potentially Vermont and western New Hampshire and (C) As a board member on the National
Association of Housing Cooperatives with title of president emeritus. I'm a full time volunteer in
co-op housing activities and in some related fields including the Norwalk Land Trust and electrical
co-op projects. Just what can be done by or through Co-op LIFE LEADER is not clear to me at
this time.
I am a student at the Southern New Hampshire University who lives and works in Washington
DC. I worked as a community organizer and I would like to get any recommendation on
developing housing cooperatives Best,
Thanks for doing this. We look forward to receiving the results and finding out what it leads to.
Just want to clarify that we are not a cooperative, but rather a university based non profit that
provides outreach to the general public about cooperatives, technical assistance to those
establishing cooperatives, and training to members of cooperatives. In reality, we do all of this
primarily for ESOPs, and not very much with coops... yet.
The business I work for is not a cooperative, so the wording of the questions made me
uncomfortable.
The idea of "discounts" is one which should be approached with caution. Offering monetary
discounts to members/customers does not promote the struggle of true cost of goods and
sidesteps the more challenging (and ultimately) more rewarding aspect of education. Please do
not take the easy way out and begin to promote "discounts".
We are not yet in business but are very interested in cooperating.
Cooperative card is being accomplished in the electric cooperative sector. It is the Toucshstone
Energy Connections Card, for members, but not specifically co-op businesses. We can't sell
electric to everyone, but might be interested in the other services.
We are a wholesale utility serving member/owner retail electric service providing municipal
utilities--what the survey suggests is interesting but not applicable to our business
I looked at this survey through the eyes of myself and my company. Answering different
questions differently. Should state what you were looking for. Also, I am part owner in my
coop/SOP, but am no longer one of the major decision makers. So, the answers I give may not
correlate with the company's perspective.
Re #4 -- This brings up a difficult question: Should we patronize co-op and like-minded
businesses or local businesses? We try to do both, with some success, but will usually lean
toward the local if faced with a choice. See E.F. Schumacher, Michael Shuman, et al. Might be
interested in buying insurance from a co-op. Re #6 & 7 -- Since our fees are sliding scale, we
already are giving discounts to those interested in co-ops (since they usually don't have much
money!). Re #10 -- The new Vermont Alliance of Cooperatives will be doing this. Ask
(Washington Electric Co-op) or at Cabot about the Alliance. Re #11 -- Depends on cost and who
would be participating. Re #13-16 -- All good things to do. Some are not relevant to us. Our
willingness to pay for some of these items is limited by the fact that we have very little money...
As the owner of a marketing copywriting shop, I'd be willing to explore offering a discount to
member co-ops. Please consider the above answers in context: many of the questions above
aren't relevant to our two-person business.
We are a non-profit technical assistance organization, developing and assisting low-income
housing co-ops.