Issue #27 - October/November 2004 A publication of Cooperative Development Institute www.cdi.coop
Features: The future of food co-ops in the Northeast
CDI Profile: Bob Rottenberg
NE News: NH model housing co-op, Cornell report on NE producer co-ops
Legal Focus: Capitalizing cooperatives, Part 2
Outside the Region: Native American cooperative
Bulletin Board: Four publications and two events not to miss
Values in Action: (3) Member economic participation
CDI Services: Contact us FMI at info@cooplife.coop or (413) 774-7599
Co-op Quiz: Take it to the bank!
The very first homeowners stand in front of their home in the new Pepperidge Woods Cooperative, the nation's first energy-efficient manufactured housing park co-op. Photo courtesy of New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (see story below under Northeast News).
Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) is the Northeast's non-pforit center for cooperative development. CDI's mission is to increase economic opportunities and benefits for people in the Northeast by fosteing the growth and success of all types of cooperative enterpirses. Please contact us if you or someone you are working with would like assistance in starting or strengthening a group-based business: info@cdi.coop.
Last April 23, after years of discussion, eleven regional food co-op associations and the 94 local food co-ops that had formed them were asked to vote on whether to transfer their assets and primary identity to a restructured national organization. The vote passed 89-2, resulting in the new National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), a direct-membership cooperative that is now the second largest buying group in the nation's natural/organic industry.
This bold step instituted three regional NCGA corridors and retired the prior regional groups, including the Cooperative Grocers Association of the North East (CGANE). CGANE was one of the first regional associations of food co-ops in the country to get organized, and as such played a key role in the long journey toward a national identity. While independent and highly individual local food co-ops have often felt reluctant to consider sharing signage, purchasing or promotional materials, they do maintain a web site (www.ncga.coop), publish an outstanding magazine (www.cooperativegrocer.coop), and many share the innovative accounting software CoCoFiSt, created by cooperative development specialists.
Now or never
The 'global end' articulated by NCGA, however, clearly shows they recognize where the energy lies in forming and maintaining a robust sector of the cooperative economy. It aims for "thriving retail food co-ops working together with the strength of a national organization and the focus of a locally owned cooperative." This should be no surprise: the founding staff of NCGA includes nineteen outstanding thinkers and doers from the co-op grocery world. East Corridor members include Dave Blackburn, former Executive Director of CGANE; Peg Nolan, Executive Director of the Southeast Chapter of NCGA; Tom Snyder, who heads up the national Cooperative Advantage [marketing] Program, or CAP; Donna Schaufman, the CAP coordinator for the Eastern Corridor, and David Fowle, GM of Wild Oats Co-op in Williamstown, MA, who was the first Chair of CGANE's board.
So while there was a strong pull to stay unique and independent, co-op leaders repeatedly warned that without a greater degree of cooperation among co-ops, they were headed for oblivion. Having successfully altered the way Americans eat and think about nutrition and health, food co-ops now are feeling the brunt of tough competition from natural food store chains, specialty sections in supermarkets, and even big box stores. In the NCGA proposal this was stated unequivocally: "Unless we become more aligned on a national basis, we will continue to lose relevance in the sector. Unless we take advantage of this opportunity, we will never be stronger than we are today."
Writing about the NCGA transition prior to the April vote, Cooperative Grocer Editor Dave Gutknecht explained the nuts and bolts of the deal: "Two-year agreements to join the new national body will require transfer of most regional association assets to equity in NCGA. That equity will be held at least three years before potentially being revolved back to member co-ops (at the board of director's discretion).
Cooperating nationally
Gutknecht continues, "A major benefit, that the plan projects will be visible in 2005, is reduced cost of goods through a national purchasing program negotiated with the primary supplier for almost all NCGA co-ops, United Natural Foods. These transfers require the regional associations to relinquish primary control of assets and programs that they have built over a period of years-prompting proprietary concerns for relationships and programs with known benefits that will be extended to other regions in a mostly untried structure...These and other concerns led to rephrasing a 'non-compete' requirement that in a way summarizes the proposal's foundation spirit."
