Education is an essential tool for
the cooperatives to succeed and it is at the front of the
line in the list of services offered by FECHIMM. To fulfil
your needs, the Federation offers more than 20 workshops regarding
9 inescapable themes of life in a housing cooperative.
For more information about our services in English, please
contact Natalie Joseph,
Education assistant, at 514.843.6929, ext. 246.
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winter-spring 2012 calendAr
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the formulas
To better answer your needs for education,
the Federation has developped a few methods allowing us to
adapt our workshops to the availability of your members. Choose
among the following three formulas, the one that suits you
the best.
- The education workshops on
the calendar
These workshops are offered by FECHIMM, at set dates, and
they regroup members of many cooperatives. To find out the
schedule for these workshops, consult our education
calendar.
- Workshops delivered at home
Choose among the list of our available workshops and we
will go to your coop to offer the chosen workshop to your
members. All you have to do is decide when, where and what
time suits you the best.
- The home workshops make to measure
We can prepare a made-to-measure workshop, adapted to the
specific needs of your cooperative. Once again, all you
have to do is decide when, where and what time suits you
best.
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New assistance service
You want to revive the cooperative flame
inside your collective enterprise? You want to know everything
and understand how it works? You want your Board and committee
members to manage the cooperative with the highest level of
efficiency? A training workshop planned according to the specific
needs of your coop can be worked out. These plans include
the training sessions, meetings with the board of directors
and meetings with the committees which should help you improve
your knowledge and start again on the right foot.
DO
NOT FORGET YOUR EDUCATION CREDITS WORTH $40 EACH. YOU CAN
USE THEM FOR ANY TYPE OF WORKSHOPS!
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My co-op at a glance
!
A portrait of the cooperatives’ health
At the 2010 AGA, nearly 80 cooperatives
participated in this activity, to establish, through an interactive
electronic voting, a portrait of the health of their cooperative.
The assembly was able to ascertain that the majority of participants
have a very positive perception of the management of their
cooperative.
The average score for participating
co-ops
81 % general management
79 % management of the associative life
90 % financial management
90 % building management
On-line questionnaire
The questionnaire used for the activity
will be available on our website as of June 22, 2010 for boards
of directors interested in drawing a portrait of their cooperative.
The animation for the activity
FECHIMM also offers this service at home
for your boards of directors who want a more comprehensive
view of the health of their cooperative. A report establishing
a diagnosis with recommendations that fit into a practical
and realistic action plan will be handed over to cooperatives.
Cooperatives interested in this service
are invited to contact Nathalie
Joseph at 514 843-6929 ext 246.
Click
here to download the Excel file allowing you to perform the
health check of your cooperative (FRENCH).
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Available workshops
Democratic
process & participation
- my coop, my choice!
You want to boost the members’
participation in your co-op? Here is a workshop intended for
all the members, new and existing. A workshop that asks the
real questions to make you think about which attitudes to
develop and to maintain, in order to be an active member and
to get involved in the management of the co-op.
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- Living in a co-op: teamwork
Living in a cooperative is often synonymous
with group life: committees, meetings, chores ... And working
as a group (or teamwork) may rhyme with "happiness",
but also sometimes with "pain"! This workshop will
help you understand the essential teamwork and become aware
of everbody’s different modes of interaction, so that
"teamwork" becomes a pleasure.
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- Efficient general assembly
Your assemblies are chaotic and endless?
It lacks decorum? Give yourselves the tools to make these
important meetings more efficient and more pleasant. On the
menu: the different types of assemblies, the role and mandate
of the assembly, preparing the assembly and professional tricks
to chair a good meeting and defuse any problem.
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- Managing the participation of the
members
Rediscover the habits and attitudes that
encourage the members to participate. We will see all possible
solutions that will help boost participation. We will present
an example of a policy for the management of participation
and procedures to follow for its implementation.
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- Organizing
the management committees
This workshop aims to maximize the organization
of the members’ work within the committees of your cooperative.
