For this session, my assigned topic is “Cooperative Structures.” I took this to mean how grocery coops are organized – and in our case, I assumed we were really wanting to hear a little\u00a0 about how that organizational structure works in relation to governance by the Board of Directors. I also thought we might be looking around a little for alternative structures for the Board itself – how many Board members, what kind of committees, etc.<\/p>\n
I decided to look at the work of the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives<\/a> (UWCC), and asked Ann Hoyt (who is actually faculty in another department at UW, but works on co-op research) if she might be able to come and speak to us at our May meeting. She was unavailable but sent me some references that I will list on this page – they are<\/em> about co-op structures, but the examples are agricultural co-ops and credit unions, that are enough different than consumer grocery co-ops that I felt that resources, while helpful, are somewhat peripheral to us.<\/p>\n One recent research project that Hoyt worked on is Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives. There is a project website<\/a>, where you can read the full, 76 page report – if you wish! I’d like to direct you to the short section on grocery co-ops<\/a>, that I think give us some ideas for our session tonight.<\/p>\n Here’s a quote from the report, the first paragraph under organizational structures of grocery co-ops:<\/p>\n Retail food cooperatives either operate retail stores or pre-order buying clubs. Cooperatives that operate retail stores are predominantly single-store operations, but some successful stores have expanded to operate two or more stores. The largest of these is the Puget Natural Markets<\/a> which operates out of nine locations. Several retail food cooperatives have expanded into non-grocery businesses. Most are restaurants and delis, but a few others include natural home products and vertical integration into ownership of farms and orchards. The store-based food cooperatives are characterized by their strong support for natural and organic foods, community activities, local food systems and environmental sustainability. Although many current store-based food cooperatives originally encouraged members to work voluntarily in the store in return for a \u201cmember discount,\u201d most stores now hire professional management and operate the store with paid staff.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This paragraph suggests to me that it might be profitable for our meeting to take a look at the websites of some other food co-ops and see how their structures compare to ours.<\/p>\n Here are a couple to explore:<\/p>\n Additional resources:<\/p>\n For this session, my assigned topic is “Cooperative Structures.” I took this to mean how grocery coops are organized – and in our case, I assumed we were really wanting to hear a little\u00a0 about how that organizational structure works … Continue reading \n
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