Wednesday, October 16 | 3:00-6:30 p.m.
Prairie Room, Diefenbaker Building
101 Diefenbaker Place
University of Saskatchewan
Please join us for a come-and-go event as the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives celebrates its first 35 years and looks forward to how its research can help provide the co-operative solutions the world needs to address its pressing problems. As part of the celebration, we will be thanking our funders from across Canada.
Refreshments and lights snacks will be provided.
We hope that you can join us for all or part of our celebration! Click here to register by October 15, 2019.
3:00-4:30 pm | All for One and One for All? The Future of Cooperation in Co-op Federations
SPEAKERS: Marc-Andre Pigeon, Director, Centre for the Study of Co-operatives; Murray Fulton, Fellow in Co-operatives and Public Policy; Dionne Pohler, Fellow in Co-operative Strategy and Governance; and
Brett Fairbairn, Fellow in Co-operative History and Governance
Co-operation among co-ops is a nice idea in theory but hard to do in practice. Earlier this year, Calgary Co-op—the largest member-owner of Federated Co-operatives Limited (FCL)—announced it would stop buying its groceries from FCL and instead purchase from rival Save-On Foods. Credit unions for their part are increasingly thinking about going it alone without their central entities. In this panel, long-time observers of the sector take a critical lens to questions like: What is the responsibility of membership ? Is it take what you want and leave the rest to carry the burden? Or are there higher principles in play? Co-hosted with the Saskatchewan Co-operative Association, this promises to be an engaging and vigorous discussion.
4:30-5:00 pm | Reception and Networking
5:00-6:30 pm | KEYNOTE TALK: The Future of Co-operatives in North America
SPEAKER: Melissa Hoover, founding Executive Director, Democracy at Work Institute, USA
Melissa Hoover is the founding Executive Director of the Democracy at Work Institute, the think-and-do-tank that expands worker cooperatives as a strategy to address economic and racial inequality. A leader in the worker ownership movement for over fifteen years, Melissa helped start and grow the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives, the national grassroots membership organization for worker-owned businesses.