Home-grown billionaire coop becomes hall of famer, eyes centennial year

TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte Oct. 24 (PIA) --- Beyond the Hall of Fame, home-grown billionaire cooperative aims to go beyond 100 years.

“We don’t want to rest on our laurels. I tell my fellow officers to roll up our sleeves and continue to work for our members. Let’s keep on ascending,” Tagum Cooperative Board of Directors (BOD) Chairperson Norma Pereyras said during the Hermes Club media forum at the Insular Hotel.

During the 12th National Cooperative Summit in Cebu City on Oct. 16, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) bestowed on Tagum Cooperative the Hall of Fame recognition being a three-time Gawad Parangal Awardee as the Most Outstanding Primary Cooperative Large Scale Category at the national level.

At the regional level,  CDA XI on October 12 also honoured Tagum Cooperative as the Grand Slam Winner being the Most  Outstanding Cooperative for Large Scale Category.

“We want  Tagum Cooperative to reach 100 years,” she said  while revealing to media practitioners  the 27-day strategic planning workshop that Tagum Cooperative  officers are set to undergo starting tomorrow.

In a separate interview, she revealed three major agenda of continued growth  to pursue  after Tagum Cooperative won the Hall of Fame award.

She wanted Tagum Cooperative to pursue sustainability and enhancement of financial management and business operations through the conduct of business planning,  expansion of business and investment, review of the  organizational structure and  regular semi-annual operations review.

Pereyras also saw the need for continuous education for members, staff and officers through providing series of training on self-development and  on income-generating project for members; and through a  regular conduct of ownership meetings,  and savings and loan seminar.

She also wanted the Cooperative to adopt  the latest technology and to enhance the monitoring and evaluation tools for training as part of the continuous education strategy for members, staff and officers.

Tagum Cooperative is also conscious about its social performance in its bid to fulfill the 7th Principle of Cooperative which is “Concern for Community”,  through conducting close monitoring of  special project implementation and corporate social responsibility evaluation.

Meanwhile,  Pereyras showed that TAgum Cooperative still performed well even after the Gawad Parangal screening was done in May this year.

She revealed that as of September, 2014, the Cooperative posted a total membership of 111,059; savings, P1.23 billion; loan portfolio, P1.87 billion; assets, P2.63 billion; share capital, P880.4 million; net surplus, P 172.35 million with no external borrowings.   (PIA 11/ JMDA)