The non-compete requirement states: "Members shall act in good faith, with consideration for the whole-NCGA and its members. Members agree to support NCGA programs, products, and services. Innovation and incubation will be encouraged. Groups of members will fully communicate and freely share ideas and programs that result from collaboration with member groups or other NCGA member co-ops. NCGA will be given the opportunity and first right of refusal to offer, expand or promote programs, products, and services collaboratively developed to other member co-ops. NCGA will have 90 days to exercise this right."
Planning and flexibility
A lot of preparation and planning went before the April vote. Ten months of focused discussion and proposal development (and years of the same at meetings, conferences, on websites and in the pages of Cooperative Grocer) led up to it. The 80-page NCGA proposal had been discussed for weeks prior to its review by 76 co-op managers from all nine regional associations in San Diego last winter. The board and a team of able facilitators continued to take comments, consider alternative proposals, guide productive discussion and reach acceptable decisions right through the review process.
Gutknecht noted, "Trust was established by months of groundwork at all levels of the system, a high degree of shared commitment to continuous improvement, and a planning process that was highly participatory and carefully managed while remaining flexible." Furthermore, he states, those shared commitments, unlike previous attempts to consolidate, "this time are matched by widespread professional experience and organizational maturity along with a well-grounded plan for achieving the vision."
Northeast activity
In place of the old Cooperative Grocers Association of the North East, the Northeast Chapter of NCGA was formed. Rochelle Prunty, GM of River Valley Market in Northampton, was active in its formation and in its subsequent merging with the Southeast Chapter to form the Eastern Corridor Steering Committee. She explains that the steering committee was formed to help the new NCGA's East Corridor Development Director Dave Blackburn, and that the merger has been, for them "relatively seamless."
"The [regional] chapters are self-directed and remain in control of the planning and budgeting for regional activities just as they always have," says Prunty. Steve Cooke from Sevananda Natural Foods Cooperative in Atlanta GA chairs the East Corridor Steering Committee.
"We've retained the CGANE membership...and all the services and programs CGANE and NCGA previously operated remain part of the reorganized NCGA," Prunty continues, adding "While CGANE no longer exists as a cooperative and no longer needs a separate board of directors for its own governance functions, [we] elected a steering committee made up of former CGANE board members to work with Dave on planning and member communication for the region." Projects the Eastern Corridor is planning for 2005 include Department Manager Trainings, Store Assistance Program to address critical issues in selected member's co-ops, Best Practices/Common Assessment Tool Development to assist members with their business planning process, and Board Development. In addition, NCGA will be continuing the development of the CAP program, joint-purchasing contracts, and the co-op branding program services.
New CEO hired
At the end of August, Prunty reports, NCGA hired Don McLemore, "a veteran of the retail and wholesale grocery industry, for the CEO position. In his previous position, Don served as the President of the $700 million Copps Division of Roundy's, a large cooperative wholesaler and retailer in the Midwest."
Prunty continues, "Our sector has a great deal to learn in an industry in which the sophistication of our competitors has substantially outpaced us in recent years, leaving us little time to spare in raising our collective ability to compete. Don has a mastery of the retail and wholesale food business that we expect will serve the NCGA membership particularly well in the major challenges ahead."
FMI: www.ncga.coop and www.cooperativegrocer.coop. Food Cooperatives in the Northeast region interested in NCGA membership should contact Dave Blackburn at: daveb@ncga.coop or phone 734-761-8845, fax 954- 862-5951.
CLL: What attracted you to join CDI in the summer of 2002?
