Good governance means the board is ready to answer to the members for what it does. The members place the safekeeping of the co-op in the board's hands, and the board is accountable to the members for the job that it does on their behalf.

An accountable board is one that

• takes seriously its duty for the guidance and well-being of the co-op
• stands by its actions and decisions and takes responsibility for them collectively.

An accountable board takes care to make good, fair decisions on the issues that come before it and keeps the overall interests of the co-op in mind at all times.

If it does, the board should have no difficulty in standing behind its decisions, even if they are not always the most popular ones. This is an important point. The board needs to listen to members, but once it has made a decision that it believes is the right one for the co-op, it should keep to it, and all the directors need to support it.

Here are signs that your board is accountable to the members:

• the board reports to the members on the decisions it makes for the co-op and the reasons for them
• the board gives the members the information they need to make good decisions themselves