Issue #35 - August 2005 A publication of Cooperative Development Institute www.cdi.coop
Features: Eastern Worker Co-ops Gather in NH
NE News: MA Consumers Get GreenEnergy, Co-op 101 for Maine Business Developers
Legal Matters: Credit Unions Keep on Keepin' On
Outside the Region: Hoteliers of the World, Unite!
Bulletin Board: Calendar & Announcements - our motto is, "You Send 'Em, We Print 'Em!"
Values in Action: (7) Honesty and (8) Openness: South Mountain
CDI Services: Contact us FMI at info@cooplife.coop
Co-op Quiz: Lots of Credit for Guessing This One...
Photo: Best Western International started small, but active members and the leadership they selected to guide their company always thought big. They were innovators in a post-WWII nation, as American families and workers increasingly took to the highway for pleasure and business. Today, Best Western is one of the most respected names in the motel trade. Photo is of BW Fort Watson Beachfront in FL. (See 'Outside the Region' below.)
Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) is the Northeast's non-profit center for cooperative development. Contact us if you'd like assistance starting up a new cooperative or strengthening an existing one: info@cdi.coop
FEATURE
The Old Guard and the New Blood
The 4th Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy took place in mid-July in Manchester, New Hampshire and people are giving it thumbs up reviews. There is general agreement that this biennial gathering has significance as a reuniting/refueling event for those already active in the workplace democracy movement. It clearly serves as an effective orientation for newcomers to the network. Appreciation has been expressed for the diversity in evidence-of age, gender, ethnic and cultural identities, history with cooperatives, geographic location, and political-philosophical perspectives.
Lead organizer Mary Hoyer, long-time Outreach Coordinator for the Cooperative Fund of New England, noted that conference-goers were "rich in enthusiasm; people were optimistic, eager to learn and share. When things needed to be done, they pitched in." The Free Space where participants could sign up to offer presentations "was pretty busy; people brought ideas to share."
Christina Clamp is director of the School of Community Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), where the conference was held. She has been a leader in cooperative and credit union development for years, and currently is serving her second term as a director of the National Cooperative Business Association, among other hats she wears. She received lots of great feedback from participants, and concludes that it was and is successful at bringing longtime cooperators and newcomers together to deepen relationships, exchange important information, and discuss issues that have relevance to their individual companies and to the entire worker-owned business sector.
"Where do we go from here?" Clamp mused. "Longer term, is this a reunion every two years to support the work of worker cooperatives, or is it something more, that might become an institution with a broader mission? There are a number of different views. If you create something more formal, there has to be revenue to support it." She hopes the leaders who volunteer to make the biennial conferences happen will continue, but she adds, "I'd like to look for where there is capacity within one or more existing organizations [to support further growth], and do some more strategic thinking about what we want to create."
Rhode Island co-op translates 'Success'
Vivian Moreno is a member of a recently formed translators' cooperative based in Providence, Rhode Island. She attended the conference with several other co-op members, and appreciated hearing from cooperatives that have been in business for awhile.
She joined the Connections co-op a year ago, when a translator she knew announced it was forming. "What attracted me was the amount of money I was going to make," she says (e.g. $20 per hour instead of $8 to $12) and pauses to chuckle, adding, "That, and the fact that I was going to be part of a business where there was no boss!"
Moreno had been thinking along these lines for awhile, and jumped at the opportunity to become part of an emerging cooperative. But at the New Hampshire conference, she says, "I realized that our purpose is not just to start a co-op for ourselves. It's also to let other people know that there is a good way to find a decent living, without being exploited or exploiting others. We have to tell people how we are different."
Equal Exchange: always learning
Jessica Hiemenz may be fairly new to co-ops like Vivian Moreno, but the co-op she belongs to is not new. Two years ago, she joined Equal Exchange, the worker co-op that made fair trade coffee famous. She became a worker-owner in November, after the requisite trial period was up. Soon she found herself chairing the education committee, and was one of seven co-op members who came to the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy for the opportunities to learn from and connect with others in the worker-owner business sector.
Hiemenez observed that the event and the Conference welcome anyone who self-selects as being part of or interested in businesses that implement democracy in the workplace. At the same time, she said, there is an opening for people to move further down the road of worker ownership and participatory democratic governance.
