SLEMCOOP PROFILE

25 Years and Counting ...

.what started 25 years ago as a
small pool of monetary contributions by
50 employees of the So. Leyte Provincial
Government has widened and expanded
enough to sustain the operations of what
is now known as the So. Leyte Employees
Multi-Purpose Cooperative (SLEMCOOP).
SLEMCOOP provides savings and credit
services to a throng of over 1,400 mem-
bers who are employees from different
government agencies in Southern Leyte.
Side by side with the business operation
of the cooperative runs its social-concern
arm - the SLEMCOOP Foundation, which
hosts developmental programs such as
the Vegetable Production and the Bamboo
Craft projects.
Its current financial profile reads: Assets
- P120M, Share Capital - P34M, Deposits
- P58M, and Loans Receivable - P69M.
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SLEMCOOP has one main office located in Bry. Asuncion, Maasin City, Southern Leyte and two branches - one located
in Bry. Tunga-tunga, Maasin City and another one soon to open in the town of San Juan, So. Leyte.
The cooperative is a proud affiliate of the Federation for People's Sustainable Development Cooperative (FPSDC)
and the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), whose resi lience in providing venues for the cultivation
and dissemination of cooperative education in the country has given great advantage for the growth of cooperative
knowledge among primary cooperatives like SLEMCOOP.
THE ROOTS
It was 1984 when 50 employees of the provincial government pooled in P64,000 as initial assets to serve the credit
needs of fellow employees at the time and it was a clear reflection of their faith in their vision statement.
The early members equipped themselves with a vision to be "responsive to the changing and varying needs of its . ,
members" who commonly aspire "to promote cooperativism and to achieve total human development". The cooperative
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Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws were then drafted by fifteen members in 1986 and it became the basis of
SLEMCOOP's services and programs.
PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
SLEMCOOP was able to pave the way and install its foundations by offering savings and credit services to its members.
The implementation of social programs involving mortuary, health care, livelihood, and retirement were taking place
along with the growing business operations of the cooperative.
The following enumeration aims to give a brief profile of the cooperative's social programs before they were
structured under the SLEMCOOP FOUNDATION:
Branded as COOPCARE, SLEMCOOP's mortuary program became the first of a series of social services that the
cooperative started providing its members to give them access to financial assistance in times of necessity. COOPCARE
meant to assist members in the payment of burial expenses and other needs during times of death in the family.
Next was the health care program, which SLEMCOOP started implementing in the late 80's. Branded as Coop
HealthCare, the program extends financial assistance when a coop member or a beneficiary is hospitalized. Coop
HealthCare would later on, starting in year 2000, include out patients who have undergone eye cataract and cyst
removals in its benefits.
An infusion of funds that came from a program of Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) called Tu long sa Tao Program
enabled SLEMCOOP to set up its livelihood program in the early '90s, which was fueled by intentions to develop aspiring
local entrepreneurs and sustain the existing ones in their income generating activities such as longaniza and ceramic
making.
In 1992, SLEMCOOP created an incentive program that gives cash benefits to employee members when they have
retired from government service. The program was called COOP Retirement, wherein the benefit amount is computed
based on the amount of their fixed deposits.
By 1996, the membership has grown to 556 and in the following year that marked the onset of the SLEMCOOP housing
program, its assets scaled to P17M. The revenue that year would become two-fold in 1998, from P1 .9M to P4.2M.
SLEMCOOP FOUNDATION
SLEMCOOP's membership continued to grow and became
open to other government employees outside the provincial
government agencies.
Upon the progression of events surrounding its operations,
SLEMCOOP found an opportunity to expand the scope of its
vision outside the cooperative's existing membership to other
members of the community through the SLEMCOOP Founda-
tion, which was established in 2005.
Restructuring of the Programs
In line with this development, the cooperative was
able to compartmentalize its business function, which
operation entails financial discipline, and its social
obligation to the community where SLEMCOOP has
become a part of after years of operation.
This resulted to the re-structuring of the social
programs and services under the SLEMCOOP
FOUNDATION leaving the savings and credit
operations under the cooperative.
When the cooperative's Social Concern Program
requires the money in giving hospitalization
assistance to non-members who cannot afford
their medical bills, it now gets its funding from the
profits generated by the selling of generic drugs at
the Health Plus Shop-in-a-Shop franchise, which
SLEMCOOP also bought in 2005.
Vegetable and Bamboo Craft Projects
In 2006, SLEMCOOP took the opportunity to partici-
pate in the vegetable production project of DTI. It was
funded and technically supported by the German
Development Service (OED). The cooperative found
a dual advantage -- to help in the livelihood of the
vegetable farmers and to supply the demand for
vegetables in Southern Leyte.
This became the precursor of the cooperative's
' (IN rorcis) The at the So. was
I bought by SLEMCOOP In 2005. The profit it generates is used to fund the coop's . 1
Social Concern Program. Meanwhile, SLEMCOOP continues the program for Its ,
tVegetable Production Project, Which was started in 2006. Fresh vegetables wm be .
Building. :.. : .
experience in getting involved with developmental projects in which both the coop and the community could reap
great advantage but would require more time and effort in terms of research, funding, and implementation.
The Bamboo Craft Project is another existing example of SLEMCOOP's endeavors in this field. The project aims to
produce treated bamboo materials, which could later on be marketed as useful products for the making of furniture
and other fixtures for home-building.
CREDIT and SAVINGS OPERATIONS
There are 31 kinds of loans that SLEMCOOP are offering to
its members. SLEMCOOP has expanded its loan
windows and created specialized loans such as vehicle
loan, educational loan, and grocery loan in order to address
the "changing and varying needs" of its members.
Handling issues like increasing the savings deposits,
designing income-generating programs, battling the
delinquency, or meeting the standards of the Cooperative
Development Agency has enabled SLEMCOOP
to be more conscious of the challenges involved in
operations of a cooperative and, eventually, the ,
that comes with the experience. AKQ
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(IN FOTOS) .The improvement of SLEMCOOP's loan an ( .
important thrust of the current management. the 31 In ,
. loans that SLEMCOOP offers to coop is RJCEnLamountof
. the summary of loan releases f; om last years a nsumptioll
P6,337, 350.20 was availed coop members for th.air nee co . ... ,