What Will We Think of Next?
added 07/20/09
Earlier this year, two members of the Co-op’s Education Department visited a local high school to speak to several classes about cooperatives and their principles, practices, and values. The speakers began by asking the students if they had heard of the following concepts:
All in attendance not only nodded yes, but also discussed each term or phrase as if it were a natural part of their adolescent lexicon. Imagine the students’ surprise when they learned that the cooperative movement spearheaded these concepts decades ago, long before they came into vogue.
In a day and age when big-box grocery stores use the word “local” to describe products shipped in from hundreds of miles away and international oil companies use the word “green” to market gasoline, it’s easy to forget that just a few years ago cooperatives were advocating important causes before the causes were cool—when they were more than just an advertising strategy or a broad marketing approach. This sort of innovation begs the question: How much good will cooperatives bring to the world in the years and generations to come? What will we think of next?
October is National Co-op Month, and as part of our coverage, we’ve asked a few of these “next-thinking” cooperatives to join us in bringing this issue of the Co-op News to you. Look for their full-color ads on pages 2, 11, 14, and 19, and take some time to learn more about who they are and what they do. Whether a credit union, a consumer co-op, an agricultural co-op, or an insurance co-op, all co-ops espouse the same cooperative principles and values. Like millions of others worldwide, these cooperators function as though every month were Co-op Month—working to meet the needs of their members and their communities, one good idea at a time.
If the mark of the innovator is the ability to move ahead while the rest of the world is just catching up, then cooperatives have been a hotbed of innovation since the Rochdale Pioneers formed the first successful consumer co-op in Rochdale, England, in 1844. This sort of legacy deserves to be honored and celebrated, no matter what month it may be.
What Do You Think?
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