"There are different interpretations, different ways of doing things," she says, and getting good information and feedback is critical, something the conference excels at. "It's one reason for Equal Exchange's intensive member education program. Understanding the financial structures, the vision process, it all helps people make better informed decisions."
Long Island Builders: coming home
Terry Daniels of Long Island Home Enterprises took five other members with him to Manchester. "We didn't really know what to expect," said the founder of this worker-owned home rehabbing company. "But what we discovered at the conference was that we were not alone. We realized that what worker co-ops and employee-owned businesses are doing was what we had been doing; we just had no point of reference."
Daniels continues, "We also realized that we're part of a larger movement. Now 'movement' isn't a word any of us were comfortable with when we walked into the conference. But I definitely feel something changed within us there, as an organization. We came away with the sense that others are interested in what we're doing, that if we go through low spots we can connect with others. If we fail, we feel like we'll be letting others down."
In a message about the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy sent to Mary Hoyer after he returned to Long Island, Daniels wrote: "It is an organization such as yours (and now ours) which makes us feel less like wandering fools in the desert and more like welcome guests at a great banquet. I wasn't sure what to expect -- we just decided to jump in -- and we were glad we did."
Ed.note-look for more news from the ECWD and stories about these and other worker-owned businesses in upcoming issues of Cooperative Leader.
NORTHEAST NEWS
Western MA Co-op Commits to Renewables
In the Pioneer Valley, where the Cooperative Development Institute has its home office, four towns recently received a letter from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) informing them of renewable energy funding they earned through a special program. MTC administers the state's Clean Energy Choice program on utility bills that invite ratepayers to make minimal donations to renewable energy and efficiency programs.
The funds were awarded to Northampton, Shutesbury, Williamsburg, and Wendell because of the commitment the residents of these communities have made to support clean energy. They are part of the growing membership of Co-opPlus, a consumer-owned energy cooperative.
Co-opPlus, which began as part of the 'new generation' of energy co-ops that emerged in the 1990s, now has 1,500 members--both households and businesses--in Western Massachusetts.
"More than 60 Co-opPlus members enrolled in New England GreenStart should be proud they helped these towns win renewable energy funding," says Peggy MacLeod, Marketing Director for the Center for Ecological Technology (CET).
"By enrolling, they acted on their commitment to clean energy and did something that benefits their community in a tangible way." GreenStart is available for Massachusetts Electric Company customers and the partially tax-deductible payments can be paid through the monthly bill.
These days, Co-opPlus is working with a new face at the table, Co-op Power, which owns Northeast Biodiesel, LLC. They plan to build a $5.3 million production facility for waste vegetable oil in Greenfield, Massachusetts. They are engaged in a membership drive and recently hired Larry Union, former CEO and general manager of the Connecticut Energy Cooperative in Hartford, to head up the project.
Now, the town of Amherst, next door to Northampton and home to the University of Massachusetts' flagship campus as well as Amherst and Hampshire Colleges, hopes to follow in its neighbors' footsteps by targeting clean energy enrollments for three percent of Amherst households. If this goal is reached, the town will earn about $30,000 in state funding that will be used for a municipal solar electric installation, making an important renewable energy technology much more visible to thousands of prospective users. FMI: (413) 586-7350 or peggym@cetonline.org
Maine Aims at Business Community
This September, Maine's USDA Rural Development office is teaming up with the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI), the Maine Department of Agriculture and the Cooperative Fund of New England to present a one-day intensive introduction to the role cooperatives can play in economic and community development.
Lynda Brushett of CDI explains, "We need to address head-on the fact that most of the conventional business community in this country and our Northeast region does not really know a lot about how cooperatives are different from other business structures, and why they are important to the future of our region.
"The professionals who work in community development corporations, state agencies, public and private charitable foundations and lending entities are on the front lines of business development and community renewal. The better they understand the co-op option, the better they can serve their clients," Brushett says.
National leader in value-added agricultural co-ops
Keynoting the symposium will be Bill Patrie, former Economic Development Director of North Dakota and currently President of the Board of CooperationWorks! - a national network of 21 cooperative business development centers working in 43 states to help people identify opportunities for group-based businesses.
