Effective Practices in Co-op Development

Starting co-operatives is a challenging task. Fortunately, Canada has a rich treasury of experienced co-operative developers whose insights and advice can be called upon in helping people who want to start co-operatives to meet their economic and social needs. However, despite the long Canadian experience with co-ops, the efforts of many developers and the large size of the Canadian co-operative movement, people in communities and researchers have not had access to the collective insights of experienced developers on the best practices and crucial issues around starting co-operatives.

To help overcome this gap, The British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies (BCICS) has received a grant from the Co-operative Development Initiative administered by the Co-operatives Secretariat to undertake a research project on the best practices in co-operative development. Through the project we hope to garner the knowledge and insights from a broad sample of experienced co-operative developers. In particular we will focus on best practices as this relates to the formative period of co-operative development – from conceptualization to stabilization.

This 18-month project began in December 2005. In the first phase of the project, we sent out a call across the country for nominations of out-standing co-op developers. Thirty-seven nominations came in and from this we selected a core sample which reflected geographic, gender and sector diversity. In early May, 2006, we met with 11 peer-nominated developers for a two day meeting in Toronto. The meeting generated a great deal of discussion around the challenges developers face, the critical issues connected to developing co-ops, the steps in the development process and the particular approach of each developer. We also had the opportunity to share some reflections at the Co-op Zone meeting of developers which took place the day after our gathering and to gather insights and recommendations from those present at the Forum.

In the second stage of the project we will be conducting in-depth phone surveys with developers across the country in order to tap the broader wealth of experience of co-op development in our co-operative community.

Expected Outcomes

From the project, we will create a variety of resources, including:

• A book which lays out the process of starting co-operatives to help those interested in starting co-ops get a better idea of what is involved and for policy makers, accountants, lawyers and other associated with new co-ops gain a better understanding of the co-op model in practice.
• A collection of essays written mostly by developers which explores specific themes around co-op development,
• A video discussing the issues co-operatives encounter in their formative phases, and,
• An array of educational tools and resources to be made available on the web sites of BCICS, Co-op Zone and other co-operative organizations.

We appreciate your feedback and suggestions and hope that working together we can make a valuable contribution to the co-op movement in Canada and beyond.

If you would like additional information or want to be in touch with us, we would like to hear from you, please contact Joy Emmanuel the project manager at: joybcics@uvic.ca or call (250) 472- 4976.