Seven Cooperative Principles

While leafing through a recent looking edition of The NASCO Guide to Co-ops (the year of publication was nowhere to be found), I stumbled across a section called “Statement of Cooperative Identity”, and one of the things listed within was a set of 7 co-op principles.  Now, in all honesty my mind went, “Does every organization go by a set of 7 principles???” which was a gross hyperbolization on my brain’s part, but the church that I’m currently attending is also structured on 7 principles, so suddenly it felt like the ENTIRE WORLD was grouped into such a structure.  Anyways, I thought they were interesting, so I’m going to share them with you.  Here they are, word for word according to The NASCO Guide (not including all the explanations, simply to keep this short n snappy):

·      1^st principle: Voluntary and open membership
·      2^nd principle: Democratic member control
·      3^rd principle: Member economic participation
·      4^th principle: Autonomy and independence
·      5^th principle: Education, Training, and Information
·      6^th principle: Cooperation among cooperatives
·      7^th principle: Concern for community

Pretty cool, eh?  Sounds like how I like to live…I guess that’s why I’m here!