BR: What intrigued me was the idea of helping people in a local community to do something to make the community work better for itself. This was very much along the lines of the kind of work I had been doing right here in Franklin County (Massachusetts) for 20 years or so. The difference was, the work I'd been doing was municipally based, creating and working with regional municipal entities [these included a regional transportation network, a regional solid waste district, and a regional recycling program]. All of these were legal entities owned by the member municipalities--who were not obligated to join, so it was a free will choice on the part of the municipalities, who each then had a voice in the program, the budget, and everything else. I realized these were in fact cooperative ventures organized at the municipal level, and thought the expertise I had should be transferable to the private sector.
CLL: How do you see cooperative development rolling out in the Northeast?
BR: I think it is one real opportunity for towns and cities in New England-and around the country--to take control over the services they need. That's a benefit co-ops can provide to communities: that people can identify a need and come together to provide that need for themselves.
CLL: What do you consider the biggest challenge to cooperative development?
BR: Getting people to work together. I remember my initial marching orders from the County Planning Director when I did my initial recycling organizing: 'If you can get two towns to agree on anything, you've accomplished something.' I think the same is true in the co-op world. If you can get two people to agree, you've accomplished something. If you can get 20 people to cooperate on something, to the point where they may create a business together, you've accomplished a lot. If you can get 200 people to join as members of a co-op, you're really doing something.
CLL: What observations would you like to pass on to cooperative development leaders?
BR: From the point of development and also the cooperative leadership stand, the challenge is to not move too fast, not get out ahead of people's level of understanding and willingness to put in the necessary work. Everybody has ideas and a vision of what they want. To transform that vision into reality, into bricks and mortar, an actual service or good that's provided, takes a lot more than simply having a vision. It takes a tremendous amount of listening and a tremendous amount of work.
Listening is the key to making sure that everybody in the room is being heard, so that whatever it is that's being created has in fact served the needs of the people who are looking for the service. So the challenge is to not be driven so much by need, to slow down and think it through, to talk about things and do the research. It's like building a house: you start with a strong foundation and build up from that. You can have the best blueprint in the world, but you need to build a strong foundation for the house to have the prospect of surviving for a while. Something I admire about CDI's strategy is that we don't go into a community with an idea. We tend to be responsive; we let the community know we're here, but without people in the local community taking leadership, there's nothing we can or should do. Our skill is to really listen and guide the discussion so that people are in fact able to articulate their own desires and listen to each other's desires, as well as their own fears.
CLL: Do you think most people who might benefit from cooperative enterprise know enough about how co-ops work to seek help, and what role does the cooperative development community have in public education?
BR: In times of limited resources, we can't take out ads in all the region's mainstream newspapers that say, 'Interested in maintaining a strong vibrant local economy? Think about a cooperative. Call CDI' or whatever the local development center is. USDA has specialists around the country but they are essentially few and far between and not able to do as much of this type of work as they want to do. I think the best way for the information to get out is through the presence of existing co-ops. So in a town with a food co-op, for instance, people walk by and see the word 'Co-op', and they may walk in and see a vibrant business where people really seem to enjoy being there, both shopping there and working there. Then the idea of a cooperative reality is something they can actually see and touch. That's the best way at this point to get the word out.
This is the third in a continuing series to introduce the members of our new Partnership (see CLL #24).
Although most manufactured housing is less costly to buy than a site-built home, it is notoriously less energy efficient. The costs of heating and cooling are higher per square foot, but those costs are borne by the resident-consumers, not by housing park owner-investors. So when the New Hampshire Community Development Loan Fund (NHCLF) decided to venture into new territory, launching an energy-efficient manufactured housing co-op 'from scratch', they knew they had to design something affordable to buy, finance, and own.
Their site was 25 acres that had been part of a privately owned park recently purchased by the Barrington Oaks Cooperative. The manufactured housing park co-op did not want to take on the job of developing the additional property, so NHCLF stepped in. The result, Pepperidge Woods, is the first manufactured housing development in the country comprised entirely of energy-efficient homes that carry the U.S. EPA EnergyStar rating. At least half a dozen of the ultimately 44 homes have been built and some are for sale (FMI: Deb Wyman at 800-432-4110 x 251). All the homes will be sited to make best use of the sun's heat in winter as well as summer shade, and will have full basements or concrete slabs with perimeter foundation walls. An advanced septic system will reduce environmental impacts, and propane heat will eliminate the need for dirtier oil or kerosene.