Patrie speaks with passion and hard-won knowledge about the causes, creative opportunities, and potential pitfalls of cooperative development. Although many consider him the leading expert on 'new generation' value-added agricultural cooperatives that sprang up throughout the Midwest in the 1980s, he is also steeped in the knowledge of many other types of cooperative businesses. He eloquently addresses how cooperative principles and cooperative businesses can support the economic and social renewal of the nation.
Legal clinic; workshops on homecare, housing, artists' co-ops
While there is a focus on agriculture, the program looks far beyond the hows and whys of value-added producer and grower cooperatives. It incorporates other types of co-ops that can play a part in the development visions of rural and urban Maine: homecare worker co-ops, senior and workforce housing co-ops, cooperatives of artists and craftspeople, and more.
Margaret Bau, who has been working in Wisconsin's USDA office, is perhaps the best known name in the sphere of home care cooperatives, and she will also be presenting at the Maine symposium. She has been assisting and chronicling the progress of the growing number of these worker-owned businesses cropping up in her state. The multiple advantages of forming their own home care agencies accrue not only to the co-op members; they are also demonstrating the advantages in improved client care and the satisfaction of both clients and their families.
Longtime co-op attorney Patrick Deluhery, whose articles appear regularly in Cooperative Leader, will address some of the key legal, tax and accounting issues unique to cooperatives, and the Cooperative Fund of New England's Phebe Quatrucci will present a panel of experts on resources available to those interested in forming a new cooperative or strengthening an existing one.
Pre-registration for the conference to be held in Bangor, ME is required and seating is limited. FMI: contact Valarie Flanders: valarie.flanders@me.usda.gov .
LEGAL MATTERS
Credit Unions' Legislative Update
'Big Banks, Not Credit Unions Stealing Small Bank Market.' That's the headline in a recent online newsletter from Vermont Credit Union League, which cites a report featured in American Banker. The report shows that community bank deposit growth is taking a beating as large banks try to increase market share by returning the personal service to customers which they so dramatically withdrew a few years ago as branches closed and other services were cut.
"As the credit union movement has been telling legislators," the e-letter emphasizes, "community banks should focus their complaints of unfair competition on the mega-banks and their huge resources rather than target not-for-profit credit unions."
CU leaders blast FDIC chair
But the credit union sector's struggle against the Goliath of the big banking industry is not limited to combating industry strategists. Earlier this summer, FDIC Chair John Reich told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, "Community bankers are increasingly subject to more intense competition from credit unions" and he called for the Community Reinvestment Act to be applied to credit unions. Suggesting credit unions' tax exemption is unfair, Reich stated that Congress should address an "uneven playing field" that favors credit unions over banks.
Credit Union National Association Sr.VP of Governmental Affairs John McKechnie promptly responded, "In attacking credit unions, Mr. Reich failed to explain how his being an advocate for the banks comports with his role as a regulator of bank safety and soundness. Or what his call to saddle credit unions with more regulation was doing at a hearing devoted to regulatory relief. Or how banks' record profits--documented each quarter by his agency--support his contention that banks can't compete." Later in the week, CUNA President/CEO Dan Mica similarly blasted Reich in a letter to the committee's vice chairman. (FMI: www.cuna.org)
In reviewing the FDIC testimony, Vermont CU League President Joe Bergeron cited it as another example of why credit union personnel and volunteers need to increase their involvement with governmental affairs. Echoing the sentiment he expressed in his speech earlier this year at the National Cooperative Business Association's Annual Meeting, Bergeron said, "Credit unions can't afford to be quiet while others misrepresent who we are. Each of us must take a politically active role every single day, not just when it's convenient." (FMI: VCUL@vcul.org).
OUTSIDE THE REGION
Best Western Goes Worldwide
Putting Best Western International, Inc. under the 'Outside the Region' banner isn't completely accurate. In spite of the name, anyone who's traveled in the Northeast has undoubtedly stayed in at least one of the independently owned member motels that until 1997 sported the familiar crown-and-lasso logo. But did they realize they were patronizing a cooperative business that's been around since 1946?
The story of the phenomenal growth of Best Western, which by 1981 was known as the world's largest chain of independently owned hotels, is described in a fascinating timeline on their web site: www.bestwestern.com (see About Us). Here's just a sample:
Cooperating on quality
Best Western Motels was founded in 1946 as an informal link between independent hoteliers in various towns and cities in California and surrounding states. Each one agreed to recommend other members to travelers visiting their areas, and offered to make reservations by telephone from one front desk to another.
