Thursday is usually ‘guest post’ day, but guess who didn’t have her act together enough this week to get that organized. *sigh*

Instead, here are some of my twitter friends, Canadians, who blog about things (mostly) related to money. Go on a little tour and discover them!

Squawkfox’s 10 financial lessons she learned from her dog

Cuckoo visits the 5 Big Banks and tries out their account opening processes

RuudHein the serious geek bakes his own bread

Domestik Goddess from the Maritimes (?) who writes about being thrifty and fabulous, and has awesome down-to-earth recipes that even I think I could manage.

And of course my perennial fave, Bargainista

Last but not least a Real Find: Mountain Equipment Co-op has an awesome blog – not just for outdoorsy types. For people who want to be infomed about Ethical Sourcing among other things.

I’m watching the Vancity AGM by webcast and will liveblog. (Can one ‘liveblog’ when watching a live webcast?)

Note: these are in no way to be construed as official minutes. I am giving this a shot! Sorta citizen journalism. I may or may not manage to accurately blog as I watch. [update: note I often used the word 'we' in the blog. I don't mean to imply I'm part of the 'we', it was simply blogging using the word used by the speaker]

Chair of the board, Patrice, is going through the formalities – rules about how the business of the meeting will be conducted (eg. say your name and branch; if it’s personal, this isn’t the place etc.)

Commenting on the BikeShare program – take a bike, ride it a couple weeks, then pass it on. This is a symbol of how Vancity helps its employees and the community make positive change.

Year in review: saying goodbye to Dave Mowat, CEO, and welcoming Tamara Vrooman. A year of incredible market disruption. Achieving carbon neutral – Vancity started thinking about how to reduce its impact on the environment (energy use in building, how our employees commute, and eliminating use of paper). [ed note: I can testify to this - they really do encourage us to commute, including negotiating discounted yearly transit passes for us, and our garbage bins are teeny-tiny]. Dockside Green is another example of leadership – affordable housing development in Victoria shooting for Platinum LEED status.

Another leadership initiative: helping the ‘unbanked’ start banking. Inspired by Dr. Yunnus, Vancity has advanced its own micro credit program. Vancity offers a match-saving program – for every $1 a person saves, Vancity will match up to $3 – resulting in 9 people being able to purchase a home, in partnership with the Futures Foundation {?}.

Vancity is always, at heart, a financial institution. Patrice is reviewing the mergers and growth of Vancity over the past year.

Because it’s a cooperative, $5.2 million of the profits went right back to the members.

Now introducing CEO Tamara Vrooman [I heart her. She's delightful, straight-shooting, competent]. She was deputy finance minister when the board found her. One of her first priorities was to meet with members to find out What’s working? What’s not? and swiftly discovered how to support our members and communities. She tells it like it is, whether good news or bad. [applause].

Ms. Vrooman informing the crowd of the Cdn essential: hockey scores up to the moment.

One of the things that interested her in Vancity was the opportunity to listen and talk face-to-face with members. This was not something she could do as deputy minister (her former job). Now she will tell us about the results.

Good news: VC fundamentals strong – assets under mgt grew by 15% – nearly a historical year. $17 billion, including assets at Credential. 14,000 new members through mergers; 19,000 new members through organic growth. Equity remains strong. Broke the $500million mark. Capital Adequacy Ratio had robust 12% (only 8% is required).

Community Leadership funds also strong.

Underperformance coming up now.

Profits fell by 32%. Particularly steep. 3 reasons: ABCP, general narrowing of margins in industry, increases in cost base.

Note: Subprime is new word chosen by the American Dialectic Society. America grew overzealous in its mortages; bundling mortgages to fund businesses. Vancity grew its assets by selling 2billion of packaged mortgages. But in the states, investors funding the bundles, discovered that some of the (non Vancity) bundles were subprime mtgs. Vancity could no longer securitize (ie. sell the bundles) even though Vancity’s mortgages were not subprime. We took a write down of 20%. About 30 of our members had invested in some of our [.... ACK.... streaming crashed ...] Vancity paid out those members (?), well ahead of Canaccord doing something similar for its investors. Ms. Vrooman is very proud of this.

Other tough news: both our employee engagement and our service performance scores have declined in 2007. What are we going to do about it?

Areas of concern – feedback from members she received -

1. Transactions take longer than they used to.

2. We could do more community initiatives.

3. It doesn’t seem like we’re equipping our staff.

4. We’re not first to market these days.

Staff agreed with these assessments.

So, in November, she restructured the leadership team to be more streamlined. Key Focuses:

1. Retail and branch review (including fees to atms, line-ups)

2. Wealth management (many members who don’t have large sized investments want quality advice)

3. Improved technology. Staff are nimble, do workarounds, but major look at new technology.

4. Innovation. We’ve been the first on so many things historically – ethical investing, enviro visas (1990), internet banking. Good ideas come from front line staff. Will start talking more to them.