The homes will be clustered together, with individual lots at least 10,000 square feet in size, and will be available in a variety of styles and colors with options such as decks, full basements and attics. A commercial mowing service will mean homeowners can give up their lawn mowers and trimmers. This will give the residents more time to spend at their community center, which will have both indoor and outdoor recreation and meeting spaces. The commitment to nature conservation at Pepperidge Woods includes a 50-foot natural buffer zone around all wetlands, as well as wildlife corridors that link the property to several large conservation tracks near by.
To make this all possible, NHCLF has engineered a financing package that includes New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority's First-time Homebuyers Program and the Cooperative Home Loan Program, sponsored by the NHCLF, as well as funds from the US Department of Agriculture's Section 502 program. This is a single-family loan program intended to provide low-income families the opportunity to purchase homes in rural areas. Interest rates vary with income, but can be as low as 1% fixed for 33 years with no money down. Upon the sale of the last of the 44 homes, the park will revert to resident ownership according to a plan approved by the New Hampshire State Attorney General. NHCLF has also committed to provide the on-going community development and technical assistance, as well as leadership training, which are hallmarks of their success. At present, there are 66 manufactured housing park cooperatives in the state, with the last three having formed since May 2004.
This article is based on a story by Rick Keller in the NHCLF Fall 2004 newsletter The Cooperator. FMI: www.nhclf.org.
Duncan Hilchey, who is on the Cooperative Life board of directors, recently sent CLL the draft of a report that is about to be released by Cornell University's Community, Food and Agriculture Program. Between 1999 and 2001, more than two dozen small-scale fruit and vegetable cooperatives in the Northeast (annual gross sales of $10M or less) were surveyed intensively about their organizational characteristics, management strategies, the attitudes of managers, members and directors, the impacts of the co-ops on their members, and the potential for better inter-cooperative collaboration in the region.
Survey results "show the critical importance of small-scale cooperatives to their members, and members' farms and families" and also points up their "fragility and vulnerability." Causes for this include "a general lack of manager stability, underdeveloped business management skills, and maintaining member commitment." Despite feeling generally positive about their experience, "88% of managers in this study reported seeing themselves as having 'poor' or 'uncertain' futures with their cooperatives, and 36% (including mostly paid managers) were planning to leave their positions...Membership commitment (e.g., delivering consistent volume and quality) was ranked as managers' and directors' number one challenge."
In spite of this, the report emphasizes that "many respondents are interested in working together to better their industry" and identifies potential areas for such inter-cooperative activities. "Most members believe their cooperative membership provides improved farm viability and maintains prospects for the next generation on the farm to 'some' degree. Nearly half (47%) reported that they would be 'hurt considerably' if their cooperative closed, and nearly three-quarters claimed they would be hurt 'at least some'...Most small-scale cooperative managers, members, and directors in the study were interested in forming a regional federation, especially if the time and cost were not too great. Cooperatives were particularly interested in shared purchasing of inputs, an annual conference, regionally pooled liability insurance, joint marketing, and joint education."
The Cornell report comes at a time when the number of small-scale fruit and vegetable cooperatives in the region has risen significantly, in large part a response to the growing demand for high-quality fresh and processed produce, coupled with farmers' needs for alternative sales outlets. This has in turn led to increased interest by local agencies and non-governmental organizations working for rural revitalization and agricultural sustainability. The data here clearly suggests (as prior reports cited in this one have also done) that small-scale grower cooperatives on the whole play a critical role in the sustainability of their family farm businesses, in the welfare of their families, and in turn in the welfare of their rural communities. Yet "like other recent studies, the results point to [inadequate] member commitment [and] leadership, and poor business planning as the leading barriers to meeting small-scale cooperative growth goals. These issues need to be aggressively and satisfactorily addressed for the recent growth of small-scale fruit and vegetable cooperatives to continue."
