The Federation is the peak representative body for co-operatives in New South Wales.
A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations, through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.
February this year saw a week designed to start a discussion and research project on how the co-operative sector can achieve its potential in Australia in a world defined by a new set of economic, social and environmental parameters. The Federation Conference followed the three day Sydney University The Italian and Australian Co-operative Sectors The Past, Present and Future Symposium put on by the Business and Labour History Group of the Faculty of Economics and Business, which has recently entered into a collaboration with the European Research Institute on Co-operative and Social Enterprises (EURICSE). The Symposium was held to feature the latest theoretical and empirical work on co-operatives from Professor Carlo Borzaga and Dr Ermanno Tortia from the University of Trento and the Federation was able to benefit from this by accessing the two Italian speakers for our Conference. The Symposium looked at areas of research in Australia and Italy (an extremely co-operatively active region) to define topics for future research.
The Conference took those areas and presented co-operators from the field, to show what practitioners are experiencing now in Australia - this resulted in really encouraging success stories and how-to ideas. Some people attended both events and also some speakers addressed both audiences, with different emphases. This was an extremely interesting and fruitful collaboration which should benefit Australian co-operation in the short and long term.
Other sessions at the Conference included very well received workshops and very well reviewed technical papers, presented primarily by speakers from within the sector. An enthusiastic group started the Conference by coming to the welcoming cocktails on Wednesday evening and numbers were slightly better than last year over the next two days. As usual the dinner was an excellent opportunity to mix with people of like mind, but time for networking, a key aim of the event, was slotted in throughout the Conference. These time slots included the networking breakfasts on Friday morning - the groups of Chairpersons, CEOs and Financial officers was supplemented by a group from not-for-profit co-operatives, this year. Some interesting suggestions came from the breakfasts, hopefully as well as contacts for future networking. Prof. Borzaga was the dinner speaker and he made some strong points in regard to the need for co-operative research.
We were delighted to provide two youth scholarships, funded by donations from attendees at conference 2008, made possible because neither local person needed transportation or accommodation. They came from the co-op food sector, which has the energy of the young people involved and now hopefully will gain from the experience of these two enthusiastic attendees. Further funds were donated for a scholarship for the next conference - this initiative has proven to be able to be sustained and a way to bring those young people we know are the future of our sector along to mix in a way they wouldn't normally have funding to achieve. We also were able to provide an additional scholarship, funded by grant money from Fair Trading, for another deserving person who didn't qualify for the youth scholarship but who will spread the co-operative word and use her insights to help co-operation in the regional education sector.
Once again we need to thank our marvellous sponsors for demonstrating their commitment by funding this event. If you know of an organisation that might like to join us next time, please let us know.
To access a selection of papers from the conference, click here.
