The Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network is pleased to offer this free public webinar:

This webinar will open the dialogue on ethnocultural co-operatives (specifically reflecting on examples across Canada and the US) and the place of these co-ops in the larger society. The two featured speakers are both undertaking research as part of the Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network: Jo-Anne Lee of the University of Victoria and Jessica Gordon-Nembhard of John Jay College, affiliated with the City University of New York.

Jessica Gordon-Nembhard will begin the webinar by providing a description of co-ops emerging in African American contexts in the US. Through her discussion of the history and examples, participants will better understand how co-operatives emerged in response to the social context, race relations and people living on the margins.

Jo-Anne Lee will examine how researchers have written about cooperatives and the absences in our understandings of co-operatives in Canadian society using the Japanese Fishing Cooperatives on the West Coast as a case study.  Co-operatives play many different roles in nation formation.  As social entities, co-operatives are bound to reflect existing power relations in the larger society including those of race, gender, class and colonialism. In addition, Jo-Anne will explore a couple of key questions:

How can we understand the relative absence of knowledge about "ethnic" cooperatives? How has this lacunae affected our knowledge and understanding of cooperatives? She will engage participants in a conversation that shifts from normative and descriptive discussions to critical thinking and reconceptualizing the role of cooperatives in larger social, cultural, political and economic contexts.

Speaker bios available here

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The Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network invites to you this free, public webinar:

This webinar will explore the much-debated topic of co-op branding and identity. The three featured speakers will dig into this topic from different perspectives; grounded both in research as well as experience.

Georgina Whyatt will begin with an overview of her research on the implementation of a 'marketing our cooperative advantage (MOCA)' strategy. She will focus particularly on  the internal challenges to implementing such as strategy. She explored whether values are something that has to be balanced with business growth or if the two go hand in hand. She also delves into the impact of values and co-op identity on management commitment, marketing messages, internal communication/training, business processes aligned with values/ principles, and so forth. She will describe how coops/CUs work to overcome those challenges in their businesses and their branding.

Donna Balkan will present her recent research exploring co-operative identity as illustrated on Canadian co-op websites: Co-op Identity 2.0. She will speak to her metrics for measuring whether co-op identity is showcased and the results of her scan of nearly 100 co-ops and credit unions (including the 50 largest co-ops in Canada).

Carolyn Hoover of DotCooperation will speak about the “dot coop” brand, how this url showcases co-op identity and she will provide an overview of the global picture in terms of which sectors are using the .coop url.

Participants will be invited to engage with the speakers and other participants for the last portion of the webinar with their questions, comments and ideas.

Speaker bios available here

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The Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network is pleased to offer this free public webinar:

This webinar features the two conference organizers for the International Symposium on Co-operative Governance (September 5-7, 2013 in Halifax, Nova Scotia): Karen Miner, Managing Director of Co-operative Management Education and Dr. Sonja Novkovic, Professor of Economics both from Saint Mary’s University.   The webinar will share the highlights from the Symposium including linkages to the Participation theme from the ICA’s Blueprint for a Co-op Decade and new ideas and challenges emerging in the field of governance of co-operative enterprises. This webinar also aims to build on the themes and ideas raised at the Symposium by inviting participants to engage with questions and ideas about the direction of co-operative governance.

About the speakers:
Karen Miner is the Managing Director of Co-operative Management Education at Saint Mary’s University, responsible for both the Graduate Diploma in Co-operative Management and the Master of Management, Co-operatives and Credit Unions.  Karen has a strong history in co-operative governance having served on the boards of Mountain Equipment Co-op and the Canadian Co-operative Association among others. Karen is also a certified director through the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Dr. Sonja Novkovic is the Academic Co-Director of the Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network. She is a professor in the Department of Economics within the Sobey of School Business at Saint Mary's University. Dr. Novkovic's research involves working with worker co-ops to improve their ability to operationalize the ICA principles and values through governance and management practices. Dr. Novkovic is also the Chair of the Committee on Co-operative Research with the International Co-operative

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