Cooperative dividend
Member loyalty programme
Member bank of the year
Membership policy in the future
22 Rabobank Group Annual Report 2005
Membership policy
ments. Obviously, the member council and the board also discuss other
topics, such as the bank's strategic direction, the branch policy and the
service to clients. In addition, the member council is involved in the
selection of - and the grants from the Cooperative fund to - local com
munity projects and forms of cooperative dividend.
Rabobank's cooperative origins are based on the belief that collaboration
and bundling of forces yield better results than operating individually.
That is why Rabobank returns some of its profits - in the form of coope
rative dividend - to the communities in which it operates. Each year,
local Rabobanks invest tens of millions of euros in the improvement of
their local economic, social and cultural environment without demanding
any direct compensation in return. Projects include weekend schools
for underprivileged young people and all kinds of sports events and
cultural manifestations. On a national level, self-help, self-organisation
and innovating entrepreneurship are stimulated through the Rabobank
Foundation, the Projects fund and the Herman Wijffels Innovation
award. Increasingly, funds for self-help and self-organisation are imple
mented on a local level as well. Thus, Rabobank demonstrates that it
takes its core values of being 'near-you' and 'committed' seriously.
The cooperative dividend benefiting the local community can be seen
as a collective member benefit. Its added value to the individual mem
bers is that they get the opportunity to exercise maximum control and
influence within their local Rabobank on its allocation. Over the past
few years, extensive research has been done as to whether members
should be offered, via a member benefit system, individual benefits
besides the collective benefit. During 2005, the local Rabobanks discussed
this subject in more detail. Eventually it was decided in December 2005
to opt for recognition of major clients by means of special banking and
non-banking offers, for example in the areas of mortgages and insurance.
These special offers will be announced via the 'U' member magazine,
among others.
In the year under review, the 'Member bank of the year' competition
was organised for the second time. In 2004, members' control was its
central theme and the title was 'Learning from members'. The theme for
2005 was 'Near-you through collaboration. Rabobank Geldrop Heeze-
Leende was selected as the winner from among three nominated local
Rabobanks. The bank guided groups of start-ups on their way to a
successful enterprise. Each month, a task force comprising employees
and clients established which activities would be undertaken. Former
entrepreneurs acted as a sounding board for the start-ups and advised
them. Also involved in the project were successful entrepreneurs, fellow
start-ups, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the
Entrepreneurs' Association.
The local Rabobanks are working hard on further defining the member
ship policy. Embedding members' control and influence and motivating
truly engaged members are at the core of this. More and more member
councils will be installed that will act as committed sounding boards
to boards of directors and management. In addition, the diversity of ini
tiatives in the area of cooperative dividend will be made more visible by
raising members' awareness of these initiatives. An important condition
for this is that the cooperative principles of the local Rabobanks are
embedded deeper in the competencies, attitude and behaviours of staff
managers and boards of directors.
