The Co-operative Group is holding elections for the newly created national Members' Council. I'm standing for election, and here I explain why. This is the text of my candidate statement with links added so that you can see some of the things I have been involved in. You can see information about the AGM and elections here.

 

“The Co-op belongs to its members”. For this to have any real meaning, ordinary members need to have real influence over their local Co-op shops and businesses - a say in the products on sale locally and in what the Co-op does for the community.

 

This won’t happen without a change in the culture of the Co-op and how it is managed. Local managers and staff should be encouraged and empowered to work with members so that the Co-op responds locally to the needs of customers and is part of the community. That is how co-op shops were many years ago, and how they could be again.

 

If it succeeds then the Co-op will show how it is unique: with one thing its competitors don’t have, loyal members who feel they really are the owners. Otherwise there will be little to differentiate it.

 

I believe this is the single most important issue for elected representatives to tackle in the coming period as the Co-op recovers from its financial difficulties.

 

The Manchester Area Committee of the Co-op has been forthright in arguing for reforms like this. We set up a website, Co-operative Springboard, to promote a national debate. We wanted to show in practice how members and staff could work together at a local level, so we set up a trial “Cluster” in Chorlton and Whalley Range where members and staff are now working together on practical and immediate ideas: products that would succeed locally, joint events with local groups. I have actively pursued this work on the committee, creating the Springboard website and organising the cluster trial with local members.

 

The Co-op could involve members more at a national level by adopting this type of open, campaigning approach and making better use of the Internet.

 

When the Co-op lost its majority ownership of the Co-operative Bank, the Save Our Bank campaign brought together over 10,000 customers on line and was successful in ensuring that the bank did not water down its ethical policy. The next step is to set up a “customer union” offering customers a way to invest in a new co-operative ownership stake. I was a founder of the campaign and have been closely involved in running Save Our Bank.

 

My involvement and experience with co-operative businesses goes back to the 1980’s when I co-founded Poptel, probably the world’s first co-operative providing digital and on-line services, and one of the UK’s first Internet providers - now part of The Phone Co-op. At Poptel we invented and launched the ‘.coop’ domain name ending, now used by co-operatives worldwide - including The Co-operative Group.

 

I am a non-executive director of Ethical Consumer magazine, and a founding director of the Manchester Digital trade association. I am currently working on creating an new type of Internet hub, co-operatively owned by the businesses that use it.