March 2010 BCCA newsletter

After a flurry of activity in the weeks preceding Christmas, BCCA launched the Co-operative Career Intern Program with placements of seven young interns. This is a new program that is offered exclusively to BCCA members and in this, our first year, the program is off to a strong start. A two-day orientation session was held on Jan. 28^th and 29^th for all our new interns to prepare them for their placements within their host organizations and topics included Goal Setting, Types of Co-op Models, The Economics of Co-ops, and The History and Philosophy of Co-ops.

Tax Treatment of Co-ops Challenged at the European Commission - Co-op Identity Threatened

From March 6^th-9^th, 2010 past participants, staff, sponsors and friends of the YES program will be gathering at the Loon Lake Education Centre in Maple Ridge to celebrate the long history of The YES (formerly Camp Rainbow).  The camp has operated for over 35 years in BC, and has touched the lives of thousands of the province's outstanding youth.  With a rich and varied program drawing on the best of The YES experience, we are inviting anyone with a connection to the program to join us for the whole weekend, or for a shorter visit.

Café Ético has announced that an urgent situation has been unfolding in Guatemala, where members of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) have been receiving death threats and have forced the organization's leaders and their families to go into hiding. The CCDA is the peasant and indigenous people's labour organization that has been a key supplier of organically grown coffee for Café Ético in Vancouver.

When I last wrote about the Co-op Development Initiative, I mentioned our great pleasure at the Initiative's four-year renewal by the federal government. This $19.1 million contribution to the Canadian co-op sector is invaluable - it allows, for example, BCCA's Advisory Service program for emerging co-ops to continue; and, through the Innovative Co-operative Program (ICP) component of the CDI, it provides substantial, multi-year grants to more established co-ops.