Continue reading »]]> The year 2012 marked not the end of the world, but it may have represented a turning point in cooperative development and growth. 2012 as we all know was the United Nations Year of the Cooperative. The International Cooperative Association has released a Blueprint to make the present decade one of confident growth for the international cooperative movement.

The major priorities in this decade will be to make far more people aware of the co-operative form of enterprise, to provide aspiring cooperative members with the tools and back-up to establish, fund and develop sustainable co-operatives, and to reduce obstacles to that endeavour.

The message to the world at large is that cooperatives present a way of doing business which is better and brings a more effective balance to the global economy than the dominant single model that we see in the world today.

Read the Blueprint for a Cooperative Decade HERE.

Continue reading »]]> Team Iceland has launched a pilot project on testing parts of the prospective Conventus learning model for cooperatives. Compared to other Conventus partners, Iceland is in a somewhat unique position which has historical references to the meltdown of the Icelandic Cooperative Movement in the late 1980s. Today, only 31 cooperatives exist in Iceland and in general, the knowledge of the cooperative form is rather weak and cooperative attitudes tend to be somewhat negative, especially among those people who remember the ‘old movement.’

However, it may be assumed that younger people may be more open-minded towards the values and principles of the cooperative form and, in addition, the situation in Iceland after the economic recession is calling for more democracy, sustainability and more social responsibility among companies and enterprises. Therefore, there is a need in Iceland for increased awareness towards the cooperative form, active cooperatives are scarce and there are clearly opportunities for the cooperative business form in Iceland at the moment.

Therefore, the purpose of this pilot project is to establish a programme for prospective cooperators. The pilot target group consists of job seekers who have suffered long-term unemployment. This project is established in cooperation with the Innovation Centre Iceland and The Directorate of Labour in Iceland.

The aim of this project is to assist job seekers to establish cooperatives. The assistance includes a teaching programme, coaching and consultancy. The project started with an orientation period in November, where prospective participants where invited to an introductory meeting. Following that meeting, a short teaching period commenced which included the history and ideology of the cooperative movement, where participants were made aware of the speciality and the uniqueness of the cooperative form and did a brainstorming workshop on forming ideas of prospective cooperative enterprises.

As part of the project, participants will form their own groups and work on project ideas, develop business plans for prospective cooperatives, work on marketing strategies, finances, accounting, management and strategy and other practical issues in establishing a cooperative. The teaching period will commence in January and end at the end of April 2013.

Continue reading »]]> The Conventus project has moved into the development of the learning system which combines material from the SKILLS project with new material into five training modules. At the project meeting at the Coompanion office in Skaraborg, Sweden, some of the material was tested.

A shot of the meeting room at the Coompanion office in Skaraborg

The testing of the learning material in Moodle was partly led via an iLinc internet connection with Tornio.

The testing session also comprised a demonstration of the four-field group analysis method.

The attendees, which included cooperative members from different European countries also went on different study visits to various cooperatives in the Skaraborg region. The visit to SkaraborgsAssistans even made the local paper!

SkaraborgsAssistans is a user cooperative where persons entitled to personal assistance are members and have one vote. Skaraborgsassistans have aproximately 50 members and about 300 employees with a turnover of 80 million SEK (aprox 10 million Euro)

SkaraborgsAssistans became the Cooperative of the Year in Skaraborg 2009. The prize is awarded by Coompanion business advice to groups that want to realize their ideas together. The motivation was as follows:

SkaraborgsAssistans demonstrates the potential of doing business in which human benefits are a priority and where integrity, freedom of choice and self-determination are a matter of course. SkaraborgsAssistans shows that cooperative companies increase people’s opportunities to participate in work and in decision making.

Götene Företagskooperativ was another cooperative that was visited. It is a social cooperative located in the small town of Götene. Götene has a population of about 13000 and you will find it in the south-west of Sweden on the southern shore of lake Vänern near the nature reserve of Kinnekulle.

The cooperative has about 20 members and the areas of activity of the cooperative are mainly in building log houses and other building work. They are about to open up a B&B during 2013. They can also hold lectures about social cooperatives and supervising. Their vision for the future is to open a dog daycare center, a greenhouse and a strawberry plantation.

Götene Företagskooperativ became the Cooperative of the Year in Skaraborg 2012. The motivation was as follows: Götene Företagskooperativ runs a commercial establishment in a harmony with social values where everyone has a common arena and where everyone’s knowledge and experiences are important. A concept where the weak win the force through joint engagement in their idea under the basic principle that there shall be a place for all people in a company, that everyone is needed.

The cooperative LeraMedmera is a handicraft cooperative formed by a number of individual artisans working with clay and ceramics. They have joint marketing and share the costs of their venue which is located on the former Rörstrand Factory area in Lidköping. The cooperative is also working on assignments for other artists who want to produce their work in a larger edition.

The cooperative is relatively newly started and is building up their business in their gallery.

Finally, the social cooperative Bruk för Alla is something you never think you would find in a small place like Falköping Sweden. But there is a place, a cooperative that helps people, who are or have been unemployed for long periods of time, or they have some dysfunction that they have acquired or are born with. Bruk för Alla cooperative gives hope back to people, people whom society has discarded. Bruk för Alla thinks that everyone can do and wants to do something with their lives. Everyone is important!

Bruk för Alla gives people ways to be productive, be a part of the society. It has been running since 1995 for the good cause. They do almost everything. The  Bruk för Alla cooperative has jobs in ICT and different kinds of manufacture (handmade items like decorations, furniture etc.). Many people could learn a lot from them and everyone would know that they can do something.