5. Social Finance – recognizing we have a capacity to do business in a way that’s sustainable in terms of our communities and the environment.

6. Commitment to staff – we will do fewer things, do it with their direct input.

Tamara is inviting members to contact her directly. Her e-mail: tamara_vrooman@vancity.com

Closing with a reminder of our values – integrity, innovation, responsibility.

________________________

Q&A time

Q: why is our efficiency ratio higher than banks? 87%

A: because we give more service. But 87% is still too high to be sustainable.

Q: What steps will be taken to avoid similar difficulties in the future, such as ABCP? eg. getting caught up in US-led problems.

A: VC is looking hard at this. $77million VC had in ABCP represents less than 1/2 of 1% of VC total assets. But still, we didn’t understand fully enough what we were investing in, and took others’ words for it. It was not transparent, it was intricate, but still, we didn’t look hard enough at it.

Q: When I was at the branch one day, someone was complaining in line. Staff said “we are short on employees”. Is there a problem with wages? What is the poverty line, and what is the minimum wage VC pays its employees?

A: Our wages are very competitive in the market. FSR starts at $35K plus strong benefits and supports – pension plan, creative benefits plan based on the person’s needs. Training opportunities. But there are still more jobs than people in this market. This is why employee engagement is so important.

Q: – sound cut out -

A: people who bought ABCP [ARGH - lost connection again]

Q:

A: ING has low efficiency ratio – in low 50%’s. Credit union is not going to go that low, as we want to serve our members. We do need to get the trend going back down, in a way that’s consistent with credit union values.

Q: Thanks staff, has had no complaints. Staff bend over backwards. [Thanks!] Do we have an ombudsperson? Why not?

A: No, we don’t. Members concerns can go through the CEO or the Board. Ombudsmen are required in some environments. Ms. Vrooman’s belief is that each employee has the opportunity to bring up concerns, and her obligation is to address those in a transparent way. She hopes we don’t get to the place where we need one – it’s an admission of failure. (applause). Patrice comments she also receives letters, as do her colleagues on the board.

[missed about 10 min, connection broken]

Comment to Board from audience: Olympics coming to Vancouver. Potentially, a widespread shame. Can VanCity work on the homelessness issue? Similarly, a potential food crisis is coming. Last, focus on the arts, bridges our diversity. Congrats to new board.

Q: Daily interest on chequing is extremely low. Margin between this interest and how much loans charge is to big. Answer that funds can be kept in savings is not satisfactory – people forget to transfer funds into savings. Just because banks aren’t giving good interest isn’t a good enough answer.

A: Vancity does indeed offer higher interest options. Members want more option on savings options. VanCity is looking at options. However, the differential is not as great as they have been. VanCity will continue to look at best value.

Q: 10 pages in a brochure. It could have been on one page – conspicuous consumption. You guys have got to smarten up. Do some housecleaning like the average consumer does. This is ridiculous.

A: We heard you, John. Thanks for your comments.

Comment: A board of directors member from 1954 “I’ve survived all that”. Agrees we should emphasize homelessness. Answer is not policemen. Addictions need to be treated as an illness. We must let our governments know that illness is not a crime, it creates crime.

Q: Flaherty says regulators screwed up. Is that true?

A: In terms of the credit union regulators – they are appointed by the provincial gov’t, public servants. The Financial Institutions Commission has been cautious and prudent ensuring the members’ interests are preserved. Other provinces have different schemes. We have a good relationship with our regulator.

Comment: Please consider continue sponsorship of a program and actioning some recommendations [I didn't understand- program at Balogna?]

Q: No qualm re: ombudsman. But wishes the problem had been explained first.

___________________________

Minutes are available by signing at the table. [errrrr -- maybe email and ask?]

Door prizes being offered. Meeting adjourned.

That was way more fun and interesting than I expected. Next time I may be tempted to be there in person.

Again, this is the personal perspective, not official in any way, on the agm. If you want the real thing, ask for the official minutes, or maybe the video will be archived.

Meet my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss.

My favourite local comedienne, Marlene, of the Assaulted Fish clan, had this very disappointing experience when she wanted nothing more than a good, sustaining bubble tea (for readers who haven’t heard of bubble tea … it’s the asian (Taiwanese?) answer to lattes, but tea, with the extra twist of tapioca tossed in. looks weird. tastes wonderful). The story raises the question: When do you take the loss and when do you ask for your cash back? Here’s the episode in her words:

__________________________

So this happened to me weeks ago but the trauma lingers. I’m sharing this story because no one should have their bubble burst.

