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If you haven’t looked at your Vancity statement recently, you might have missed/forgotten that all Vancity members own shares in Vancity, under an account called “Membership Shares”.  Each year, depending on how well the credit union performed, a dividend may be issued to membership shares.  Based on a a quick look at Vancity’s Annual Report, I have created a quick summary of previous dividends issued:

• 2005: 4.5%
• 2006: 4.2%
• 2007: 1.8%
• 2008: 4.0%
• 2009: 4.0%

Based on a recent announcement (link here), Vancity will be issuing a dividend of 6% this year.

Vancity members will be able to vote online for the board of directors this year.  Based on voting statistics from Vancity (link here), participating rate for the last five years are:

• In 2010, 4.0% of the eligible voting members cast a vote.
• In 2009, 6.6% of the eligible voting members cast a vote.
• In 2008, 7.0% of the eligible voting members cast a vote.
• In 2007, 8.0% of the eligible voting members cast a vote.
• In 2006, 6.4% of the eligible voting members cast a vote.

As of last year, Vancity has roughly over 417,000 members.  Therefore, the numbers indicate that over 16,000 members casted a vote in the 2010 board of directors election.  Hopefully, with implementation of online voting, the numbers of members who vote will increase.  Let’s see if we can make 10% this year!!!