There are some great opportunities for celebrating National Cooperative Month.
- The fist North American Worker Cooperative Conference will be held in Quebec City, Quebec from October 11-15. The cheapest way to get to Canada is to fly to Burlington, VT and then rent a car to drive across the border.
- The NCBA is holding its annual meeting this week. In a rare moment, they have ventured outside of the Beltway and will be in Minneapolis, MN. As a special event, they will be live-streaming a session with ICA Director General Charles Gould and NCBA President and CEO Paul Hazen as they discuss the International Year of the Cooperative. You can watch this on Wednesday, October 5 at 11:00 am CDT by visiting http://s.coop/ncba2011. Perhaps your co-op could set up computer for members and customers to watch?
- My co-operative, Union Cab, will be celebrating the 32nd anniversary of beginning operations on October 29th.
October is a great time of the year to reflect on our movement. This last weekend, a number of cooperative organizations came together in Madison for the first, ever, cooperative trade show. It was really great to be in a room with Madison area coops from every environment (except housing, sadly). It was the brain child of Summit Credit Union and I hope it becomes an annual event. This is something that simply wouldn’t have happened 10 years ago (or even 5 years ago). The cooperative movement is waking up, it seems, and not a moment too soon.