It's time to consider co-operating

It’s international Co-op month.

Here in the United States and around the world people are recognizing cooperatives as humane economic engines in their communities. Co-ops mean, fundamentally, “I belong.” To their members, co-ops mean “I matter” and “I count.”

Co-ops are owned by their members, whether it is the fairly small Anacortes Food Co-op or the gargantuan Boeing Employees Credit Union, BECU. Everyone in a co-op belongs because each person made the choice to join.

Everyone matters because co-op members own equal shares of the business. And everyone counts because all members get one vote when called on in governance.

Why cooperate? Steve Hinton, restoration director for the Skagit River System Cooperative, a partnership between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe for improving fisheries management, said of his organization’s start in 1976 “It was very much in line with the spirit of a cooperative by pooling resources that would be diminished if every tribe worked on its own.”

Forty-two years out, that effort continues. This year’s theme for international co-op month is: “Cooperatives - See the Future,” Co-ops, owned by their members, exist to serve their members. Whether consumer co-ops, like the Skagit Valley Food Co-op, or producer co-ops like Puget Sound Food Hub, or worker co-ops, like Bellingham Bay Builders, every co-op, as a business, meets the needs of its owners. And those owners live in the community.

Co-ops do not move overseas. They do not merge with conglomerates that close them down. A successful co-op is rooted in its owners’ hometown. Those owners are your neighbors. Their business might be your business.

As Hinton said “That emphasis in combining resources is a better way to go. Current issues are splitting us apart. Encouraging ways to bring us together are better not just for the tribe but for local communities.”

Co-ops are a way to ensure we have a stable, local, sustainable future.

Read Hinton’s co-op’s story in this week’s paper. A co-op will be featured in every issue this month.

“Co-operatives - See the Future.” Indeed, cooperation is the path to the future.