Two years later, in 1948, five million copies of the Best Western Motel Guide were published. The 124-page book featured a four-color cover and was distributed through all of the major oil companies, by the 162 Western Motel members, 560 members of Quality Courts (affiliated east coast associates) and Chambers of Commerce. Three years later, 270 delegates attended the Best Western Round-Up to consider issues such as encouraging better cooperation with eastern affiliates (Quality Courts), installing laundries, and group purchase of insurance.
Members consistently focused on the quality of their services and their product: the motels they owned. Requirements for membership in Best Western cited in 1960 included rooms with fully carpeted floors, ceramic tile baths, the best box springs and mattresses, and matching furniture. In some places, air conditioning was mandatory. By 1963, Best Western was the largest motel chain in the industry with 699 member motels and more than 35,000 rooms.
Sleeping their way to success
Then in 1966 a major reorganization took place. Best Western moved its headquarters from Long Beach, California to Phoenix, Arizona, where it came under the guidance of a seven-member board of directors elected by regional representatives.
Services expanded rapidly, including one-step, toll-free reservations, opening new sales offices, adding members in Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific, linking with airlines and exploring new markets. They started offering payment by credit card in 1967. Between 1967 and 1968, business doubled. By 1972, motels were required to accept six major credit cards; business surged again and the next year they took their Reservation Center to 24/7 status.
In 1975, the leadership made a critical decision to establish an Education and Training department at the Phoenix headquarters, to help members operate their properties more efficiently and to the highest standards, and to assist them in becoming better and better managers and supervisors of their employees.
In the years that followed, the motel co-op put down more and more roots around the globe, changed its name to Best Western International, Inc. and saturated the highways of the U.S. and Canada with 15,000 billboards using the standardized crown and rope logo. By 1979, Best Western was accommodating 15 million guests and generating one billion dollars annually in room sales. And they were just getting warmed up. Read much more about this group of innovative, entrepreneurial, independent cooperators at www.bestwestern.com.
BULLETIN BOARD
Calendar
Aug. 11 - 14, Amherst, MA: 31st Annual Northeast Organic Farming Assn. conference with keynoter Satish Kumar. FMI. www.nofamass.org.
Sept. 13-14, Kansas City, MO: "History & Philosophy of Housing Cooperatives" and "The Ethical Practice of Cooperative Management" Registered Cooperative Management Course of National Assn. of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC). (202) 737-0797 ext. 324 for details. Train the Trainer and New Board training as well. Tel. (202) 737-0797 ext. 323 for details.
Sept. 14-17, Kansas City, MO: National Association of Housing Cooperatives 2005 Annual Conference. (202) 737-0797 x323 to register or print forms downloadable from: www.coophousing.org (see related events above)
Sept. 18-23, Cartagena, Colombia: International Co-operative Alliance biennial General Assembly (see details below). FMI: www.icacartagena.coop.
Sept. 21, Bangor, ME: Cooperative Business Development Conference, with keynoter Bill Patrie, value-added agricultural co-op guru; also Margaret Bau on home care worker co-ops, Patrick Deluhery on legal aspects of cooperative businesses, a panel discussion of funding resources, workshops on housing and artist co-ops, and more. (See NE News, above.) FMI: contact Valarie Flanders: valarie.flanders@me.usda.gov.
Sept. 23, University Park, PA: Conference on Ethical Commerce with Jonathan Rosenthal and others. FMI: www.ethicalcommerce.org
Sept. 24-27, San Francisco, CA: Credit Unions National Association's CUNA 'Future Forum', with seven workshop tracks (security/risk mgmt, volunteer/governance, community charter, sales/marketing, etc.) and keynote speakers author and former Naval Commander Mike Abrashoff; Carolyn Kepcher, Executive VP of the Trump Organization; and Mike Eruzione, Captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team. FMI: http://training.cuna.org/.
Sept. 28-30, Burlington, VT: The Future of Rural Entrepreneurship and Community Development in the Northeast. CDI's Lynda Brushett and Don Jamison of Vermont Employee Ownership Center will present 'Building an Economic Base through Alternative Ownership Models.' Learn more about Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and worker cooperatives in the region, and how group-owned businesses can build community and financial capital in any area of business. FMI: www.regonline.com/whatworks.
