BCCA Co-op Week Luncheon a Success

BCCA, BCCA — 28 Oct 2008

BCCA was proud to host its annual co-op week luncheon event at the beautiful VanDusen Botanical Garden. This year close to 80 individuals attended representing a broad spectrum of cooperatives from around the province. Many of the attendees were also alumnae of the BCCA's Bologna Summer Program; offered in the co-operative rich region of Emilia Romagna, Italy the Bologna Summer Program gathers an international faculty to offer a unique blend of theoretic and practical co-op learning experiences.

The luncheon event featured two presentations on the theme of, “Working Together to Promote Co-op Development. Carol Murray, BCCA Acting Executive Director, spoke on the Co-op Choice Campaign. The campaign, launched during Co-op Week, was the collaborative effort of partnering co-ops in the Lower Mainland; using common messaging the campaign promoted the benefits of the co-op model to the co-ops’ members and employees. Carol discussed some of the strategies used by five Lower Mainland co-operatives to raise awareness of co-ops among their members and employees. These readily transferable educational and promotional strategies promise to spark the creativity and imagination of others in the co-op sector.

In addition, representatives of the Vancity Leadership Program in Bologna, Jim Sinclair, President of the BC Federation of Labour; Virginia Greene, President and CEO of the Business Council of BC; Tamara Vrooman,CEO of Vancity; and Ellen Pekeles, Senior Vice President of Vancity; shared their program experiences with luncheon participants.

The panel spoke of their enriching experiences in Bologna and their observations on the differences in the cultural context for co-ops in Emilia Romagna and British Columbia. In particular, in Emilia Romagna the success of co-operatives is founded on the memberships’ both life-long and inter-generational commitment to the organization. Co-ops are developed in partnership with and support of the community. The level of commitment to co-op values and community is a force in the region. In fact, many successful cooperatives that could have been profitable private businesses deliberately maintain the co-op model. Such a commitment to the co-operative model benefits the region in its capacity to maintain relative economic sustainability while economic downturns affect surrounding regions.

The speakers also noted that the population in Emilia Romagna is relatively static with little in-migration, to the point where the population is declining. For the future, it is uncertain how this will impact economic and co-op development in the region. Of interest is consideration of the great population diversity and growth in BC, particularly in the Lower Mainland, and the different opportunities and approaches to foster economic and co-op development within this local context.

In closing, the panel members also discussed how they plan to work together with representatives from labour, business, government and the non-profit sector to determine how the practices they observed in Bologna could be applied in BC. With the support of BCCA and Vancity the panel is considering the creation of a co-op development project. Said project would take place in a target region or neighborhood with the goal being to use the co-op model to help drive social change by in part redefining wealth in terms of social justice, economic sustainability and community well-being.

The luncheon was a great success and could not have been accomplished without the generous support of the following sponsors:

Vancity Credit Unions

Federated Cooperatives Ltd.

Coast Capital Savings

Envision Financial

Mountain Equipment Co-op

CCEC Credit Union

Category: Community