I mentioned earlier that within the mission of the Assiniboine Credit Union there are really three key stakeholders that we use to measure our success. That comes down to our members, our employees, and the community that we serve.
The way we measure our success as a financial cooperative is by using, what we call internally, “a balanced scorecard approach”, where we have a number of indicators, with the financial one being only one of those indicators, whereby we would establish targets and set objectives for achieving everything from growth to profitability, efficiency, and delinquency asset quality—all of the usual financial indicators. But we also have a mandate and a responsibility to ensure within the organization things like employee satisfaction and whether our employees' profile represents the community that we serve in terms of diversity. We also want to measure our carbon footprint as a company, the type of branches that we build, whether in fact they are environmentally efficient, using recyclable materials, and so on. And in terms of our procurement policies, we want to measure whether we're purchasing from socially responsible vendors, using local resources, and so on.
A very short answer is that our balanced scorecard approach looks not only at indicators, including financial ones, but also at how we make a difference in the community through our partnerships, as well as within the company in terms of our employee engagement and representation reflecting the community demographics. As well, we look to ensure that how we lend our money—in terms of my specific goal—is making not only an economic impact but also a positive social and environmental impact in the communities we serve.