NIPAWIN — Morley Doerksen, the president of Pineland Co-op’s board of directors, has been presented the Lifetime Co-operative Achievement Award in Regina.
The award serves to recognize individuals in volunteer or elected positions within co-operatives and credit unions who gave a long, varied and meritorious service.
“It makes me feel like I’m older than I thought I was,” Doerksen said before laughing. “It was good; it was an honour for that. I’m sure there are lots of deserving people besides me, but I really appreciate it.”
For him, the achievement award makes him feel appreciated for the work that he did over the years.
“The acknowledgement is nice to receive, for sure,” he said. “It’s always nice.”
Doerksen has been president of Pineland Co-op since 2013, and served on the board since the early 2000s. Before the Co-op he served on a board for the credit union in Nipawin before it became Diamond North.
For three years, he worked on the resolution committee for Federated Co-operatives Limited.
“We did changes to the terms of reference. We kind of brought democracy back to the grassroots. It was getting where more decisions were made at the annual meeting at Saskatoon, so we brought it back where everything has to be passed by the local retail boards – all the resolutions had to have a home, the retail board they came from.”
Doerksen said that initiative took two attempts to get it passed, and wasn’t without stress.
His plans for the future include slowing down and taking it easy, step by step.
“We’re still farming, trying to get our fun, kind of roll over in the farming role. Hopefully I can slow down, for sure. Take it easy a little bit, which might be hard for me to do but it’s what we strive for.”
The award was presented on Oct. 15 in Regina.
