Halloween Brexit

Member meetings

Back to normal this week following two weeks of half-year meetings. Given the significance of the decision on our energy business I decided to attend all seven this year. It was really good to catch up with our members with over 500 in attendance. As always there was a variety of questions and thoughts and I am pleased to say that we received overwhelming support from members for the decisions we made. Interestingly, the best attended meeting was the Monday night webinar which we ran for the first time this year.

Co-op Energy

We are continuing the work with Octopus to transfer customers from our systems to theirs. Over 100,000 GB and Flow customers have now moved across and next week will see the start of the transfer for Co-op Energy customers. It is pleasing to report that Octopus has now confirmed the appointment of over 100 colleagues into new roles with them and we are continuing to work with our remaining colleagues to find them alternative jobs. We have also confirmed some new appointments - our Energy marketing team will be lead by Richard Chavasse and we are delighted to welcome Tom Hoines as Managing Director of Co-op Community Energy.

Tom has a wealth of experience having held similar roles with a number of other energy organisations. It is a good time for Tom to be joining as I am told hot off the press that we are about to sign a number of new Community Power Purchase Agreements (CPPA’s). More on this next week.

ICA Global Conference in Kigali

As reported in my blog last week our Chief Values Officer, Pete Westall attended the International Co-operative Alliance’s Global Conference in Kigali, Rwanda focussing on ‘Co-operatives for Development’.  You can read more about the conference and Pete’s contribution here.

Brexit

So it continues! As I have said before we are prepared for any scenario although we would like to focus on other priorities and forget about it as I am sure would all of you. We continue to run our planning meetings and prepare for any unintended consequences. It looks as if we could be heading for another General Election soon so we will have to wait and see.

Don’t forget, if you are not a UK citizen and need help applying for your settled status then please get in touch with our HR support team. 

And finally...

Its Halloween on Thursday next week and a very busy time for our food stores selling pumpkins, sweets and treats. Let’s hope not any more eggs or flour than usual though and on a serious point, this can be a worrying time for our elderly neighbours and a good opportunity for us all to let them know we are here if they need us.

Happy Halloween!