Oct. 22, Stockbridge, MA: 25th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures with New Alchemy Institute founder Nancy Jack Todd and citizen-democracy champion, attorney Tom Linzey. FMI: www.smallisbeautiful.org
Oct. 14-16, Dartmouth, MA: 1st Annual Bioneers By the Bay conference, 'Connecting for Change' with Nobel Prizewinner Wangari Maathai, Juliet Schor, Susan Witt, John Lash, Gunter Pauli, etc. FMI: www.bioneersbythebay.org
Oct. 19-22, Los Angeles, CA: National Community Capital Association expects 600-plus community development finance institutions to attend its 21st annual bash 'On the Road to Scale: What's Now? What's New? What's Next?' for CDFI directors, bankers, foundation staff, investors, government officials, journalists, etc. FMI: www.communitycapital.org.
Oct. 21-23, Burlington, VT: Women in Sustainable Agriculture 2005 conference 'A Celebration of Hope and Opportunity' is a collaboration of the Women's Agricultural Networks (WAgN) and sister organizations around the country. Each year an increasing number of U.S. farms are owned and/or operated by women. FMI: www.uvm.edu/wagn.
Nov. 4-5, Woodstock, VT: Vermont Credit Union League's 2005 Volunteer Leadership Conference featuring Mark Lynch, one of the most sought after speakers in the credit union movement. FMI: www.vermontcreditunions.com/Support/Education/Leadership.htm.
Nov. 4-5, Durham, NH: New England Farmers' Market Coalition in partnership with the NH Association of Farmers' Markets, UNH Office of Sustainability Programs and USDA invites current and prospective members of the coalition to its 2005 meeting and workshop, a great learning and networking opportunity. FMI: www.farmersmarketcoalition.com
Announcements
CHECK THIS OUT! The official National Co-op Month web site contains updated print ads highlighting cooperatives' (including credit unions) commitment to their communities, which is this year's theme. Ads come in 4-color or B/W in various sizes. They allow insertion of a logo, and can be downloaded in PDF or Quark format.
The online 'Co-op Month Toolkit' features a downloadable Co-op Month logo, the print ads, draft news releases and opinion articles, plus examples that illustrate ways co-ops benefit their communities. And, it includes dozens of practical and creative ideas about how to celebrate national Co-op Month this October in your community! FMI: www.coopmonth.coop.
Vermont CU CEO wanted. Growing community-based credit union with $47 million in assets and 40 employees headquartered in Brattleboro is seeking an experienced, progressive, and service-oriented Chief Executive Officer to serve 16,500 members through five branch locations. The ideal candidate should possess strong skills in leadership, planning, financial management, compliance, technology and marketing. Prior management experience in financial institutions desired. Please send cover with resume and salary requirements to Executive Search, c/o Vermont Credit Union League, 1000 Shelburne Road, Suite 1, So. Burlington, VT 05403-6960 or email employment@vcul.org.
Broadband was a hot topic at the recent National Governors Association meeting in Des Moines where attendees were told that "broadband capability is driving a new global marketplace, sweeping aside the old one that was predicated on the infrastructure mainstays of physical access to roads and waterways. The governors debated public ownership of broadband networks as an economic development tool. Increasingly, cooperative development practitioners and rural co-op members are asking, Why not form broadband cooperatives? (Thanks to Council of State Governments online newsletter: www.csg.org)
The Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI) at Univ. of Nebraska has released a study that shows one in five rural residents now own companies. It concludes that most rural business owners turn to entrepreneurship as the only opportunity in a small town. The study noted that legislators could do more to nurture small business growth in these communities. One issue hindering entrepreneurial expansion is the high cost of health insurance, CARI Professor Randy Cantrell reports. Nearly 70 percent of survey respondents said health insurance costs makes self-employment unappealing. Now there's a co-opportunity!
The ICA General Assembly (see Sept. 18-23 above), held every two years, is arguably the most important cooperative event in the international calendar. ICA President Ivano Barberini urges good attendance this year: "Cooperation is more and more important in the world of today. Our ties to the United Nations and its specialized agencies are stronger than ever before. We are in conversations withthe World Bank, and we are studying cooperation as a possible tool for the solution of conflict. Our Campaign against Poverty attracts help from all over the world and our growing volume of activities creates a high profile for cooperatives."
