The juicy bits of the conference have finally commenced bright and early this morning with the keynote address. Speakers were Ann Hoyt, of the University of Wisconsin Co-op Extension Program and main organizer of these annual CCMA gatherings. Adam Schwartz, VP of Member Svcs. for NCBA, and Mark Meyer, CEO of the Filene Institute, a think tank for credit unions.
Adam gave a breif but interesting report back on what is exciting in the world of co-op lobbying and NCBA development. Hilights:
- directory.coop – a listing of all the cooperative businesses using the .coop top-level domain (TLD)
- Currently being developed is a legal database cataloging ALL of the co-op statues in all 50 states + the District of Columbia & Puerto Rico. This could be incredibly useful!
- Also in development is an online database of ALL 29,000 co-ops (and 78,000 locations) in the US. Search on location, type, etc.
- Purchasing co-ops – non-cooperative businesses banding together to pool buying power, much like the NCGA has done for food co-ops with the Co-op Advantage Program
- And a proposal is on the table in the White House to look at cooperative models as a solution to our current health care crisis!
- And in general the increased openness to, and support for co-ops with this new administration.
The keynote address, given by Mark Meyer from the Filene Institute was…interesting:
- Ed Filene (think Filene’s Basement), millionaire businessman, was one of the first champions of co-ops in the US and founded the first credit union.
- Co-op partnership with Weight-Watchers (or something like that). Tap into existing markets that could benefit from the work we’ve been doing for decades. Namely, securing healthy, whole foods for people.
- Annual mtg. as the litmus test for how well we are doing our jobs: this is the moment where people should get it. Do they? (personally i think we are doing a fantastic job by this standard).
And finally i will leave you with a quote from the keynote:
“Progress is the constant replacement of something great with something GREATER!”