Take advantage of the occasion to mobilize your members in
a fair exchange of responsibilities and tasks. This workshop
will help you to structure your key committees responsible
for managing your finances, the building, the secretarial,
the selection and good neighbourhood.
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legal
aspects 
- Suspension and exclusion
Your members don’t only have rights,
they also have some responsibilities. Faced with a delinquent
member who is disinterested with the objectives of the cooperative
enterprise, suspension and exclusion procedures require judgment,
nuance and expertise from the officers who must protect the
group. In order to do this, they must act in accordance with
the grounds and procedure prescribed in the Cooperatives Act.
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- The
Cooperatives Act and the by-laws The
Cooperatives Act was modified on November 17, 2005. Are your
internal by-laws up to date? In this workshop, we will present
a model of Regulations in accordance with the Cooperatives
Act. You will be able to see, with the help of comprehensive
and structured information, the main legal articles governing
the democratic life of your coop.
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Both sides of the lease
You are a housing co-operative, you are
a leaser of housing units. As a member, you are also a tenant.
The contract that binds you is called a lease. Are you aware
of this document? Have you read it? Do you understand all
its subtleties? An essential workshop on an essential document.
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Board of directors : role and responsibilities
A classic and inescapable workshop for
the administrators as well as the members. On the menu: powers,
duties and responsibilities of the board of directors according
to the Cooperatives Act and the Civil Code of Quebec.
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good
neighbourhoood 
Communication
Living in a cooperative is sometimes demanding,
so knowing how to communicate is a real asset. This workshop
helps develop communication skills and will help you identify
conditions that lead to quality communications. You will be
better equipped to communicate better.
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- Good
neighbourhood management
This workshop is to better understand
the role of the person responsible for the good neighbourhood
committee and how to implement the building regulations. We
will also see how to create building regulations and its implementation
along with the organization of the committee, its role, its
mandates and establishing a procedure for dealing with requests
(complaints).
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- Conflict
resolution
An unsolved conflict can sometimes
turn into a major crisis, dangerously affecting the quality
of life of your members. This workshop will allow you to better
understand the nature, the dynamics, the evolution and mostly
the conflict resolution.
N.B. We recommand that you take the communication workshop before
taking part in this workshop.
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- Introduction
to mediation 1: basic notions
(Prerequisite: Conflict resolution)
This workshop is for all the members but specifically for
the members of the Board of directors who directly interact
in conflict resolution. You will learn to master the basic
concepts along with the tools and intervention techniques.
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Introduction to mediation 2 : practical
aspects
(Prerequisite : Introduction to mediation
1)
This workshop offers practical exercises to help you apply
the concepts learned in the workshop # 1. Through practical
scenarios, you will have the opportunity to test your skills
as a mediator.
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Intercultural relations within our cooperatives
Several members of housing cooperatives
are living in a cultural diversity context. This workshop
aims to make the members of cooperatives aware of this growing
trend. It promotes understanding of cultural differences and
will help you live with them.
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Finances
- Finances 1: Financial
management
This woskshop is mainly intended for the
board members and for the committee responsible for the cooperative’s
financial management. We will present to you the basis of
good financial management. We will deal mainly with the organization
of financial management, the role of the board of directors,
of the treasurer and of the committee.
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- finances
2: Preparing the budget
Budget planning is an indisputable advantage
of good financial management. The workshop will help you familiarize
yourself with the different stages of budget planning. We
will also deal with the budget follow-up and we will show
you an example of an expenditure policy.
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- Finances 3: Preparing for
the audit
Every year, your cooperative
must prepare for the audit of its books and its bookkeeping.
In this workshop, we will review the documents you need to
produce and organize in order for the auditor to do his job
effectively. The workshop also deals with the technical issues
of the fiscal year.
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Finances 4: Better understanding
your financial statements
What are the financial statements
of your cooperative? How to read them? How to analyze them?
This workshop aims to familiarize yourself with this important
document concerning the state of the financial health of your
cooperative.
