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Monthly Headlines, March 2004

Front Page: Co-op Conversions:
Study Finds Demutalization Pressures Rising
How Members Fight Back
The conversion of cooperatives to for-profit businesses is still rare, but growing economic pressures to demutualize require preemptive changes in co-op bylaws, a willingness to reach out to members and the community, and, in some cases, regulatory intervention.

Page Three: Co-op Groups Blast Program Cuts in Budget
Programs important to cooperatives were not spared from the wave of cuts in the $2.4 trillion federal budget proposed by the Bush Administration in February—and co-op advocacy groups wasted little time in pointing that out.

Governance: Can Business Conduct Be Legislated By A Code of Ethics?
Robert G. Hensley, a partner with the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney LLP is CBJ's guest columnist. He writes: Cooperatives come in a variety of forms, and a code of ethics may need to be tailored to fit your particular business.

International Development: Producer-Run Trade Companies Boost Profits in Southern Africa
Three years ago in Zambia, the National Cooperative Business Association's CLUSA International Program, pioneered the concept of a farmer-run trading company that both reaches global markets and earns more for small rural producers.

Now NCBA has expanded the concept to Mozambique, a neighboring country of 18 million people with a per-capita income of approximately $210.

Co-op Pulse: Co-op Competes with Big Boxes, Contract Stationers
How has a collection of small, independent office products dealers managed to compete for a quarter century with the likes of Staples, Office Depot, and gigantic contract stationers like Boise Cascade?

One way is by banding together in buying groups that eventually became the is.group, the nation's largest purchasing co-op of independent office products dealers. Savings captured through bulk purchasing today allow nearly 700 members of is.group to claim a small but significant portion of the nation's $56 billion retail office products business.