Report on Members’ participation in consumer co-operatives

CONSUMER CO-OPERATIVES - REPORT ON MEMBERS’ PARTICIPATION - Summary

Member participation is one the greatest challenges of the specific co-operative model of enterprise. Being owned and democratically controlled by their members, consumer co-operatives face daily the need to get consumers more involved in their activities and governance. Without member participation there is no real co-operative.

In recent years, the awareness of declining trends in member participation led consumer co-operative organisations all across Europe to steadily renew the practice of governance and develop new forms of participation to reinvigorate involvement of members in co-operative activities.

In that light, Euro Coop’s report on members’ participation constitutes a valuable source of information as it offers a clear understanding of this growing challenge as well as a set of practical recommendations to address it.

The report was prepared by Euro Coop’s Co-operative Identity Working Group, composed by experts from different member organisations. It is the result of lively discussions between practitioners who greatly valued the opportunity to share experiences and knowledge on this matter of common interest for consumer co-operatives.

The report is divided into three main parts. Based on the analysis of data and information from member organisations, the report attempts to look at the ways members participate or not in governance and to provide concrete examples of best practices that lead them to do so.

The introductory part first examines members’ participation trends in consumer co-operatives from the early 19^th century to the present day. This includes a comparison of participation rates between countries as well as a specific analysis of differences in participation rates by gender and age.

A description of the new profile of co-operative activist is also provided, detailing his main socio-economic characteristic and more particularly his new aspirations and needs that consumer co-operatives should contribute to fulfill.

To provide a comprehensive understanding of these results,  part 1 then focus on the evolution of the social, economic and cultural context since the creation of the first consumer co-operatives and analyses how this in turn influences patterns of participation. In this part, the report also evaluates potential impact of internal factors (e.g. size of co-operatives) on members’ participation.   

Parts 2 and 3 detail examples of best practices developed by different member organisations to enhance members’ participation.

Part 2 presents an array of new tools providing members with new means for ascertaining their opinion and cast their vote. Innovative and adapted to members’ new social habits and particular circumstances, their development tends to increasingly stimulate formal participation. Main results of these initiatives are also reported.   

Part 3 focus on informal participation. The report highlights new forms of participation which offer members new opportunities to jointly develop actions or projects answering to their new aspirations in various fields (education, environment, social activities).

In its conclusion, the report presents a series of recommendations. In addition to sharing best practices and knowledge on members’ participation, experts identified 12 key suggestions for actions that consumer co-operatives might take as a start to develop a membership strategy.

These recommendations have been formulated in general terms so they can be adapted and used in any national context and despite the size of the organisation. Also, the recommendations should be seen in the context of the examples provided in the report and not taken isolated.

The complete report is now available (Euro Coop members’ only):