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What can the history of cooperation teach us about building a stronger cooperative movement today?

October is Co-op Month, and this year's theme is Built for This Moment.

To kick off our special four-part Co-op Month series, host Tara Williams is joined by CooperationWorks! Executive Director and guest co-host Alex Stone for a conversation with Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard — educator, political economist, organizer, author, and Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee.

In This Episode

• The history of African American cooperatives and their role in building community economic power
• The importance of recognizing and building on existing cooperative practices
• How education, research, and storytelling can strengthen the cooperative movement
• What cooperative developers can learn from past successes and challenges

Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard is a political economist, educator, community organizer, and Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee.

Her research and teaching focus on cooperative economics, community economic development, economic justice, and the ways communities build collective economic power.

Through her scholarship and organizing, Jessica has helped make cooperative history more visible and accessible to a new generation of cooperative developers and movement builders.

Resources mentioned

Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice

John Jay College

Cooperative Hall of Fame

Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Ella Jo Baker

Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta

Freedom Quilting Bee

Frank Adams

For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, John Curl

CooperationWorks! Art and Science Training

Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO)

Co-op Month at coopmonth.coop.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of CooperationWorks!

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What can more than two decades in cooperative development teach us about doing this work well?

As Kim Coontz prepares for retirement, she joins host Tara Williams to reflect on her journey from studying cooperatives as an academic to helping people build them in communities across California.

Kim shares the lessons that shaped her practice, the mistakes that taught her just as much as the successes, and why patience, listening, relationships, and knowing when to step back are so important for cooperative developers.

In This Episode

• Kim’s journey from studying cooperatives to becoming a cooperative developer
• Building the California Center for Cooperative Development and growing a co-op development organization
• Moving from academic knowledge to the realities of working directly with groups
• The value of peer learning and the CooperationWorks! community
• How the cooperative development field has changed during Kim’s career
• What Kim hopes newer developers will carry forward

A Career in Cooperative Development

Kim has spent decades helping people understand, develop, and strengthen cooperatives.

Throughout the conversation, she reflects on an important shift in her own practice: moving from feeling like the developer needed to have the answers to understanding that the work is often about asking questions, listening, sharing information, and creating space for members to make their own decisions.

She also talks openly about projects that didn’t work out as planned and why those experiences are an important part of becoming a better developer.

As Kim retires, this conversation gives us an opportunity to capture some of those lessons and recognize the role she has played within the CooperationWorks! community and the broader cooperative development field.

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Some people build cooperatives. Others help build the movement that makes more cooperatives possible.

For decades, Margaret Bau has done both.

In this special episode of Cooperative Developer Stories, host Tara Williams sits down with Margaret to reflect on a career spent supporting cooperatives, teaching and mentoring co-op developers, connecting communities with resources, and helping strengthen the cooperative development field.

And there’s another reason we’re celebrating Margaret: this October, she will be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame.

In This Episode

Margaret and Tara explore:

• Margaret’s journey into cooperatives and cooperative development
• What decades of working alongside cooperatives have taught her
• The role of education in building stronger cooperatives
• How the field of cooperative development has changed over Margaret’s career
• What new cooperative developers can learn from those who came before them
• The relationships, people, and experiences that have kept Margaret committed to this work

Celebrating Margaret

Margaret is being inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame, and we want the cooperative development community to show up for her.

Join us on October 8 in Washington, DC, for the induction and help us celebrate the incredible contribution Margaret has made to cooperatives and cooperative development. Find out more https://cooperationworks.coop/margaret-bau-cooperative-hero/

Can’t make it in person? You can still show Margaret some cooperative love by purchasing one of our special Margaret Bau T-shirts https://shop.goodpress.coop/products/wxcdf-margaret-bau-outline-portrait-on-white-5051-wht

About Margaret Bau

Margaret Bau has spent decades supporting cooperative development and helping communities understand how cooperatives can meet their needs. She has also played an important role in educating generations of cooperative developers, including through CooperationWorks! training.

Her commitment to cooperative education, development, and community has helped strengthen not only individual cooperatives, but the broader cooperative movement.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of CooperationWorks!