Co-ops are on a mission to serve their members

Cooperatives play a vital role in our state's economy and our own region of south central Wisconsin.

Statewide, more than 2.9 million Wisconsin residents own 865 health-care, consumer, telephone, electric, mutual-insurance, farm-supply, credit-union, dairy and farm-credit cooperatives that annually add more than $55 billion in economic impact.

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Some of the locally headquartered cooperatives include CUNA and CUNA Mutual, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Union Cab, the Willy Street Cooperative, Foremost Farms USA, Landmark Cooper-ative, United Cooperative, Premier Cooperative, Badgerland Farm Credit Services and a large number of credit unions.

All cooperatives share a commitment to seven business principles:

• Voluntary and open membership

•  Democratic member control

•  Member economic participation

•  Autonomy and independence

•  Member education, training and information

•  Cooperation among cooperatives

•  Concern for community

These principles may sound naive to those who primarily focus on the short-term bottom line; however, our cooperatives are here for the long haul, and this benefits cooperative members as well as the wider community.

The cooperatives' concern goes beyond the local community as well. I could not have been prouder of our state's cooperatives than in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Our cooperatives, like some others, could have focused on figuring how skyrocketing fuel costs would impact their bottom line. However, they were instead organizing their own response � not one focused on protecting a profit margin but on helping communities devastated by Katrina.

Within hours of realizing that the storm had brought widespread devastation, Wisconsin cooperative managers were strategizing on how they would help. Soon, line workers and trucks from our electric cooperatives were organized and dispatched to the South. Credit unions and farm credit systems organized financial assistance. Moreover, our cooperatives worked with cooperatives in other states to ensure fuel and drinking water, not just workers, would reach the South via our repair trucks.

While I am heartened by this response, I'm not surprised by it. The spirit of cooperation has seen people through much adversity. Cooperatives are unique businesses with a rich past. But that's only part of our story. The cooperative spirit has not only built us a strong foundation, but it continues to serve people in need today, often in new and lasting ways.

Cooperatives continue to be cutting-edge organizations with the people, ideals and resources to build futures.

People helping each other are what often separate the cooperative form of business from other business types. People form cooperatives to find solutions to problems or to meet needs in ways that would be more difficult or even impossible if they acted individually. The electrification of rural America by cooperative utilities is but one example.

But our story is not just about the past. For instance, the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives is using the cooperative model to try to address one of the biggest concerns of our state's residents � adequate and affordable health care � through its Co-op Care project.

Cooperatives are profitable businesses with a unique mission. Our region and state are richer because of them.