Michael Healy Recorded at The Cooperative Cafe Michael Healy invites us to expand our thinking around participation in our co-ops, specifically how we look at measuring participation. According to Healy, there may be way more to examine if we can move beyond just counting voter turnouts and Annual Meeting attendance. Rather than looking at participation as something co-ops need to convince people to do, [...]
What would happen if everyone in a whole community understood their role in achieving a common purpose? It’s not hard to imagine that lots of really positive things could be accomplished, some of them beyond our wildest dreams. That’s why it is critical to the success of a cooperative that everyone has a role in determining the co-op’s future. One of the fundamental differences [...]
CE Pugh, Chief Operating Officer National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA), Iowa City, IA CE Pugh sheds his perspective, from the national level, on the importance of Participation in helping our cooperatives thive. There are many interesting questions we can explore if we look at data and trends from a national perspective and CE guides us along.
Tom Mattox, Board Member Food Front Cooperative, Portland, OR Tom Mattox gives a personal and compelling talk about new ways for us to invite genuine participation from co-op stakeholders. His perspective will have your whole Board thinking about participation in a new light. Highly recommended!
Dan Arnett, General Manager Central Co-op, Seattle, WA Dan gets brainy about participation. Watch Dan break down participation into 3 components and explain some theory behind effectively engaging stakeholders in your co-op and its direction.
Realistically the board president can’t do everything. No matter how strong someone is at the role, having a hired facilitator may give board chairs the opportunity to lead with their strengths and address different governance needs. More boards are finding that hiring a trained facilitator has also helped make their meetings run smoother. A win-win for everyone. At Abundance Cooperative Market in Rochester, New [...]
Marilyn Scholl, Manager CDS Consulting Co-op Putney, VT We can apply some very basic psychological frameworks to our work in growing Participation to help us really understand how our members interact with their Cooperative. Marilyn Scholl tells us how.
The nominations committee of the Friendly City Food Co-op in Harrisonburg, Va. has been meeting since January to get a head start on the board nominations process. In addition to finding excellent candidates and improving the voting process, the co-op also wants to ensure it has contested elections. “Each year we are trying to be more proactive,” said Laura Toni-Holsinger, the board president. “I [...]
Hear directly from the ICA President about the undeniable importance of Participation in building the success of the Cooperative Movement. Dame Green discusses the role of Participation as one of the components of a successful cooperative decade as laid out in the ICA's Blueprint For a Cooperative Decade.
