By Jane Livingston, Guest Columnist
You’ve no doubt heard of cooperatives; maybe you buy groceries at Rising Tide in Damariscotta, Good Tern in Rockland or the Portland Food Coop. Maybe you know someone who lives in a housing co-op, or gets power from an electric co-op. If you belong to a credit union, you’re a member of a (financial services) co-op!
How CO-OPs are Different
Cooperatives are guided by a set of business principles and values that have little in common with investor-owned companies. Members govern the business democratically, usually by electing a board, which oversees management. Member benefits depend on: how much is purchased, if the co-op is owned by individual consumers, like food, energy and housing co-ops; how much is sold, if it’s a producers’ co-op like Port Clyde Fresh Catch, or the value of a member’s work, if it’s a worker-owned cooperative like Local Sprouts restaurant in Portland.
Worldwide, co-ops serve millions of members, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and together represent the world’s ninth largest economy. Their “triple bottom line”—financial, social and environmental accountability—is why they have been leaders in fair trade, sustainable development, buy/eat local, and social justice movements. Being locally owned, co-ops recycle money longer in the local economy. Typically, they are run by paid managers, who report to volunteer boards elected by and answerable to the members. This is why co-ops in the US have been far less buffeted than other businesses by the economic downturn. More than 650,000 credit union accounts were opened in one day across the US last November, calling for “Main Street” rather than Wall Street economics!
Cooperative Maine
Here in Maine, cooperatives are on the increase, with the support of allies like the Cooperative Development Institute and the Cooperative Fund of New England. Cooperative Maine, a voluntary association dedicated to promoting the co-op economy, has compiled a directory, Stronger Together, that lists Maine co-ops.
Jane Livingston has been promoting the cooperative economy in the U.S. and Canada for 18 years. She lives in Veazie.
