2025 Enrollment Now Open! Our Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) team is looking ahead to another great year of supporting your organization’s success through our award-winning CBLD program. Now in its 21st year, CBLD provides an annual program of board support that includes monthly consulting, facilitated board retreats, a wealth of online webinars and other board trainings, and a [...]
This fall, consultants at Columinate will launch CBLD Academy, an on-demand learning loaded with revitalized and accessible content. Cooperators can expect three courses within the “Foundation Series” at the outset, with more courses planned to round out this base of co-op training. “It's a natural and a march towards progress in how we provide a framework for learning about the co-op business model,” said Leslie Watson, governance at Columinate.
Have you ever felt like your board is in a rut? Maybe it seems that all you do at meetings is hear reports about operational or committee activities. Or maybe you notice that your board engages in robust dialogue during your day-long retreats, but your monthly meetings seldom include this sort of conversation. Maybe you have begun to wonder what value you—individually or collectively—are adding to the organization.
With a dozen of its members part of the program, Columinate will have a strong presence at the annual food co-op startup conference, Up & Coming, to be held in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on September 12–14. Up & Coming is a spirited event, with enthusiastic members of co-op startups from across the country mixing with veteran trainers and consultants.
This session will help directors better understand their role in financial oversight and evaluating risk and build their confidence in doing that work well, regardless of their experience in business finance.
Leading an independent grocery store has never been as difficult as it is now. And leading a multi-stakeholder organization like a cooperative brings additional complexities to an already challenging role. Your Content Goes Here Leading an independent grocery store has never been as difficult as it is now. And leading a multi-stakeholder organization like a cooperative [...]
Ready for digital literacy Co-ops have a lot of teaching to do. To build a cooperative ecosystem with knowledgeable and invested stakeholders aware of what it is they have become a part of, it takes a lot of orienting, sharing, demonstrating, and educating. A cooperative can fail if it does not consistently apply Co-op Principle 5: Education, Training, and Information. Lack of strong education systems within a co-op culture can slowly erode its core.
For a board of directors, few things are as unsettling as receiving a complaint about the GM, and few things can more quickly erode the board-GM relationship than a complaint handled poorly.
Welcome to 2023! As your co-op board of directors reflects on the past year and refreshes for the upcoming one, don’t forget that Columinate’s Cooperative Board Leadership Development program (CBLD) is here to support your work. For nineteen years, this award-winning program has been a resource to co-op boards across the country, providing monthly consulting, facilitated board retreats, and a robust lineup of engaging, relevant webinars. In January, CBLD is kicking off its fresh slate of webinars with sessions focused on building trust and navigating conflict.
