By Marilyn Scholl 136 may - june - 2008 Interest in food cooperatives is growing, due both to increased interest in local, natural, and organic foods and to increased awareness of our economic vulnerability. More and more communities want the stability and accountability that a cooperative can offer. Cooperative ownership is an economic model that can create great benefits for our communities and member-owners. [...]
by Karen Zimbelman and Marilyn Scholl A Tool for Building Strong Co-op Membership Programs Any store can provide natural foods—just like any financial institution can provide checking accounts. Therefore, for a co-op, a strong supportive membership is the key to success. Without it, a co-op is just another store that has to compete on price, product, or service alone. Ownership by the consumer-users distinguishes [...]
By Karen Zimbelman, Marilyn Scholl 080 January - February - 1999 Members are the lifeblood of a co-op: a truism of cooperatives. Without members, a co-ops wouldn't be a co-op; it would be just another local grocery store. A co-op exists to serve the needs of its members. But members provide more than a co-op's reason for being. They provide the capital, the patronage, [...]
By Bill Gessner 063 March - April - 1996 Our cooperatives are truly empowering organizations, in origin and in practice, in vision and in mission, in theory and in action. Empowerment can be a simple and clarifying concept. Yet often we find ourselves misguided and muddled in the empowerment process within cooperatives. I believe this confusion serves as a primary obstacle to the healthy [...]
By Rob Wilson and Rob Okun
