Current Issue

Monthly Headlines, November 2004

Front Page: Co-op Awareness
Education Lights the Way
The fifth co-op principle is: education, training and information. This month's issue of CBJ features stories about cooperators striving to educate young people and families at co-op camps, and a look inside the master's degree program in cooperative and credit union management at St. Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
How often students 'Catch the Bug' when they live in student co-op housing during their college years and after graduation move on and make co-ops their careers.

And there is yet a bigger question posed in this issue regarding Co-op Awareness: Is it higher in other countries than in the United States?

Page Three: Report Proposes to Strike Co-op Exclusion from FTC Franchise Rule
A Federal Trade Commission staff report has recommended eliminating an explicit exclusion of purchasing and agricultural cooperatives from the agency's franchise sale disclosure rule. This story details the issues involved with such an action and NCBA's opposition to it.

Governance: Collaboration With Your Board
Right-Wrong. We-Them. Win-Lose. Unfortunately, it's easy for board interactions to fall into these realms rather than into collaboration.

Consultant Barbara Wirtz works with organizations to turn their improvement ideas into reality. She also has experience as a board member. "The goal of collaboration...is to move beyond the deadlocks that can easily occur."

October is Co-op Month: Vermont Marks Co-op Month with Coalition, TV Sports
Cabot Creamery is proud of its cooperative heritage. It reached out to other co-ops across the state and found they too wanted to share their stories and highlight the role of the co-ops in the state's economy. "We had a shot to do something for co-op month and this group is a bunch of fireballs," said Cynthia Tokos of Cabot Creamery Cooperative. Read CBJ and find out what they did.

Annual 5K Race for Cooperative Development Raises $45,000
The Washington area kicked off Co-op Month with the 16th annual 5K race for cooperative development. More than 200 runners participated, some as far away as Massachusetts and Florida.

International: Starbucks Gives Big Boost to East Timor Coffee Cooperative
The Seattle-based coffee giant last month began selling the coffee produced by Cooperativa Cafe Timor, a national coffee federation in East Timor assisted by the National Cooperative Business Association's CLUSA International program.

The new brand Timor Lorosa'e is a "single-origin" product, that is organically grown, and fair-trade certified. Starbucks says single-origin coffees "display an assortment of distinctive flavor characteristics."