More than two-dozen recommendations to the region's small-scale fruit and vegetable cooperatives and to policy makers are made in the report, based on the survey analysis. These include investing in better management recruiting and training, improving the use of existing technical assistance resources such as CDI, considering joint ventures and coordinated purchasing, upgrading technology, making a more active commitment to member education, and strengthening relationships among members, directors and managers. Public policy recommendations include developing a national financial benchmarking initiative for small-scale fruit and vegetable cooperatives to help guide strategic management decisions, encouraging business-to-business activity, supporting and/or providing training programs (specifically mentioned are marketing, accounting, member relations and recruitment, and information management technology), supporting "cross-sectoral and inter-regional management mentoring and exchange programs" (specifically, re-instate the Manager's Institute at Penn State, discontinued in 2002), maintaining USDA support and increasing small-scale co-ops' visibility in USDA publications as well as the agricultural and popular press. And finally: "Consider establishing a national group or a sub-group of an existing national organization, which can support small-scale cooperatives. There are perhaps hundreds of incorporated and non-incorporated agricultural production business entities that would qualify as small-scale cooperatives. A national organization or a subgroup would have the scale and resources to be more viable than a smaller regional organization."
For a copy of the 59-page report, which is chock full of tables and graphs, contact Duncan Hilchey at dlh3@cornell.edu.
In CL Leader #26, we discussed the various issues encountered and methods available to cooperatives to capitalize their operations. Each solution has benefits and drawbacks. Often the best solution is a mixture of the methods outlined last time, tailored to the specific client's situation and needs. This series will present, not suggest specific solutions. Any co-op considering how to attract additional capital should have its board seek professional advice as part of determining a strategy. Feel free to contact CDI for guidance on this issue.
The first step for any new cooperative board is to develop a capital plan, detailing the specific amounts of the cooperative's ongoing (daily) capital needs, any project-specific capital goals (i.e. new coop store), any other capital requirements, and how each of these requirements will be met. Accompanying this should be an annual budget for the current year and projected budgets for the next two years. Since the cooperative is new, the responsibilities for designing, implementing, monitoring and assessing the success of the program will fall mainly on the board, so every board member needs to be involved and to do his or her part. Often, this is the first real test of how the board will function.
As a new cooperative, some of the methods mentioned last time will not be available to you because the cooperative is not up and running. Many new cooperatives get started by a combination of direct capital contributions, sale of preferred stock, and member loans. Often, the founding members will make the initial capital contributions, and then develop a plan to seek additional capital from others, who could be potential members. Sometimes, there's a financial "angel" who donates or lends sufficient capital to get the cooperative past a critical point, or who sets up a matching challenge to do so; such persons may also lend their names to the solicitation efforts, which can be useful in garnering further support.
For any direct contribution campaign, it is critical that the board establish the specific purpose for which the funds will be used. They will solicit funds based only on using them for these purposes. An escrow or other bank account must be set up to safeguard funds as they are collected, and the board must monitor the continued solicitation and use of the funds to assure that these comply with their stated purposes and the solicitation 'pitch' given to all prospective contributors. Bear in mind that co-ops may not claim such a contributions are tax deductible to the contributor, even though the co-op may have some charitable or ethical use or mission.
To be effective in soliciting capital, develop your solicitation campaign from the contributor's point of view with brief, focused answers on key questions: How will the contributor benefit from making the capital contribution? What happens if the campaign fails to reach its goals? What benchmarks will indicate the tangible results of the contribution? Under what circumstances might the contribution be returned? Can contributors expect any return on their investment? How will funds be safeguarded and used? Answering the hard questions up front will inspire confidence and is more likely to lead to a successful capital campaign. (Next time: Capitalizing Cooperatives Part 3, Preferred Stock and Member Loans)
Ed. note: Patrick J. Deluhery is a Massachusetts-based attorney serving the legal needs of cooperative businesses in the Northeast. FMI: pdeluhery@aol.com. This article is intended to provide information and is not legal advice.
