Tagum Coop’s Norma Pereyras, working from the heart

                 

(photo from Tagum Coop)

THIS WOMAN holds this year’s crown as the  Most Outstanding Cooperative Leader in the Philippines, besting two other nominees to the 2012 Gawad Parangal of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), but such award is seen as long overdue because she has been living  and giving her best all the time.

                She’s a vibrant woman, mother, wife, entrepreneur, church volunteer, Rotarian, Girl Scout leader, gender and family enrichment  advocate,  lector,  resource speaker, mediator rolled into one as a cooperative leader.  She is Norma Pereyras,   chairperson  of the award-winning Tagum Cooperative  and concurrent president  of  the Philippine Cooperative Center.

                As a jolly and vivacious woman, she has earned the nickname, Normskie   that sounds like “may K” which in colloquial Filipino means “she has the capacity”, and this can actually be gleaned in her personality. She has the drive to give her best with passion, enthusiasm, dedication and sincerity to serve  and deliver what is expected of her.   She’s often been heard saying “mula sa puso ni Normskie, baby!” along with her wacky trademark in conveying “I work from the heart.”

                Normskie rose from the ranks of ordinary coop members and has built her leadership over time.  She has been with Tagum Cooperative for three decades, and has served 25 years  as a leader of the home-grown cooperative based in Tagum City where she settles with her family.

                Taking no shortcuts, she attended seven-days seminar 29 years ago just like the others who wanted to become a  member of Tagum Cooperative at that time. She was not loaded with much money when she came in as a coop member.  She was just then running a carenderia (eatery) business. What she had, was her intense passion to serve: the spirit she had developed as a Gagmayng Kristohanong Katilingban (GKK) coordinator, catechist and church lector. 

                “I participated actively in Tagum Cooperative activities. I was  then convinced to run as an officer and I then got re-elected again and again,” she said.

(from Tagum Coop)

                In Her  25-year stint  as an active officer of Tagum Cooperative,  Normskie   came out five times as the chairperson.  Instituting reforms in 1995 amidst intense resistance among fellow coop officers was her greatest feat.   She looked at her come-back this year as God’s mission to check the gains of such struggle for reforms,and  to further push  the development Tagum Cooperative “to better serve  our members.” 

                “In my reflection, as if God is saying telling me to see  if the reforms we made are still there.”

                The system is in place for Tagum Cooperative to operate soundly but Normskie doesn’t want to sit on her laurels, nor does she like the cooperative to stay over confident about being the Most Outstanding Large Cooperative in 2012.  

“We are reviewing some of our policies to strengthen our services to our members,” she said.

Apart from its existing products and services from savings deposits, loans, member benefits,  and funecare services, Tagum Cooperative  is looking at the prospect of online banking.  It now uses automated teller machine (ATM) to dispense money as part of delivering improved services to its members, and that it now works on strengthening its human resource policies.

Tagum Cooperative has built wide network of alliance with Finance Organizations Achieving Certified Credit Union Standards (FOCCUS),  Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU), Mindanao Alliance for Self-help Society Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Center (MASS SPECC) , CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative, Model Cooperative Network, Philippine Cooperative Center, Metro South Coop Bank  and Asian Women in Cooperative Development Forum (AWCF). 

(from Tagum Cooperative)

 “My dream is for Tagum Cooperative to reach 100 years. It may not happen in my lifetime; we may be gone in this world, but Tagum Cooperative will continue to exist,”  she said.

Along with  the vision for centennial existence of Tagum Cooperative,  Normskie wish to see her gender and development advocacy  to flourish and to continue spelling a difference in the lives of coop members whom Tagum Cooperatives would like to experience joy and prosperity as they continue investing their trust and confidence.

Now with sustained budget, such advocacy has been enhanced and become known as Family Enrichment Program that talks topics beyond gender equality. It now tackles family affair,  spirituality, community involvement and volunteerism, violence against women,  and problems on drug dependence. 

Normskie  considers her work with Tagum Cooperative as an apostolate, believing that “it is an instrument of God to improve the lives of our members.”  She may find herself in a taxing situation doing several volunteer work,  but words of gratitude from coop members bring her solace and soothing feelings at  the end of the days work.

From Tagum Cooperative

                She’s glad to hear “our members say because of Tagum Cooperative we have food on our table; we are able to put up our house, send our children to school,  provide medical  needs of our ailing family members, repair our house.”

                She brings such joy and fulfillment beyond the walls of Tagum Cooperative as she keeps her thought tuned in on leaving good legacy, “on making a difference in the lives of people that I have met, touched, inspired and encouraged.”

                To  coop leaders, she leaves words of encouragement for them to become models of transformational leadership .  She advises them to “adhere to good governance, to become competent and passionate.”  

“Let’s do our assignment and leave a legacy,” she  said.  (PIA XI/Jeanevive Duron-Abangan)