NFCA's 2018 Annual Meeting keynote speaker was Doug O’Brien, President & CEO NCBA CLUSA. O’Brien shared his thoughts on the potential for the co-operative movement to be a leader in growing a more inclusive economy in a time of social and economic anxiety and help differentiate our businesses in a competitive marketplace.

1. S E V E N T H A N N U A L M E E T IN G
1 7 th M a r c h 2 0 1 8
M o r n i n g K e y n o t e
D o u g O ’ B r i e n
P r e s i d e n t & C E O
N C B A C L U S A
“ B u i l d i n g a n
In c l u s i v e E c o n o m y :
T h e C o - o p e r a t i v e
D i f f e r e n c e ”
G r e e n f i e l d
C o m m u n i t y C o l l e g e
G r e e n f i e l d , M A
NFCA Seventh Annual Meeting 2018
NEIGHBORING
FOOD CO-OP
ASSOCIATION
Image courtesy of NCBA CLUSA.

2. NFCA Seventh Annual Meeting 2018
SPECIAL THANKS
TO OUR LEAD SPONSORS

3. Doug O’Brien
¡President & CEO, National
Cooperative Business
Association / NCBA CLUSA
¡U.S. Department of
Agriculture Rural
Development
¡Alleviation of Rural Poverty,
Development of Local &
Regional Food Systems
NFCA Seventh Annual Meeting 2018
OUR KEYNOTE

4. Doug O’Brien
President & CEO, NCBA CLUSA
Building an
Inclusive Economy
The Cooperative Difference

5. • Through our work, people become owners of their future through cooperative enterprises.
• We work with public and private thought leaders to promote economic development based
on the principles of cooperation.
• We represent the trusted way to do business and build communities. 5
As the national voice of cooperative businesses in the United States, NCBA CLUSA is
collaborative partner in, advocate for, and driver of an Inclusive Economy in which people
around the world are empowered to contribute to shared prosperity and well-being for
themselves and future generations.
.
Who we are
What we do

6. A Cooperative Place
IOWA
Dubuque County

7. Our Cooperative Moment
Cooperatives are even more relevant in times of economic
or social exclusion: When current economic and social
structures are inadequate to people’s needs.
Why Co-ops
Why NOW?

8. Our Cooperative Moment
8
“If...concentration of power is the cause of
the present weakness of our society, we can
nonetheless show that we know a
counteractive to that power, which can
restore responsibility and hope to the
average citizen.
It is the simple counteractive of cooperation,
the method of mutual aid.
Any group of people anywhere on earth
can use that same method both to raise
their living standards and enhance their
freedom and build their human dignity.”
- Jerry Voorhis, American Cooperatives

9. Our Cooperative Moment: Challenges
9
Socioeconomic Fragmentation
Inequality and Inequities
Changing Work and Work Security
Information Technology
Climate change

10. Socioeconomic Fragmentation
10

11. America is Becoming More Diverse
Low diversity-
Big increase
Low diversity-
Little change
High diversity-
Little change
High diversity-
Big increase
Dan Keating & Laris Karklis, “The increasingly diverse United States of America”, The Washington Post, Nov. 25, 2016.

12. Inequality &
Inequity
• Increasing
inequality
• Declining social
mobility
• Persistent
disparities among
races, genders,
etc.
• Cooperatives are
essential to
creating the
society we need.
12

13. Barriers to Socioeconomic Equity
13

14. Changing Work & Work Security: Trends
• Relatively few high
paying knowledge-
based jobs and many
crucial, but low paid,
service jobs.
• In the gig economy,
workplace economic
security is diminished.
• Cooperatives empower
workers to tackle these
challenges and to
make gains in their
situations.
Photo: Worker-owner of Up and Go Cooperative Home Cleaning Services

15. Changing Work & Work Security: Trends

16. Information Technology
• New conceptions of the
marketplace.
• Questions about personal
data use and ownership.
• Easier connection and
interaction.
• Co-ops have both
challenges
and opportunities

17. The Digital Divide
Click to add text

18. Climate Change
• As climates
change, weather is
becoming extreme and
irregular.
• Drought, heat, and
unseasonal cold threaten
the stability and
resilience of societies.
• Cooperatives promote
sustainability and
resilience.
NCBA CLUSA: Photo from Yaajeende! Project in Senegal.

20. Cooperative
Tradition

21. Co-ops and the
Black Americans register to vote in Charleston, S.C.,
July 17, 1948. Local cooperatives created "schools" to
promote voter registration and democratic
participation despite the Jim Crow South’s barriers.
The Federation has been crucial to advancing
Southern lives and ensuring the retention of Black
farmer-owned land in changing economic
circumstances.
Photo Credit: The Post and Courier.
Photo Credit: The Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund.
Civil Rights Movement

22. Co-ops & the Oval Office
“I can’t help but believe that in the future we will see in the United
States and throughout the Western world an increasing trend
toward the next logical step, employee ownership. It is a path that
befits a free people.”
- President Ronald Reagan on Employee Ownership 23
“The catalog of your accomplishments in large. You cooperatives
brought credit when it seemed unobtainable. You brought light and
power to rural Americans when it appeared out of reach. You
brought modern telephone service to tens of thousands and
lowered the price of gas and fertilizer to many thousands more.”
- President Lyndon B. Johnson

23. The Inclusive Economy
NCBA CLUSA is a
collaborative partner in,
advocate for, and driver of
an Inclusive Economy in
which people around the
world are empowered to
contribute to shared
prosperity and well-being for
themselves and future
generations.
24

24. Factors of an Inclusive Economy
Co-op Principles
Equity Participation Growth Stability Sustainability

25. Cooperative Opportunities
Home care,
Child care
Natural
Resources,
Sustainability
Local and
Regional Food
Systems
Consumer-owned
Community Anchors
(grocery store, restaurant, bar)
Worker-
owned and
Conversions
Gig Economy

26. How NCBA CLUSA is Capturing the
Cooperative Moment…
•Advocacy
•Public Relations
•Development
•Thought Leadership &
Strategic Relationships

27. How You Can Advance the Co-op Movement
Advocacy
• Visit ncba.coop/advocacy/how-you-can-help.
• Email Alan Knapp, VP of Advocacy at NCBA CLUSA, at AKnapp@ncba.coop.
• Become a member of NCBA CLUSA, email Stephen McDow for info: SMcDow@ncba.coop
Public Relations
• Submit information about your co-op for the Co-op Weekly at info@ncba.coop.
• Share the Co-op Weekly and info about local co-ops on social media.
Thought Leadership
• Apply to write for the Cooperative Business Journal at journal@ncba.coop.
• Write op-eds and letters to the editor for local, regional and national papers.
Development
• Consider donating to the Cooperative Development Foundation at www.cdf.coop/donate/.
• Co-operate to establish new co-ops in your community.

28. 2018 Cooperative
IMPACT Conference
Cooperative IMPACT Conference 2018
• October 3-5, 2018 at the Sheraton
Pentagon City, Arlington, VA
Cooperative Festival 2018
• October 6 and 7, 2018 on the National
Mall in Washington, DC
Register at: www.impactconference.coop

29. Doug O’Brien
President & CEO
NCBA CLUSA
dobrien@ncba.coop
Thank You!

30. NFCA Seventh Annual Meeting 2018
QUESTIONS, FEEDBACK, IDEAS

31. NFCA Seventh Annual Meeting 2018
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

32. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
NFCA Seventh Annual Meeting 2018