I love bubble tea. I don’t need an IV of the glutinous goodness, but I like a refreshing, colourful beverage from time to time. Unfortunately, there’s a dearth of quality bubble tea shops in Kits. I’m not talking about slushies – even I can whirl those up at home. But sometimes, only a regular pearl milk tea will do.

It was a cold and un-stormy night. I was dying for a bubble tea fix and the Dragon Ball Tea House – reputed to have THE best bubble tea in Vancouver – was the closest dealer of the stuff. I’ve had their drinks before and was always sort of disappointed. But desperate cravings called for desperate settling.

The place is empty and kinda messy. Behind the counter, some dude (presumably the owner) is yakking away on the phone. He sees me and gestures to someone at the back. This older woman, wearing bright yellow cleaning gloves, comes out and starts speaking to me in Mandarin. I don’t speak Mandarin. She soon realizes this and calls for someone else in the back.

A floating head appears. Seriously, this girl is so tiny they have to redesign a car for her. She also looks like a victim of child labour, but I’m pretty sure it’s just the Asian genes manifesting.

“Yis?” she says.

“Could I get a regular pearl milk tea, hot, to go?”

“Yis.”

“Um, $4.00?”

“Yis.” And off she goes.

Now, I’m sure there are different ways to make bubble tea and I’ve never made one so what do I know? But I’m preeeeetty sure you don’t make it like this:

Floating Head first pulls on a pair of gloves. Not the ones Subway Sandwich Artists use to slap together bun and meat, but these huge, bright yellow, heavy duty, rubber gloves. The kind I use when I’m going to be scrubbing toilet scum for hours.

Naturally, I start to think the bubble tea might be radioactive.

Floating Head takes a cup and proceeds to fill it with tea from three, THREE different tea tanks. Then she puts my cup into the microwave, THE MICROWAVE, and dings it for a minute. Then she takes the cup over to the bubble vat…and well, I can’t really see anything anymore because of the way the counter is designed. But I do hear a couple of “plops”, which I take to be my pearls slopping into the cup of microwaved tea. I hear some stirring…then some more stirring…then one more for good measure.

Suddenly, a yellow gloved hand appears on the counter. It gropes around like some dis-membered thing until it manages to latch onto a lid. This is when I notice that the glove is wet and kinda discoloured. A second later, my bubble tea complete with spoon and napkin, appear on the counter.
“Uh, thanks.”

“Yis.” And off she goes.

At this point, I’m still hopeful. Maybe the microwaving and multiple tea pumping are just some ancient, long-forgotten methods for making the perfect bubble tea…

But no. There, on the white lid, are these black flecks of god knows what. They’re all over the lid, the spoon, the napkin. They look like maggots that have undergone some crazy cell division. There are tons of them!

I can’t believe I left the place without demanding my money back. I actually carry the abomination to my car, where I stare mournfully at it, lamenting the loss of four hard-earned dollars, before pitching the cup of evil into the garbage.

I ended up consoling myself with a spinach and feta crepe. I have had bubble tea since…but only from Richmond.

_________________________________

Readers: I bet you’ve had something similar happen. For me, if it’s under 5 bucks I seem to just do the same are Marlene – leave bummed but without making a fuss. How much does it take for you to ask for your money back?

Photo Credit: phoosh

Guest post by Jonathon Narvey

Go Green, Save Money

Ever since An Inconvenient Truth became synonymous with the fight against climate change (rather than a commentary on my slowing metabolism and receding hairline), green companies selling eco-friendly products have gotten some great buzz. People are investing in solar panel roofs, hybrid cars and – of course – lots and lots of shiny new bicycles.

But going green shouldn’t necessarily imply one has to go out and spend money on a bunch of new stuff, even if it has the “green” stamp of approval. Buying a new hybrid car can actually be worse for the environment (and your budget) than just buying a used non-hybrid car, if you factor in the carbon emissions used to manufacture the new vehicle.

Basically, you need to balance the costs of your green purchases with your ability to afford your good intentions, along with your expected savings over the long run.

What this means for people of any budget is thinking about the three R’s: recycle, re-use and reduce. The ultimate goal for most people making eco-friendly choices isn’t merely to be seen as environmentally-friendly (although that’s definitely a consideration), but to actually be living sustainably.

Maintaining your transportation, whether it’s a car or a bicycle is cheaper than buying something new and means a factory doesn’t have to use up more of our planet’s finite resources to produce another one. Don’t buy bottled water – it’s expensive and produces a lot of plastic for landfills. Eat a vegetarian meal when you can. It’s almost always less expensive, and meat production causes a whole host of environmental problems. Check here for more great tips.

Both financial and environmental sustainability are intertwined and require common-sense solutions.

WRITEIMAGE Principal Consultant Jonathon Narvey blogs about current affairs and life in Vancouver at Currents.

photo credit: cogdogblog