General assembly of Thiet Ong cooperative

May 14th, 2005

Yesterday we had the preparation session for the general assembly with the members of Thiet Ong Cooperative. My colleagues, interpreter and I arrived at the agreed place at 2 pm only to find the board members taking a nap in their shorts and tank tops, with no coop member in sight. We shook hands and sat down, and I started to ask questions: “Did you invite all 67 members?”, “yes, yes” is the response I get. “Did you photocopy the annual report, marketing strategy, financial planning and the new by-law with amendments which you are supposed to present to the members”? Silence. By that time, about 15 members had arrived in the room. We decided to wait a bit longer, but then the board members and myself went to see the chairman of the people’s committee to inform him that we would not be able to hold the general assembly with so few members and no documents to review with them. The goal of this preparation session was to go over the documents and give them time to review these before the general assembly. The chairman who is also representative of the communist party agreed and “ordered” the board member to make sure to have enough members for the general assembly the next day, as well as all necessary documents.

The next morning at 7:30, general assembly day, 49 members out of 67 come around, which is not too bad. The assembly began with the reading of each and every report, one from the board of directors, then another from the supervisory board and finally, each number is read on each financial statement. Enough to put the most eager member to sleep and make sure participation has been killed at the root. But it actually picked up after this when an open discussion followed. No one spoke at first though so my colleague broke the ice by asking a few questions, and the flame of democracy caught on. Then began a series of interventions from members who gave their opinions and comments: They do not want to sell their bamboo to the cooperative because the local trader can offer them a better price and pick up the bamboo at their place. Plus, he accepts all types of trees whereas the cooperative only wants the good quality ones. Another member adds that they don’t even know who is responsible for collecting bamboo for the coop in the village, or where they need to bring it (collection points). They say they are willing to sell to the coop, but it must be competitive in the service and price it offers the members.

Then, one woman got up to read her resignation letter as a management board member. She was very emotional and said that she felt useless since only men on the board had any power at all. I spoke up after her and mentioned the importance of each board member and the necessity to assign each one with clear tasks and responsibilities as well as the importance of women’s contribution to a board. A small debate followed with most members insisting that she withdraw her resignation, whereas the treasurer defended the fact that he had monopolized the power to “save” the coop. Other members also complained that they know nothing of the affairs of the coop. Finally the woman withdrew her resignation and I suggested to her that she take on the responsibility of communication and members relations. I also realized that from now on, each time I would meet with the management board for a working session, I would ask that she be present.

The discussions were open and animated, with everyone questioning the role of their coop as well as the challenges and problems facing them. I asked them if they plan to deliver as many bamboo as they had put in the planning for the slower months of summer. It is during that time that bamboo is not harvested in Vietnam to allow young sprouts to develop. They answered that they would and that they could. I also asked them if on top of expecting competitive price and service, they also expected a higher member’s price compared to non-member’s when they sell their bamboo – yes. We thought we would end at 1 pm but democracy had taken much time and we had not finished. So we paused for lunch, accompanied by lots of rice wine to celebrate.

Then in the afternoon session we started with the new by-law. The man who presented this decided not to read the whole document but rather focus only on the amendments and get people’s opinions and comments before adopting the changes: recruitment territory, board members mandate duration, number of board members, etc. Again, we got some live discussions and from time to time, we referred to the original text. But thank God, this was done without the monotonous word per word reading of the by-law, typical of Vietnam.

Then we had the speech from the head of the communist party, with the usual one for all, all for one speech. Then it was my turn as I had to present the strategy of our project in our last year. I was nervous since I am never too comfortable with public speaking. Still, I started with greetings and a few words in Vietnamese and then continued with the main objectives of our project, strength and weaknesses of the coops and then the strategy. Everything went well and I had the impression of having a dialogue with the members, sharing with them about something which we all cared about: the success of their coop. It was an important moment for me since I represented the project, with 6 of my colleagues listening to me. My credibility was at stake, and I was glad that it went well.

A few thank you words from different representatives of the community and of the cooperative, and then at 6 pm, exhausted by democracy, the first general assembly of Thiet Ong coop came to an end. My faith restored in the cooperative system of Vietnam, I left the meeting place light hearted and calm.

The following months showed that the woman from the board of directors did get involved, apparently responsible for quality control of the trees. But the cooperative ended up having such problems with bad quality trees and unhappy buyers rejecting large portions of their shipments, that I wondered if and who was doing quality control. And at meetings, she was always the one serving the tea. What do you do? We had a training with management board members and one component was to assign each one with clear tasks and responsibilities. In the end, I got to understand that the only one with power was the chairman, and that Vietnam’s management boards are very informal organizations that do not act as one management body.