Conclusions
The mission of Cooperative Life is to nurture the cooperative economy in the Northeast
by supporting the organizations that make it up and fostering connections among them.
This project focused on strengthening the business relationships among cooperative
organizations. Because little was known about what was needed and what would be
welcomed by the membership, considerable time was spent gathering data through a
membership survey. The survey indicated that the cooperative community was not yet
ready for major cooperation--some groundwork and relationship building would need to
happen first. But respondents did display a clear interest in a directory of cooperative
organizations.
There were few monetary and staff resources available to compile a directory, but the
project coordinator did have access to the volunteer time of a talented web programmer.
In addition, the sponsor organization of Cooperative Life, the Cooperative Development
Institute, had an extensive database of contacts that was not being used. A "wiki" (user-
updateable) model was adopted for the online directory. This model minimizes the
amount of staff time necessary for the directory's maintenance, and harnesses the power
of user input to become more accurate and comprehensive over time.
One element that changed dramatically since the outset of the project was the scope of
the intended community beneficiaries. Cooperative Life, although it is the Northeast
Federation of Cooperatives, has as its mission to support all organizations helping to
build a cooperative economy. Several of the survey respondents noted that they were not
officially cooperatives--some were nonprofit, some businesses, some government
agencies. This feedback along with re-examination of the mission helped the Board to
determine that the scope of the directory would explicitly include any organization
anywhere helping to build a cooperative economy that works for people. This is a major
defining feature of the directory, and it remains to be seen how well it works in the
future.
Respondents to the survey also demonstrated high levels of interest in networking, joint
purchasing, and direct transactions. Some progress was made toward addressing these
interests. In particular, the project proposes in the future to incorporate the geographical
functionality used by the directory to enhance the targeting of postings.
The project did not progress as far toward the goals of providing benefits for participants
as had been initially hoped. This seems to be a universal feature of CED projects--people
elaborate projects much more ambitious than can be realistically achieved. In the case of
the Cooperation Among Cooperatives project, less research was conducted due to time
constraints and to the limited time available from survey respondents. Only one tool was
fully developed in response to the survey results (although the results of the survey
provide fodder for future projects).