To celebrate the launch of the United Nations International Year of Co-operatives, Somerset Co-operative Services invites you to

The Corner House Hotel, Taunton

13th February 2012
8am – 9am

FREE BUSINESS BREAKFAST

Welcome to the International year of Co-operatives!

2012 will see a year-long schedule of activities to raise the profile of co-operatives during the United Nations' International Year of Co-operatives.

Across the world, co-operators and co-operatives will come together to celebrate with hundreds of activities planned to promote the co-operative voice.

At the end of 2010, Good Fuel Co-operative ceased trading. This was a co-op that we had spent considerable time working with and we felt it was important to understand the reasons why it failed - both to learn from for the future, and to explain to the many social investors who lost money. This is the report that emerged from that, and we hope it proves instructive for co-operators working in fast-moving industries, raising share capital from investors, and investing in large production facilities.

At the launch of the International Year of Co-operatives on October 31st, the United Nations issued a document outlining what a co-operative is.

What are cooperatives?

There is no UK legal definition of a co-operative - until now the only way we can say whether or not an organisation is a true co-operative is by trying to assess to what extent it complies with 7 International Co-operative Principles. In practice this can be difficult - you can easily say whether the one person one vote rule applies - but how do you measure co-operation between co-operatives, or education? Now Co-ops UK has produced a paper that attempts to develop practical tools for defining co-operatives.

in Chard, Glastonbury and Taunton. Somerset Co-operators discovered lots of opportunities for intertrading, learning from each other and mutual support. So much so that we agreed to do it again! We are aiming to hold another session in October, possibly in Castle Cary - watch this space!

To celebrate Co-ops Fortnight 2011 Somerset Co-operative Services is hosting 3 Co-operative Business Breakfasts in Chard, Glastonbury and Taunton, to enable co-operators and those interested in finding out about co-operatives to network, share information, discuss collaboration and enjoy a delicious healthy continental breakfast.

We aim to start about 9am and end around 10.30, so that busy people can take time out to network, before getting on with other activities.

Venues and dates:

The gap between rich and poor is at its highest since records began.

Join co-operatives from all over the UK in Birmingham 24 to 26 June to kick start Co-operatives Fortnight at Co-operative Congress 2011.

What can you do when a business owner wants to retire or move on and his – or her – immediate family members are not interested in taking over?

One proven solution is to sell the business as a going concern to the workforce, which can take it on as an employee buy-out

Result – a win/win situation for all

the owner receives fair compensation and is able to retire or move on confident that the business they built up is in knowledgeable and responsible hands

employees keep their jobs