Co-op educators see critical
need to ramp-up, expand
education effortsM

By James Wadsworth,
Co-op Education and Outreach Program
USDA Rural Development


hile many valuable co-op education resources are available today from USDA Rural Development and others, many publications and other co-op educational materials are in serious need of updating. New communications technologies should be better employed and outreach and distribution efforts must be geared up if the co-op business model is to be more widely adopted.

This was the general consensus of a group of 91 people USDA recently engaged in discussions about the state of its co-op education efforts, and co-op education in general in America. Tailoring co-op education efforts to meet the greatest needs is seen as being especially crucial during times of limited resources.

USDA Rural Development’s Cooperative Programs staff solicited feedback from educators outside the agency, including: university professors and researchers, vocational ag teachers and cooperative leaders and officers. Other participants came from cooperative extension offices, cooperative development centers, cooperative councils, national cooperative associations, state governments and USDA Rural Development state offices.

Audiences ranked on need
The educators ranked primary target audiences based on need for co-op education. A large majority (about 75 percent) of them ranked people considering the formation of a cooperative at the top of the list, followed closely by board members of existing cooperatives. Nine audiences were ranked, as follows:
  1. People considering forming a cooperative
  2. Cooperative directors
  3. Cooperative management
  4. Young members of cooperatives
  5. Cooperative members
  6. Cooperative employees
  7. Youth (post secondary)
  8. General public
  9. Youth (K-12)
In terms of groups currently being least well-served by cooperative education efforts, the audiences were ranked as follows:
  1. General public
  2. Cooperative members and young members of cooperatives
  3. Those exploring a new cooperative
  4. Youth (post secondary)
  5. Youth (K-12)
  6. Cooperative directors
  7. Cooperative employees
  8. Cooperative management
Interestingly, cooperative directors were ranked second among groups needing co-op education the most, but educators seemed to think this type of education is being carried out to a good degree at the present time, since directors are sixth on the list for being least wellserved. Those exploring a cooperative were third on the least well-served list, but were identified as the highest priority.

Most crucial co-op topics
The co-op educators see a wide variety of topics that need to be addressed to improve cooperative “literacy.” Topping their list is finance issues — always a key issue for both existing and new co-ops. The topical priorities they see, in rank order, are:
  1. Finance
  2. Advantages and disadvantages of the cooperative business model
  3. The roles of members, directors, managers and employees
  4. Governance
  5. Strategic planning
  6. Cooperative principles
  7. Legal issues
  8. How to start a cooperative
  9. Cooperative structure
  10. Cooperative operations
  11. Cooperative accounting and tax issues
Educators also listed co-op feasibility, business planning and best cooperative practices as other crucial topics. While many of these topics are the subject of current cooperative education efforts, educators believe the extent of those efforts is not meeting the entire need.

Topical gaps
Educators saw these areas as “topical gaps” that education efforts should aim to address: A large number of the educators see delivery of services as being the biggest challenge today, and believe more contemporary delivery systems need to be used to a greater degree. These could include: interactive online programs, distance learning programs, video-clips, podcasts, webinars, new school curriculums, CD- and DVD-based programs, etc.
They also indicated that information presently available needs to be updated more frequently and to employ greater use of current examples, situations, case studies and data.

One educator mentioned that short snippets of current important information for co-ops should be made available on a regular basis so that cooperatives, cooperative organizations and educators can “cut-and-paste” them into their delivery tools for members and constituents.

Planning for future co-op education
The educators’ comments reinforce the widespread perception in the cooperative community that educational materials and programs need to be improved and adapted for delivery to a more technologically advanced society and new topical materials or programs need to be developed to meet contemporary needs.

Cooperative educational publications, information and materials are being widely used, and there are many cooperative educational initiatives ongoing across the United States. However, survey participants see a strong need for ramping up co-op education efforts.

Clearly, greater communication and outreach are needed. Educational resources already available from the Cooperative Programs of USDA Rural Development and from other cooperative organizations need to be updated and more widely distributed.

While many cooperative education resources are available, too many people don’t know about them. Some see the need for a central depository for sharing information, publications, programs and other resources.

“In planning future cooperative education initiatives, educators and the entire co-op community should take the findings of this conversation to heart,” says John Wells, co-op development division director for USDA Rural Development. “Cooperative Programs remains dedicated to cooperative education and will continue to reach out to others for contributions as it develops its research and education programs going forward.”












USDA educational publications seen as valuable resource

About 86 percent of the 91 educators who provided feedback for this report say they are familiar with USDA’s coop educational publications and materials, and most of them personally use these publications as resources.

The top three USDA co-op publications used by educators are: Co-ops 101, How To Start a Cooperative and Cooperatives: What They Are and the Roles of Members, Directors, Managers and Employees. A wide variety of other publications in USDA’s co-op library are also used by a significant number of co-op educators. These include publications from all three of the categories to which USDA assigns its co-op publications: Co-op Information Reports, Coop Research Reports and Co-op Service (or Statistical) Reports, as well as articles from Rural Cooperatives magazine (although the magazine itself was not the focus of the discussions).

The average rating educators gave these publications was “good” for attributes of readability, objectivity and technical accuracy. Format, general appearance and overall quality scored “OK.” A high number of educators rated the attributes of the publications as “very good.”

USDA’s library of co-op publications and Rural Cooperatives magazine were deemed “important” for helping to deliver effective cooperative education by a majority of the educators. A major problem facing Cooperative Programs as well as numerous other organizations as they attempt to update, improve, and expand cooperative educational materials has been a drastic reduction in staffing in recent years.







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