Joining a Co-op
What’s so great about joining a co-op? Well, the best great thing is that a co-op exists to serve the needs of those who have an interest in them. Whether your interest is in time or money, when you join a co-op you are becoming a voting member of a group of people who want or need what you want or need, and those people are willing to invest time and/or money into the organization just like you. Remember that the power of two brains is better than one and, if Solomon was right, there is much safety in a multitude of council.
The word ‘co-op’ is a shortened version of the word cooperative. We see the word ‘coop’ on the side of grain elevators, which are indeed cooperative drop off points for farmers who have financially joined together to buy a share of that elevator to shorten their travel distance after harvest. For our purposes, I will shorten the word cooperative with a hyphen to ‘co-op’, because ‘coop’ makes me feel like a corn-fed chicken pacing around waiting to be slaughtered, which I find very confusing when comparing to the concept of a cooperative. If indeed a coop is what you think of when you are wondering about joining a group of like-minded individuals who can benefit you as much as you benefit them, I hope that I will give you more to ponder before you set your mind to pass or to always go it alone.
Joining a co-op may mean the difference between your determination to keep your self-reliant lifestyle in a particular area (in homeschooling or in organic produce you can’t or won’t grow yourself, as examples). In the coming posts I will address two types of co-ops; a home school co-op and a food co-op. I truly hope to help you stick with learning, studying, and trying to become more self reliant, because there is help to be had and the rewards are numerous.
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Nicole Lorenz is a homeschool mom who enjoys meeting and learning from new friends and acquaintances she meets as her family travels around the country. She has found the best way to plug in to a new location is to find a new group to join, for there is much to be learned from others in this game of life.
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We used to be part of a bulk food buying co-op, and we found many advantages to belonging. We’ve also had some discussion with others in the Cheyenne area about creating a co-op grocery store and creating our own locally grown food co-op. The idea was to involve those of us with ability and interest in bulk food production so we could mutually provide abundance and variety of locally grown and raised foods that aren’t treated, processed or otherwise adulterated; and create some income at the same time.
This is a great topic for us. Looking forward to more in the series. There are some who think about the self-reliant and assume that going it alone is the only way. It’s good to get a reminder that “building a team” and “asking for help” are also part of the playbook. It’s also a good example of what people can do when they focus on common interests.