ORLANDO, Fla. - It’s time for credit unions to come out of the closet.
In this case, that means standing up and admitting they are “co-ops,” according to Roberta MacDonald, who heads up marketing for Cabot Creamery in Vermont, and who led an intriguing closing session during Credit Union Journal’s Grow Show.
“If you can come out of the closet and admit you’re actually co-ops, you’ll find the image has really changed,” said MacDonald of the perception of cooperatives. “I’ve watched it go from being a commie plot to being only about food co-ops to being about real value. We translate it as 100% of our profits go to farmers. You could say 100% of your profits go to members.”
“Do you recognize your business as being a cooperative? Do you recognize your owners as members? You should. What do you know about your members? That’s an advantage you have over a product goods company,” continued MacDonald. “We didn’t know where we were selling. And I find that is true with credit unions who don’t know where there members are or where they came from.”
Cabot Creamery, a cooperative of small, Vermont farmers that sells dairy products across the country, today has sales of about $400 million and assets of $1 billion.
That’s a far cry from when MacDonald joined the co-op only to find out it was nearly bankrupt.
The co-op would eventually right itself and grow by leveraging its position as a co-op, working with other co-ops, and by begging, borrowing and all-but-stealing every PR opportunity.
“Everything we did to grow we did on a complete shoestring,” said MacDonald, who wore “cow pants” during her presentation.
She repeatedly stressed that it was the cooperative nature of Cabot Creamery’s structure that became integral to its growth.
“I don’t care if you’re under $2 million or over $10 billion, unless you and your board is moving toward demutualization, think cooperative and affiliate with other cooperatives,” urged MacDonald. “It’s a remarkable advantage. Make your co-op advantage count. Credit unions have always been a bit, uh, ‘We’re really like a bank but we’re not.’ I’m telling you, it’s remarkable. If you have a chance to champion the cooperative angle, you should. It’s a cool, magnanimous
“Feature your cooperative status in ALL your communications, advertising, websites, packaging, literatures, just SAY IT,” she said. “If all the members of cooperatives in the United States would unite, we would dwarf AARP.”
