Cooperative Living January 2015 - 28

IT'S YOUR BUSINESS by Adam Schwartz, Contributing Writer
LOCAL BEFORE LOCALWAS COOL
Autonomy & Independence: One of the Seven
Cooperative Principles that Give All Co-ops Guidance
W
hether you travel across the country
or prefer to stay close to your hometown,
one thing you may be noticing
these days is the emphasis on " Buy Local "
campaigns. This relates to a simple but profound
reality: It's important to support businesses that
support our community.
The Small Business Administration and the research
firm Civic Economics estimate that dollars
spent at a locally owned business stay in the
community more than three times longer than
money spent at " Big Box " stores, headquartered
far away from your hometown. This means your
community wealth is more likely to grow by
shopping locally.
Consumer cooperatives have known this forever.
We were formed by people in this community
to serve the people who work, worship and
live in this community.
A common expression among cooperators
is, " If you've seen one co-op, you've seen one
co-op. " While there are many similarities between
co-ops, the fact that we are controlled
locally, allowing us to serve your particular
needs, is a critically important principle.
The fourth of our Seven Cooperative Principles
is: Autonomy and Independence. And
that is defined as follows: Cooperatives are autonomous,
self-help organizations controlled
by their members. If the co-op enters into
agreements with other organizations or raises
capital from external sources, it is done so
based on terms that ensure democratic control
by the members and maintain the cooperative's
autonomy.
This will allow us to continue to be the selfhelp
organization envisioned by the founders
of the modern cooperative movement.
In other words, for the co-op to stay
a co-op, it is vitally important we stay close to
you, our members, to ensure we are continuing
to respond to your needs. This could be
through increasing energy-efficiency programs,
offering renewable sources of energy and continuing
our efforts to support other local businesses,
schools and civic organizations.
You can be sure that your cooperative will
not be moving our operations to Mexico,
China, or some other far-flung locale, as so
many other corporations do. We began right
here, and we plan on being here for a very
long time. You can take that to the bank, or
better yet, the credit union - as all credit unions
are financial cooperatives.
As always, we welcome your participation
and suggestions about how we can improve
our locally owned and controlled services. 
Adam Schwartz is the founder of The Cooperative
Way, a consulting firm that helps co-ops
succeed. He is an author, speaker and a memberowner
of the CDS Consulting Co-op. You can follow
him on Twitter @adamcooperative or email
him at aschwartz@thecooperativeway.coop.
26
Cooperative Living/January 2015
Cooperative Living January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living January 2015
