Directors Encouraged to Attend CCMA

Consumer Cooperative Management Association (CCMA) conference will be held June 12-14 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky. For more information, contact Ann Hoyt at 608/262-7390 or aahoyt@wisc.edu.

Are you a co-op director who has not attended a recent CCMA Annual Conference? Other directors and I want to encourage you to attend the 47th annual conference June 12—14, in Lexington, Kentucky.

"I came back really motivated to look at the bigger picture," raved first-year president, Krisztina Brooks, Linden Hills Co-op, Minneapolis.

Katie Neff Dawson, President, Whole Foods Co-op, Duluth, Minnesota, recommended sending more than one director. "Directors can attend different workshops or attend the same one and pull different things out of the workshop."

For co-ops and cooperation to work, "people need to be willing to share and to learn. That is what the annual CCMA meetings are all about," emphasized Dan Nordley, president, Seward Community Co-op, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

You will learn practical, useful information. Co-op boards face similar situations and have developed a variety of responses. Discover what worked and why. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Urban Cooperative Initiative, the designers and coordinators of the conference, Professor Ann Hoyt stated, "Our approach to director training has been to help directors understand their legal responsibilities and the unique roles that they can play in the cooperative and the critical importance of these roles."

You will network. Talk with presenters, consultants, and other co-op directors.

You will be inspired. Tour the host co-op. Feel the incredible energy, accomplishments, and promise of the co-op movement.

You will leave the meeting with renewed conviction and tools, information and an expanded network of resource persons to aid you in achieving your co-op’s mission.

Concerned about money or time? Request a scholarship. Share a room. Come for one or two days of workshops.

See you in Lexington!

Candace F. Dow is president of the board of directors at Wedge Community Co-op in Minneapolis (cfdow@earthlink.net).

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