Where do we go from here?

Good points, although I also think that the existing democratic mechanisms in big cooperatives are greatly under-utilised. The fact that there are very few motions and none of them are truly contested (just like almost none of the board positions in building societies) is a testimony of this.

For example, in the last Finnish S-Group retailer election my campaign pledges were putting forward motions (that in S-Group is voted on by elected representatives, not members) to fund an accelerator program for new coops and use worker cooperative job agencies when hiring temporary staff. I imagine Co-operative Group could implement something similar, perhaps through membership motions, although the latter might be tricky since I'm not aware of worker cooperative owned staffing agencies in the UK.

Electoral politics seem to be limited almost solely for public sector positions - local councils and the house of commons. Same sort of energy of ideas and candidates competing with each other seems to be lacking in other elections, such as those of coops and unions.

@Leo Sammallahti That’s good. Did you get elected? I think for big coops to fund new cooperative business ideas is good - a sort of ‘corporate venturing’. But isn’t there a danger that the democratic input ends up all being about what the big co-op funds rather than what it is and does? A kind of coop CSR? So with the Co-op Group, the member pioneers are increasingly viewed as community workers, ‘engaging’ with the community on how the Co-op distributes largesse. Meanwhile the staff are paid just over minimum wage.

No - got exactly 100 votes, would've needed around 300 to get elected :(.

One way that would enable less top-down approach for big coops to support smaller ones could "Co-op Coupons" or vouchers that could be used in number of different cooperatives. Here's some thoughts about it:

"Many consumer cooperatives already issue coupons and vouchers - enabling those coupons to be used in more cooperatives could be one way to implement it, perhaps by requiring the other cooperatives to also issue similar coupons and vouchers. Could they join together as a cooperative that would be responsible for issuing the vouchers and the coupons?

Supporting cooperatives through coupons and vouchers could have some benefits compared to other ways of support, such as grants. The decision on how the support should be allocated would be done by a large number of people based on the ability of cooperatives to provide goods and services that people want, not by having a panel of experts evaluate applications and trying to estimate hypothetical future projections. For a big cooperative that wants to support new cooperatives, there might be additional benefits. If such a cooperative decides to simply donate money to new cooperatives with grants, the members might see it as their money being given away by the managers. If the same money would instead be used to give members cooperative vouchers or coupons, the members would be more likely to see it as an additional member benefit given to them."

This is more of a thought exercise than a precise plan.

However that doesn't address your main point about whether democratic input by members should be primarily about how to allocate funds for other projects - indeed it's just another way for them to do so.

I often hear people criticise big coops for not being true to their cooperative principles, which is not without merit. But it also raises the question - what should they do exactly to be more cooperative? Contested board elections in building societies would be one such thing. Don't have the answers but would be interested to hear thoughts from other people.

@Leo Sammallahti I think your last question "'what should they do exactly to be more cooperative?" is exactly right. There is too often an expectation that big coops should conduct themselves as if they were a small worker coop. It feels like the bar is set at a level that a large organisation could not possibly meet. But there are real changes that can be made I think. When the Co-op Group was being restructured a group of us launched Coop Springboard. This used to be at springboard.coop (now gone) but I archived the pages here: https://chorlton.coop/7-propositions - as you can see, we put forward seven propositions. I’m quite proud of that work we did still.

The Coop Party are facilitating a video meeting event at 1.00 today on the economy. NEF leading it I understand. They had a huge influence of the Coop and Labour Party and a I stated earlier, I think we should be acting at all levels.

Shaun I am very interested in initiatives based on a SMart model. I met one of their organisers at a Coops Congress and use the example often with self-employed workers. I am trying to find people interested in a Trades Coop, based on the model (for self employed builders, plumbers, carpenters etc. Do let me know where you are at with your work.

I think cooperative behaviour and cooperative values and principles are obviously central to a broadly more cooperative economy, but without lots of formal cooperatives (and a broad range of solidarity enterprises), with rules, legislation, regulation etc. I fear that Coop decay will set in early.

Mark usefully mentioned Mutual Aid, and I have noticed Adrian Ashton is really active in engaging with the groups. I do think that conversions and start-ups are real possibility, but if they are advised by Accountants, Solicitors and the usual 'business advisors', we know they wont be best advised.

Cooperative Finance (inc Credit Unions, Community Shares, Coop Banks and social and solidarity investment banks need to be in the same discussions and I think coop Accountants and legal advice should be part of our collective offer. Dev Coop is talking to 3rd Sector Accountancy Coop about this including trying to get the Coop sector to use them.

I agree numbers of coops are not the key, but the number of coop members and their activity in their coops is. Coop Development the Development Coop and Platform 6 need to have a strong coherent profile. I would like the return of regional investment collaboration which we could do informally and to let a 1000 cooperative and solidarity flowers blossom.

@John Merritt we are proposing a SMART-like co-op as something the Greater Manchester Combined Authority could help us construct (resource and political backing). Very early stage. May get nowhere.