A demonstration at Löfwings atelier.

The Conventus project partners participating in the meeting expressed their satisfaction with the meeting and the project progresses.

Continue reading »]]> Götene Företagskooperativ is located in the small town of Götene. Götene has a population of about 13000 and you will find it in the south-west of Sweden on the southern shore of lake Vänern near the nature reserve of Kinnekulle.

Our cooperative has about 20 members and the areas of activity of our cooperative are, at the moment, mainly in building log houses and other building work and we are about to open up a B&B. We also hold lectures about social cooperatives and supervising.

Our vision for the future is to open a dog daycare, a greenhouse and a strawberry plantation.

You can visit us on our website: gfkoop.se, or find us on Facebook. Some pictures can be found in our slide presentation.

Continue reading »]]> Urban Flow is a consultancy and service cooperative set up in Tornio, Finland,by students of Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences. The cooperative has 14 members who each have their own area of expertise. Urban Flow offers diverse services to other enterprises, such as efficiency and product development services, event planning and graphic design for company branding.

Members of Urban Flow in a business meeting

Continue reading »]]> The social cooperative Laxen is located in the municipality of Gullspång in South-Central Sweden. The town of Gullspång borders on lake Vänern and has a population of about 1200.

Laxen takes its name from the salmon that travel upriver past Gullspång each spring. A salmon stair allows the fish to reach its spawning area.

The cooperative has 29 members but employs more people than just the cooperators. The areas of activity of the cooperative are in tourist information, gardening and forestry as well as handicrafts. The cooperative also offers light transport services and operates a second hand store.

They present themselves in the attached slides.

Continue reading »]]> Lärkan is a social cooperative located in the small town of Grästorp. The cooperative has 40 members and employs 17 full-time staff and a varying number of trainees.

The activities of the cooperative cover several areas.

1. The cooperative has a service branch that specialises in yard work and light transport.
2. A second-hand shop recycles goods.
3. A bus stop café offers refreshments and gifts
4. A cycle shop repairs and sells bicycles and small motorised equipment like lawnmowers
5. The cooperatives also provides organisations in the municipality with minor administration support.

Lärkan presents itself further in this picture collage.

Continue reading »]]> Italian project partner Cooperazione Trentina (FTC) arranged project meeting in Trento July 26th to 28th. This meeting was crucial for the development of the learning system for co-operatives. We had also opportunity to have contribution from the target group, co-operatives and organisations promoting co-operatives. The broad variety of co-operation was represented by the partner countries: consumer and social coops, service and culture. These co-operatives and education organisations help us to develop methods and tools for the learning system by testing and commenting as pilot groups. It is essential to get feedback and practical solution proposals from the users to make the learning system user-friendly and attractive. And we got feedback, thanks Anna, Pavel and Zdzizlaw from Poland, Mikaela, Dan-Inge and Petra from Sweden, Michele, Silvia, Mattia, Marina, Matteo, Gabriele, Alberto and Federico from Italy, Einar and Karl from Iceland, and Outi, Päivi and Jukka from Finland!

To help us clarify the use of different channels for dissemination activities, Gabrielle Francescotto from Coop OpenContent gave us presentation and ideas how to exploit especially social media. He gave us professional advise which message to spread through which channels, and how to build up target group strategy for our purposes. Very interesting and useful! Thanks Elena and Giovanna for this idea.

And of course we discussed also other project activities, e.g. evaluation and exploitation. As a summary, Trento meeting “connected the wires” in the project and now we are ready to start building the learning system for co-operatives.

In addition to the project activities, we had great opportunity to hear presentation about the co-operative system in Trentino by the director of the Federation of Cooperatives in Trento Carlo Dallasega, and about EURICSE European Research Institute on Co-operatives and Social Enterprises by Riccardo Bodini. Both presentations pointed out co-operatives’ proven potential to survive through times of economic crisis, but also stressed the need for develop them as businesses. Visits to local co-operatives underlined the long history of co-operation and local economy in Trento area. This was seen also in our meeting room: co-operative principles on the walls!

Jarmo Hänninen/COOP
Coop Finland Association

Continue reading »]]> Conventus project with a stand at the Festival of Economy 2012

The Federation will present the Conventus project with a stand at the Festival of Economy 2012, an annual event that offers the opportunity to learn from national and international experts in economics who bring Trento to life with new opportunities for discussion and reflection, public meetings and cultural events.

This year the festival focuses on Life cycles and intergenerational transfers, and will take place in Trento and Rovereto on 31^st May – 3^rd June.

The multimedia stand Generations, schools & local territories, organized by the Federation in collaboration with other local partners, will feature the latest teaching and training methods used in the province as described by cooperative members, students, teachers and project leaders. Use of technologies and demonstrations will encourage interaction and experimentation to motivate learning, along with spaces created for debate and further study. The stand will focus on combining generations and dynamic forces organized in a network perspective: from cooperative education in the classroom to special projects linking schools to work; from activities involving people in the world of research to the daily activities of researchers and new non-formal approaches to education. It will offer opportunities to try out new-generation instruments for teaching and training, stemming from industrial research by cooperatives and local spin-off businesses.

The Federation has always had an active part in the Festival of Economy in order to promote and communicate cooperation to a wider audience, members and non-members alike. The Festival provides a pedestal to getting closer to the world of cooperation and offers visibility at local, national and international levels.

There should be an estimated 90,000 visitors arriving in Trento based upon numbers attending past editions.

http://2012.festivaleconomia.eu/en