for members and employees of cooperatives and to make savings available for coop
development at low interest rates.
The project's first goal--an increase in inter-cooperative trade--entails the determination
of barriers to trade, followed by development of preferred strategies to overcome those
barriers and implementation of the strategies. The objective of determining barriers to
trade was accomplished through survey questions. The same methods identified the
preferred strategy among cooperative organizations--an up-to-date directory. Further
discussion among key stakeholders identified a messaging/notice system as a second
preferred strategy. Once these preferred strategies were identified, the objectives became
to implement them, measure their impact, and assure their continuous maintenance and
development. Implementation will be measured by the production and delivery of usable
tools. Their impact will be measured by the number of new or modified listings and
notices, the awareness among cooperative organizations about the tool, and the awareness
among cooperative organizations about opportunities for inter-cooperative trade. The
objective of sustainability of the tools will be met if staff and volunteers of Cooperative
Life, the sponsoring organization, successfully adopt responsibility for the tool.
The longer-term goal of providing benefits to cooperative members can be measured by
measuring use of the notices tool for barter, sale, or joint purchasing. Although
measurements of savings and benefits may be difficult to gather precisely, indicative data
should be collectible from Web logs. In addition, surveys of individual participating
coops may provide anecdotal evidence of benefit and/or estimated savings from the
program.
The third goal, making savings available for new coop development, will not be attained
within the timescale of this project. It depends on participants' willingness to use the
system with increasing frequency and depth, and possibly voluntarily adopting a system
of individual accounts that could store credits and debits. If such a system could be put in
place, the credits could be funneled as new savings available for coop development. At
this point this goal is speculative. The objectives that would lead to realization of this
goal would be increased use of the system and participants' expressed interest in putting
aside coop savings. Progress toward achievement of these objectives could be measured
at the same time as measurement of the objectives for providing benefits to cooperative
members.
ILSR 2003 and Wicks undated.