The National Native American Co-operative provides incentives to more than 2,700 American Indian artists, representing more than 410 tribal nations, for the preservation of contemporary and traditional crafts and culture. These include dances, traditional food events, fashion shows, and performances. The Co-operative also sponsors various Indian events, including Pow Wows and cultural festivals. It maintains a website and recently revised its comprehensive directory of Native American contacts in Canada and the United States, a resource which has been praised by the American Library Journal, the National Indian Child Welfare Association, and others.
The directory, which costs $59, is a quick reference for locating Native Organizations, events, media, tribal offices and reserves. The Co-op also publishes a special guide for evaluating and acquiring Native crafts and raw materials through trading posts, stores, galleries, cooperatives, and guilds, and keeps a listing of American Indian events in the US and Canada. Free referrals, as well as fee-for-service consultation and program delivery, primarily to Native Americans, are also available.
Last January, members of the Co-op played key roles in the Second Encounter of the First Peoples' World Fair, held in Tucson, Arizona, and described as "a recommitment...to the continuation of the strength, beauty, and endurance of our traditions and cultures, thus providing a platform of inspiration for our Native American Indian Youth, as they come into the 21st Century. The contributions Native People have made to humanity and our contributions to the fabric of life, which we have generously shared on Mother Earth, will be acknowledged."
FMI: Fred Synder, Director-Consultant and Carole J. Synder, International Representative, Box 27626, Tucson, AZ 85726-7626; Tel: (520) 622-4900; Fax: (520) 622-3525; Email: info@usaindianinfo.org. Web site: www.usaindianinfo.org.
GEO Newsletter, published by the Grassroots Economic Organizing Collective as the nation's only newsletter focusing on worker co-ops and the workplace democracy movement, got some good news recently from Hazel Corcoran of the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation, who wrote to Len Krimerman that GEO was the third link (also the second it turns out) listed in the grassroots resources section of the web site of "The Take", the new blockbuster documentary by Canadian filmmakers Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis about the workers' takeover of factories in Argentina when the economy collapsed in 2001. To view the resources section, go to www.thetake.org and choose Flash site; then under 'The Take' click on 'grassroots' and 'links'.
Cooperative Life has, as part of its mission, the fostering of a vibrant cooperative economy in the Northeast. CL board member Noemi Giszpenc of Ownership Associates reports, "We are conducting a survey to gauge interest in forming different types of business-to-business relationships. We are asking people to take 10 to 15 minutes out of their busy day to fill out the survey, which is online at the Cooperative Life website: www.cooplife.coop (click on "Take the survey now"). Please pass this message on to other cooperators. If you have any questions, contact Noemi Giszpenc at giszpenc@hotmail.com or 617-666-1899. All survey respondents will receive the final survey results. Private information will be kept strictly confidential -- only aggregates will be publicly reported. Your input is vitally important! It will help shape what we do as an organization to create the economy that we want to see in our region.
The Canadian Co-operative Association in collaboration with the British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies (BCICS), the International Labour Organisation, and the International Co-operative Alliance, is preparing a book showing how young people around the world are using cooperatives to meet their economic and social needs. It will present case studies of co-ops operated by young people and articles about co-ops that have interesting youth programs. It will also feature essays by young people exploring the world of co-ops and cooperative action. Organizers emphasize, "We want pictures, especially from different parts of the world! We anticipate publishing the book by May 2005. We want the book to be written by and for young people and we define "young people" as being anyone under thirty!"
