WASHINGTON-Credit unions often don't think first and foremost of themselves as cooperatives, even though they represent the largest segment of the cooperative industry in the country. The U.S. has a long history of cooperative-based institutions:
1752: The first successful cooperative was organized in the United States when Benjamin Franklin formed the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire - the oldest continuing cooperative in the U.S.
1865: Michigan passes what is believed to be the first law recognizing the cooperative method of buying and selling.
1895: The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) is established. Today more than 200 national cooperative organizations representing 92 nations belong to ICA, the apex organization of all national cooperative movements.
The ICA aims to promote cooperative development and trade worldwide and boasts an individual membership of more than 750 million people.
1916: The first national cooperative association is formed - now known as the National Cooperative Business Association.
1922: Congress passes the Capper-Volstead Act allowing farmers to act together to market their products without being in violation of antitrust laws.
1920s & '30s: Congress establishes governmental agencies - the Farm Credit Administration (1929), the National Credit Union Administration (1934) and the Rural Electrification Administration (1936) - to provide loans and assistance to cooperatives.
1978: Congress passes the National Consumer Cooperative Bank Act, establishing the National Cooperative Bank.
2000: NCBA lobbies the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to create a new top-level Internet domain-coop-exclusively for cooperatives. The .coop registry, launched in January 2002.
For more info: www.ncba.coop.
