I Didn't Know

 

When I interviewed for the PR Director post of Polaroid Credit Union, I thought it was a labor organization. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut. It turned out to be a strange bank where all profits had to be returned to members by:

• Lower loan rates
• Higher saving rates
• More services
• Wow! That was better than any bank I ever did business with. 

I didn't know that credit unions were co-operatives and when I started the Digital Credit Union (now a billion dollar financial institution) with four others, I still didn't know it was a cooperative.

Years later, when I became the international correspondent for CU Times, although I knew about the founding of credit unions in Germany, I didn't know credit unions were cooperatives. 

Only when I started a weekly newsletter for Canadian credit union executives did I learn about the co-operative movement.

Okay, I'm a slow learner. 

Only after attending the annual conference of the International Cooperative Alliance www.ica.coop did I appreciate the importance and advantages of coops over traditional businesses.

"Profit isn't a dirty word."

"My boss at Polaroid's CU used to say "Profit isn't a dirty word."

It isn't, but when everyone from the janitor to the CEO, get a fair deal and when the users get a fair deal everyone wins.

Here are the stats: 

• There are 3 million coops in the world
• 280 million people are employed by cooperatives world wide
• There's US$2.8 trillion in turnover

To find out about coops in your country/area https://ica.coop/en/our-members/search-our-members 

The definition of a cooperative 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."

I used to think that co-ops were some hippy-dippy thing with food being sold at lower prices in some basement where people took turns volunteering.

For those who think socialism, I think of protection, co-operation. It works for 12% of the world's population. The U.S. has onl 4.10

You may already do business with cooperatives such as Land o'Lakes. Think about that the next time you butter your toast.

Some examples: 

• Credit unions: 4,214 are federally insured with assets of $2,50 trillion as of June 2026.
• Agricultural cooperatives. Your dog may be a member indirectly when s/he eats Purina. 
• Electrical cooperatives. There's 900 of them. I didn't know my electricity was provided by a coop.
• Housing cooperatives
• Worker cooperatives