Coops: A Love Story. Chapter 2.

As an adult I made my way back from the prairies to live in British Columbia, and have now called Vancouver Island and Vancouver home since 1997.

And through strange sequence of events, which is too lengthy to recount here, I have to tell you, dear reader, that thousands of kilometres and nearly twenty years distant from my first Fat Cat account (see earlier post), I came to be reconnected with my first financial love, finding myself employed at Credit Union Central of British Columbia.

This job itself was not long term, nor deeply satisfying, but it coincided with my Master's degree in Business and Sustainability - at the University of British Columbia - where I studied organizational behavior, organizational change, social enterprises, and cooperatives, in relation to environmental sustainability.

And these two undertakings led indirectly to my meeting many amazing and inspirational people in the cooperative sector, like the great folks who who run this site - William and Kate.

Since then, I've met some amazing people in the coop sector, and have been fortunate enough to work at Vancity Credit Union, to be involved in Governance at the Cooperators (Canada's largest insurance cooperative), and to be a Director at the Cooperative Auto Network.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of people from Saskatchewan working in these organizations - even a couple from my little home town of Swift Current. Small world, I guess.

But what's the real punchline here?

Well, the punchline is that coops have a heart - and that they are capable of love.

They help foster our collective capacity for sharing; for self-trancendence; for democratic engagement; for fairness.

And in return for our financial support, they give back to us collectively - in a way that entirely self-interested organizations owned by entirely financially motivated individuals can't.

I'm proud to be a supporter of coops - they give me hope; my involvement with them makes me more whole as a person. They put love into our communities by giving back to people who our wealth generating systems have unintentionally left out.

And they've certainly given back to me. From my Fat Cat account to this post, I'm a better person for my relationships with Coops.

So, love your coops!

And start by going to Coop flash mob at City Hall tomorrow!