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ORLANDO, Fla.—In front of hundreds of co-op directors from across the country, Michael J. Guidry held a copy of the NRECA resolutions book aloft and asked a simple question: How many understood totally every entry in it?

NRECA Board President Michael J. Guidry (c) discusses the resolutions process with F.E. "Wally" Wolski, past NRECA president, and Mary McLaury of NRECA. (Photo By: Steven Johnson)

The NRECA president got one taker, and that was his point.

“Some of these resolutions have so many ‘whereas’ in them, by the time you get to the ‘therefore,’ you forgot what the whole thing started out to be,” he said.

No more. A simple, easy-to-understand book—the current one runs 28,000 words—is one of 90 changes designed to modernize the 70-year-old resolutions process and increase member participation.

Guidry and F.E. “Wally” Wolski, past NRECA president, updated directors on the state of the changes at the 2012 Directors Conference at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort.

Wolski chaired a Resolutions Review Committee in 2011 that was charged with updating and streamlining the resolutions process. The NRECA Board last December endorsed the panel’s recommendations, and a board implementation committee is working to put them in place.

“We want to bring this process back to the forefront, where it needs to be,” Guidry said. “This is the way we serve the 42 million people back home in our individual states and our individual cooperatives.”

Wolski said the resolutions book is a good example of something that needed an overhaul.

“If you take that booklet and you open it up, you should be able to understand what that resolution stands for in the first 50 words or so. … They will be concise,” he said.

Resolutions will be developed using a new, standardized template, with a statement of the policy, and then background information, he added.

The new process places a premium on educating members about resolutions. Statewide associations will be called on to take a leadership role and explain resolutions to their members.

Timeline changes will provide delegates to annual meetings with more opportunities to understand resolutions and ask questions before they vote on them.

“This will also create dialogue back home, and that’s part of the education process,” Wolski explained.

Guidry said the NRECA Board’s decision is being aided by a board implementation committee that is working to ensure a smooth transition to the new process. The board is also considering how to implement recommendations that build understanding and consensus around policy issues.

The current nine standing committees with overlapping issues will be reduced to three. Those panels will double in size to 20 members to address the increased workload and enhance member involvement.

No major procedural changes will take place until after the 2012 Annual Meeting next month, but the changes will be effective for the upcoming resolutions cycle, Guidry said.

For more news coverage from the 2012 Directors Conference, click here.

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Tags: Co-op News, Directors Conference, F.E. "Wally" Wolski, Governance, Michael J. Guidry