Sample Letter to the Editor
A Philosophy of Service
In October 2010, cooperatives in our community and around the world will join in celebrating Co-op Month, Co-op Week and the role cooperatives play in serving community members. The theme of this year’s commemoration– Local. Trusted. Serving you. – encapsulates what has long been the cooperative promise. After a year that has posed economic and financial challenges for people around the world, this theme honors cooperatives’ philosophy of putting people before profits in order to meet the needs to all their members and community.
Cooperatives are unique because they are not-for-profit, democratically controlled, member-owned enterprises. Members of cooperatives pool their assets to meet the needs of their community in the form of food, financial services or purchasing power for family owned businesses. The cooperative spirit has been embraced by 130 million members, who are served by 29,000 cooperatives across our nation, working together to achieve community and economic advancement.
Cooperatives play a vital role in the economic development and stability of the communities they serve, helping people improve their lives through an increase in jobs and access to goods and services that would otherwise be more expensive, lower in quality, or simply unavailable.
This year’s theme also celebrates the advantages of cooperative membership. Value, trust and service are just some of the many benefits of being a cooperative member. That’s as true here in {NAME OF CITY} as it is in cooperatives across the United States. A philosophy of member service lies at the core of all cooperatives, and it’s an advantage that has distinguished co-ops for more than 150 years. Socially responsible business is not a fad with cooperatives; it’s just how co-ops work.
This Co-op Month, we hope everyone will join us in celebrating the cooperative difference, our proud cooperative heritage and the wonderful opportunities cooperative membership will offer citizens of {NAME OF CITY} for many years to come.
{SIGNED: REPRESENTATIVE NAME, CO-OP}
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