reason why we are having the young workers understand what is a cooperative. We don’t want to leave to chance. We want to know that when we move on, we have a band of persons, who will be there … and run it for another fifty years.”
The workshop covered topics such as: what is a cooperative, the founding fathers, cooperative empowerment in Guyana, rules and laws governing cooperatives, and how the credit union can better serve its members.
Personnel
Uhlan Leander, the treasurer of the union; two managers, Colleen France and Adeola Griffith as well as Jean Underwood, a member of the eight member 50th anniversary committee, accompanied Hermanstyne and Naughton on the two-day exercise.
