2017 Historic year for Innovation
Innovation Credit Union celebrated another successful year at its Annual Meeting in Swift Current on April 24th. 2017 was a historic year for Innovation, marking its 10th anniversary and monumental membership vote in favor of the credit union applying to continue as a federally regulated credit union.
“Seeing how active and invested our membership is in the future of their credit union was thrilling,” says Board President Bruce Sack. “We had over 17,000 members vote on our proposal to apply to become a federal credit union. It was the largest voter turnout in our credit union’s history.”
The meeting began with a moment of silence for the Humboldt Broncos hockey organization and an announcement of Innovation’s donation to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Assistance Program. The newly created program is designed to provide mental health assistance and grief counselling to players from all teams in the league. “We can only hope it’s a start in this lengthy healing process,” says Sack.
Innovation saw its membership rise to over 51,000 and total on balance sheet assets rise to $2.46 billion in 2017. They committed over $440,000 to local organizations in the form of sponsorships, donations, and community development and over their 11 years of serving members, Innovation gave back $24.9 million to members in the form of Member Rewards cash and investment contributions.
They were also recognized with a number of awards and acknowledgments in 2017 including being selected as a Saskatchewan Top 100 Company and a recipient of two business excellence awards in Swift Current and North Battleford.
“I can’t say enough about our outstanding staff group,” says Innovation CEO Daniel Johnson. “They’re such an integral part of our service delivery system and truly went above and beyond in educating our members on our journey to become a federal credit union. Any acknowledgement we received this past year was due in large part to them and their commitment to serving our members and their communities so well.” Innovation employs just over 400 staff members. In 2017, these employees volunteered over 14,600 hours in their communities.
Innovation also announced the results of their board election. In District 1 (North Battleford and area) the successful candidate was Michele Wilde. In District 2 (Swift Current and area), Gord Lightfoot was the successful candidate by acclamation (no election was necessary). The Board thanked nominee Darlene Kingwell for her 18 years of service as a director on the board, highlighting her passion for personal development and the credit union system.
The Swift Current Chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association also made a special presentation to conclude the meeting. They spoke of their upcoming new building project fundraising campaign. Innovation presented a cheque for $5,000 to kick-start the project.