The Clean Energy States Alliance has just issued 'CESA Year One: A Report on Clean Energy Funds in the U.S.' (see our story on citizen-owned clean energy funds in CL Leader #26). A PDF of the 32-page report is at www.cleanenergystates.org. Thanks for this heads up from the report's design/production house DG Communications, whose David Gerratt has designed and produced many a CDI printed piece.
Facilitating Online Member Communities, a one-day training workshop sponsored by the Cooperative Life, Northeast Federation of Cooperatives, is being held Friday, November 19, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Greenfield Community College, downtown campus at 270 Main Street, Greenfield, MA. Lynn Benander, Cooperative Development Institute and Tom Murray, UMass, Amherst are facilitating this workshop. For more information, call Lynn Benander at 413-625-9292 or email lbenander@cooplife.coop.
F.R.E.E.E. the Valley! A Progressive Potluck, for those interested in supporting the local economy, caring for the environment and working for social justice. Join the Food Roundtable for an Equitable and Ecological Economy (F.R.E.E.E.) on Monday, November 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Bangs Community Center, Room 101, in downtown Amherst (Behind Rao's Coffee). Co-sponsored by the Pioneer Valley Sustainability Network and the Earth & Sky Exchange. www.earthskyexchange.org, www.pvsn.org. For more information & to RSVP contact Megan at earthskyfirewater@gmail.com or call 413-253-0255.
Rochelle Prunty, General Manager of River Valley Food Co-op in Northampton, Massachusetts, elaborates on the new National Cooperative Grocer Association as opposed to the former one (see Feature story, above): "A key difference is that each member co-op is now an individual member of NCGA rather than being an individual member of a regional association that is in turn a member of NCGA. By making NCGA a direct membership organization while keeping the regional groups as chapters of the national we are retaining regional autonomy and control while also enhancing individual member participation at the national level. By aggregating our CGA funding nationally and coordinating activities to eliminate duplication of efforts, we can operate a more efficient system and leverage resources more effectively to reach our goals.
"The development of Cooperative Grocers Associations over the past 10-plus years has included a lot of co-ops in a wide range of sizes. CGANE had members ranging in size from sales of $350,000 a year to more than $50,000,000 a year, so creating value for co-ops of different sizes has been a core value in our development of services, and this is true of the new NCGA as well. As CGA's have developed and moved beyond the organizational start-up phase to operating member services programs, the tangible value of the CGA membership has increased. I think co-ops looking at CGA membership today will see a much higher value for their investments than they may have seen a few years ago, and I expect this trend to continue." While NCGA existed for a number of years, it is only now, with the literal buy-in of all the co-ops involved, that the new Association would have the purchasing clout to compete in one of the toughest industries in the world.
FMI: www.ncga.coop.
FMI: (413) 774-7599 or info@cooplife.coop.
The Cooperative Life 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:
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Answer to Q026: "The United States Department of Agriculture established a Division of Cooperative Marketing in 1926 'to promote the knowledge of cooperative principles and practices and to cooperate in promoting such knowledge, with educational and marketing agencies, cooperative associations, and others.'" So write E.G. Nadeau and Ellen Quinn In their 2001 history of the national network of cooperative development centers CooperationWorks! As to the reasons behind this, they refer to Joseph Knapp's The Advance of American Cooperative Enterprise: 1920-1945 who wrote about 'a veritable explosion in cooperative activity' in the United States after World War I. The report's authors note that Knapp attributes this growth to farmers organizing to counter the post-war agricultural depression; promotion by national farmer organizations, and support by federal government agencies, and add that agricultural co-ops, credit unions, rural electric co-ops, and consumer purchasing co-ops grew dramatically in the 1920s and 30s FMI: www.cooperationworks.coop.
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.
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Cooperative Leader Staff
Lynda Brushett, Senior Editor, brushett@metrocast.net
Jane Livingston, Principal Writer and Editor, mejane@gwi.net
Laurie Siggillino Broussard, Production Manager, lbroussard@cdi.coop