Co-op Week is just a few days away, but there’s still time to be part of this annual gathering of co-op champions and supporters in the nation’s capitol. Help celebrate the business model and honor its heroes by attending the Cooperative Development Foundation’s Issues Forum and NCBA CLUSA’s Annual Membership Meeting.
Annual Membership Meeting
Held at NCBA CLUSA headquarters in Washington, DC on May 7 from 3-5 p.m., our annual member event is a key opportunity to contribute your voice to the broader co-op community and help define how cooperatives are building a more stable and sustainable economy. Register now for this free event—you can attend in person or online, virtually!
You’ll learn how NCBA CLUSA, with your help, is using advocacy, public awareness and development to capture a generational cooperative moment. At a reception immediately following the meeting, you’ll have the opportunity to network with NCBA CLUSA board members and executive leadership.
This year, we’ll also take time to celebrate the lives of the colleagues we lost in December by unveiling a memorial. Their work with the Youth Empowerment Through Agriculture project in Uganda brought—and continues to sustain—economic opportunities for youth people and hope for a more stable future.
Cooperative Issues Forum
Held at the National Press Club on May 8, 2019 from 1:30-5 p.m., this year’s Cooperative Issues Forum features a discussion on cooperative impact followed by the Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees Panel. Register now for this free event!
During “The ABCs of Cooperative Impact,” you’ll learn about the seven factors for evaluating cooperative impact and hear examples of cooperatives improving the lives of members and communities in the agricultural, housing, utility and finance sectors.
Keynote presentations from Brett Theodos, senior research associate with the Urban Institute, and Margaret Lund, principal of Co-opera Co. will set the stage. Then stay for a panel moderated by Theodos and Lund and featuring Jerry McGeorge, vice president of Cooperative Affairs at Organic Valley; Mike Keyser, CEO of BARC Electric Cooperative; Paul Bradley, president of ROC USA; and Carla Decker (invited), president and CEO of DC Credit Union.
The afternoon rounds out with the Cooperative Hall of Fame Panel and Q&A, moderated by NCBA CLUSA president and CEO Doug O’Brien and featuring the 2019 inductees to the Cooperative Hall of Fame. They include Terry Appleby, retired general manager of Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society; Richard Ensweiler, retired president and CEO of Cornerstone Credit Union League; Anne Reynolds, retired executive director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives; and Richard Stammer, former president and CEO of Agri-Mark and Cabot Creamery Cooperative.
Click here to read about their achievements in cooperative leadership and development.