Colombia is an ideal setting for the Assembly, which will bring several thousand people to the beautiful city of Cartagena. The country's modern co-op movement dates to the 1930s and the influence of Catholic social activists and worker unions. Today there are about 5,000 co-ops in operation, including savings and loans societies, agro-industrial producers, health and insurance providers, and more. The co-ops generate 57,000 jobs directly and produce $4,900 million annually, about ten percent of Colombia´s GDP.
A national co-op federation, CONFECOOP, is tasked with integrating Colombia's cooperatives and developing unifying actions to "represent and defend the co-op movement." It is composed of 16 regional associations and eight economic organizations, and is engaged in permanent dialogue with the Colombian government, industry associations and social organizations, exploring new economic options and keeping co-ops visible as powerful instruments of economic and social development for large sectors of Colombian society. FMI: www.icacartagena.coop.
CO-OP VALUES IN ACTION
(7) Honesty and (8) Openness: The Story of South Mountain
In the new book The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place, author John Abrams eloquently chronicles the story of a group of people who've worked for 30 years to achieve a socially progressive, environmentally conscientious, employee-owned design and construction company on up-market Martha's Vineyard island off Cape Cod.
The book's Vermont-based publisher Chelsea Green calls author Abrams, currently the president of South Mountain Company, "an important new voice in American business...He challenges conventional business concepts: that bigger is better, that profits come first, and that location is incidental. The experiences he documents demonstrate that one can bring high personal values to the workplace, protect natural resources, uphold high standards of craftsmanship, control growth, and still run a successful (and highly collaborative) enterprise."
From a cooperative enterprise viewpoint, one might be tempted to say it is because the company has been so insistently collaborative that is has achieved so much success. Reading about their day-to-day challenges and how South Mountain met them is illuminating.
As Abrams puts it, "Each time another employee becomes an owner, and each time a new management invention encourages more voices to be heard, we move steadily toward goals of democracy, fairness, and transparency. This is not about a sense of ownership or control. Corey Rosen of the National Center for Employee Ownership said once that giving employees a 'sense' of ownership is like giving them a 'sense' of dinner. This is the whole meal."
Each month we tell stories that embody one of the Seven Co-op Principles or two of the Ten Co-op Values approved by the International Cooperative Alliance www.ica.coop/ica/. We are eager to hear YOUR suggestions!
CDI SERVICES
FMI: (413) 774-7599 or info@cdi.coop
The Cooperative Leader is produced as a service to the regional community by the Cooperative Development Institute, which is dedicated to developing and strengthening cooperative enterprise in the Northeast. CDI staff and consultants provide comprehensive support services, including the following:
* Customer service training
* Annual evaluations (manager, board, co-op)
* Business and strategic planning
* Executive search
* Board and management development
* Membership development
* Cooperative start-ups
* Fundraising
* Legal and personnel issues
* Public policy advocacy
CO-OP QUIZ 035: What Act of Congress created 12 regional and one central Bank for Cooperatives to make loans to agricultural co-ops, and established the Production Credit Associations to make loans to farmers for production purposes-and what year was the Act passed?
Answer to Q034: Sean Connery was a co-op dairy delivery man in Edinburgh, Scotland before he soared to stardom as an actor (best known in the U.S. as the original 007; that's Bond, James Bond).
TO CONTACT COOPERATIVE LEADER
Send your news and comments to lbroussard@cooplife.coop. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or for FMI on a program or event contact us at info@cdi.coop. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your colleagues.
Cooperative Leader is supported by a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program. In accordance with federal law and US Department of Agriculture policy, this Cooperative Life/Cooperative Development Institute is prohibited from discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, disability, marital or familial status. To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitter Building, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington DC 20250 or call 202.720.5964 (voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Any article with an author byline requires special permission. All material without an author's byline can be reprinted in membership or other non-paid publications, with the following credit: "Reprinted from Cooperative Leader, published by Cooperative Development Institute: info@cdi.coop or 413-774-7599."
Cooperative Leader Staff
Lynda Brushett, Senior Editor, brushett@metrocast.net
Jane Livingston, Principal Writer and Editor, mejane@gwi.com
Laurie Siggillino Broussard, Production Manager, lbroussard@cdi.coop