Bill Gessner likes working with people, and most of the time, you’ll find him wherever groups are creating plans for the future. Throughout his career, Bill has worked with hundreds of food co-ops and many development organizations. It is not an exaggeration to say that his ability to work with diverse groups of people has helped the food co-op sector grow and thrive. He [...]
Looking to the Cooperative Principles, it is clear that cooperatives are by design set up to be empowering organizations. From the first principle to the last, from open membership to concern for community, all aspects of the cooperative’s control of resources are to be a model of trust and transparency. This is achieved when the people involved at all levels know their roles [...]
Lexington Cooperative Market Buffalo, N.Y. Year founded: 1971 Number of members: 6,500 Equity investment: $80 Number of staff: 75 Retail square feet: 4,500 For many years the leadership at Lexington Cooperative Market in Buffalo, N.Y., knew their discount program was a problem. The co-op struggled with profitability, and in 2007 concerns about the co-op’s viability grew. The idea of taking away a long-term popular [...]
Explore the history of the modern-day cooperative, delve into societal trends, gain understanding of the economic and religious forces at work and let Todd Wallace weave the pieces together for you in this riveting story-telling journey through cooperative history.
CoCoFiSt Common Cooperative Financial Statements, a CDS program for improving cooperative performance. CoCoBud A budgeting feature that, based on historical data, projects sales, margins, and payroll by department, as well as income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, ratios, capital budgets and loans for the next four quarters. A manager can then change assumptions to change the projections. CoCoGap This illustrates how much more profit [...]