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- Income
tested assistance (ITA)
It is not always easy to administer the
income tested assistance. Maybe it is time to equip yourself
with an attribution policy. The workshop will present a policy
and will answer your questions about the level of effort,
deductions, income eligible, etc.
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- Rent supplement
A workshop in two stages, essential to
cooperatives who administer units receiving rent supplement
(SAL) :
- The attribution regulation for
low income housing units : dealing with the applications,
attributing the points, the optional and mandatory regulations,
the certificate of conformity.
- The regulation on the rental conditions
of low income housing units : proofs of income, composition
of the household and calculation of the subsidy.
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- Acomba,
the accounting program Professionalize
your bookkeeping and your accounting with Acomba, the accounting
program, available at FECHIMM. From the configuration of the
system to the creation of the charter of accounts, from writing
the data to producing reports, this program will make the
life of your financial committee so much easier.
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Maintenance
- Electricity
for dummies
You will not become an electrician at
the end of this workshop, but you will be a little more connected!
A diversified menu: basic notions in electricity, small jobs
that you can do yourself, identifying the most frequent problems,
the security, the heating, etc.
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- Plumbing
for dummies Discover the plumber
that sleeps in you ! To understand the logics behind the pipes,
but also to learn how to unblock them. Find out the secrets
of changing washers, the mysteries of the toilet bowl and
of the water heater. An interesting workshop for the maintenance
committee or for all the members.
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Maintenance
1 - Organizing the maintenance of the buildings
This workshop will help you organize
the maintenance of your buildings, commonly known as the “maintenance
committee”. We will deal with the role of the committee,
its mandates, its tasks and its activity schedule along with
a building maintenance policy and the distribution of the
tasks for taking care of the common areas. You'll leave with
plenty of tools to work properly.
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- Maintenance 2 - The
inspection of the housing units and planning the maintenance
In this workshop, we will deal with
the procedure to follow to inspect the housing units and the
buildings. You will also learn how to plan for the repairs to
be carried out according to schedule. Finally, we will raise
your awareness to the importance of establishing an ongoing
maintenance schedule for your buildings.
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- Maintenance 3 - Maintenance
and follow-up of the budget
A workshop intended as much for the
members of the maintenance committee as for the members of the
finance committee and for all the administrators. One theme
only: expenses related to maintenance and money. We will deal
with the annual maintenance budget, the administration of the
reserves, controling the maintenance expenses, long term planning,
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Selection
and integration of members
- Member
selection Member selection is
capital: the members are the core of the cooperative. Tools
will be proposed to help you make your selection: an example
of a selection policy which will help you recruit the best
members possible. In order to maintain the smooth running
of the coop, an integrating procedure for new members will
be presented.
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Integrating new members
You are getting new members in your cooperative?
Be ready to integrate them in your associative live! This
workshop focuses on the essential elements of successful integration.
You will have at your disposal several tools to set up an
efficient and smooth reception procedure.
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Secretariat
- SsSecretarial
1: Establishing a secretarial committee:
This workshop aims to equip you with good
secretarial management. You will learn how to understand the
legal responsibility of the committee responsible for the
secretarial work. We will also deal with the mandate, the
role, the responsibilities, the tasks and the activity schedule
of the committee and also an information policy
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- Secretarial 2: Taking
the notes and writing the minutes and the letters
By taking this workshop, you will master
the basic techniques which will allow you to write clear,
brief and complete minutes.
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- Secretarial 3:Filing
and archiving
Filing your co-op’s documents
leaves much to be desired? You don't know what documents to
keep? This workshop is for you! A practical exercise in document
filing will certainly make you better qualified with your own
co-op’s documents.
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- Secretarial
4 - Organizing the secretariat and preparing
the meetings
This workshop will
help you identify the material and equipment needed. You will
work out a budget and you will learn how to process the incoming
mail, how to write the convocation notices and the agendas
for your general assemblies and other meetings. In short,
a lot of practical tricks!
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