ST PAUL -- Cooperative Network, the trade association for Minnesota and Wisconsin cooperative businesses, celebrates Governor Tim Pawlenty's recent signing of an official proclamation declaring October "Co-op Month" in Minnesota.
Each year, throughout the nation, October is proclaimed Co-op Month and cooperatives and their members make a special effort to educate the public about their member-owned and member-controlled business form.
"Cooperatives are partners in their communities bringing people together to meet today's emerging challenges," said Bill Oemichen, Cooperative Network president and CEO. "Cooperatives provide just about any good or service their members need, including credit and financial services, health care, child care, housing, insurance, and legal and professional services. Cooperatives sell food, farm supplies, hardware, and recreational equipment. They also provide utilities such as electricity, telephone, television, and Internet service, as well as processing and marketing products and goods for their members."
Thanks in part to a grant from the CHS Foundation, Cooperative Network was able to distribute the new "Understanding Cooperatives" curriculum CD-ROM to Minnesota teachers. This educational tool covers the different business sectors co-ops operate in, statistics, case studies and photos from Minnesota co-ops, and an overview of the business structure of a co-op.
The tradition of celebrating Co-op Month has deep roots in Minnesota. While the idea of celebrating the special nature of cooperatives first appeared in 1924 in Waukegan, Illinois, it was former Minnesota Governor Luther Youngdahl who signed the first official Minnesota October Co-op Month proclamation in 1948, at the request of the Minnesota Association of Cooperatives (now Cooperative Network). Soon, the October Co-op Month celebration spread to other states. In 1964, Co-op Month became a national event when another Minnesotan--former Minnesota Governor Orville Freeman who was then U.S. secretary of agriculture--proclaimed a national Co-op Month.
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This year Cooperative Network marks the occasion with a statewide theme of "Cooperatives: Stronger Together." It has also added a radio Public Service Announcement to its outreach efforts to celebrate Co-op Month. More information about Minnesota cooperatives and October Co-op Month is available on Cooperative Network's web site, www.cooperativenetwork.coop .
Cooperative Network serves more than 600 member-cooperatives, owned by more than 6.3 million Wisconsin and Minnesota residents, by providing government relations, education, marketing, and technical services for a wide variety of cooperatives including farm supply, health, dairy marketing, consumer, financial, livestock marketing, telecommunications, electric, housing, insurance, worker-owned cooperatives, and more. For more information about Cooperative Network, visit www.cooperativenetwork.coop .
