(From left) Kelly Maynard, community development specialist from the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives; Nicholas Amoah and Cathy Statz, co-coordinator of the National Farmers Union, work together on an activity at the cooperatives conference.
By Nicholas Amoah, graduate student in agribusiness and food industry management
The College Conference on Cooperatives in Minneapolis was an eye-opening experience for me. The program encompassed presentations, discussions, and visits to some of the Minneapolis co-ops, associations of groups and people who work together to achieve common goals. The experience was more than I expected.
I learned about cooperatives by assisting a supervisor back in Ghana on one of his projects, in which he trained honeybee farmers on setting up a cooperative in the central region of Ghana. However, I did not know that there were different types of co-ops outside of agriculture. The conference taught me about housing co-ops, rural electric co-ops, consumer co-ops, workers co-ops, hybrid/multistakeholder co-ops and more. I particularly enjoyed the conversation about career opportunities within the different co-ops.
A main lesson I learned from the conference was that more can be done with fewer resources through co-ops. As the manager or a board member of a co-op, you should be interested in what would attract people to join or contribute to the co-op’s success.
Paula Faulkner, Ph.D., has facilitated students’ attendance at the conference for nearly 10 years.
“The National Farmers Union’s Conference College on Cooperatives has been a great experiential learning experience for many CAES students across the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,” she said. “Students are fully engaged, touring the various co-ops in Minneapolis and attending a dinner theater to guest speakers. Another highlight is the time spent at the largest mall in America, which is always a highlight.”
