2. Fourth Annual Assembly
Engaging Co-op Members
1. Roundtable introductions
2. Process and learning expectations
3. Membership basics
4. Ways to engage members
5. Use of committees
6. Evaluation

3. What are your expectations
for this workshop?

4. What does an engaged membership
in your food co-op mean to you?

5. On a scale from 1 to 10,
rate the level of member engagement
at your food co-op?

6. Why did you give this rating?

7. What specific ideas do you have to
increase the level of member
engagement at your food co-op?

8. Membership Basics
1. Why become a co-op member?
• Needs met by the co-op
• Vision, Mission, Purpose, Values
2. Membership benefits:
• Services and products offered
• Economic advantage
• Member participation/democratic control
3. Membership responsibilities:
• Membership fees, loans, shares, bonds
• Participate/volunteer
• Confidentiality & transparency
4. How to engage members:
• Communications/Marketing Strategy/Branding
• Shared vision, mission, purpose and values
• Media: Internal/external; Print/Electronic
• Make a compelling case
• Builds emotional commitment and loyalty
• Have fun; put culture back in agriculture

9. An agriculture based upon intensive work,
local energies, care, and long-living
communities – that is, to state the matter
from a consumer’s point of view:
a dependable, long-term food supply.
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America (1977)
In the future we shall need extensive long-
range democratic planning, co-operatives,
and for the most part relatively small or mid-
sized mixed organic farms that receive
significant public support and are encouraged
to support each other through various types
of co-operative arrangement.
Robert Albritton, Let Them Eat Junk (2009)

10. Local Organic Food Co-ops
1. Bringing local farmers and eaters together directly.
2. Growing and supplying fresh, healthy food locally.
3. Keeping money in the community.
4. Trading fairly.
5. Saving energy, building the soil, and protecting
water.
6. Celebrating good food, culture and community.

11. Share of Farm Revenue
(Canada: 1985 to 2009)
0.4%
Farmers
Suppliers & Banks
99.6%

12. Farmers’ Share of Food $
70%
60%
60%
50% 47%
40%
30%
20%
20%
10%
0%
1952 2010 Co-op

13. 35,000
30,000
Top Canadian Food Retailers (2010)
25,000
$ millions sales
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0

14. On a scale from 1 to 10,
rate your level of satisfaction
with this workshop.

15. Why did you give this rating?

16. What specific suggestions do you have
to improve this workshop?