 It's 6.30 in the morning and the sun has just cleared the horizon. The winds start to pick up as the balloon team works together to assure a smooth balloon launch. Each member of the crew depends on one another for help as they make preparations. As the launch team quickly assembles the rigging, one can notice how cooperation is essential for a successful lift-up. Like this team of balloonists, a cooperative effort between people has been the basis for success. Business, at home, in short, in almost anything we do together, cooperation has given us the opportunity to reach higher levels of ability and satisfaction and rewards us with a better quality of life. One effective way to achieve this is establishing a cooperative business where the members of the cooperative are consumers and producers themselves with equal say and equal opportunity to see their efforts serve their interest. The first known cooperative dates back to 1844 and today the idea exists in nearly every part of the world. One place where this practice is thriving is Davis, California, a city of cooperatives. Located in Northern California between San Francisco and the Sierra Nevada's, Davis residents have benefited from this practice since the turn of the century. Davis is known for its innovative approaches to energy, housing and land use development and its 40,000 residents are served by 15 successful cooperative businesses. Using a popular mode of transportation in Davis, the bicycle, you can easily reach most of these cooperatives from your home. They might be condominiums like Dos Pinos, offering 60 units of affordable housing, making it the newest of five housing cooperatives in Davis. Or restaurants like the Blue Mango, where the workers own and operate an attractive cafe. And financial centers like the Golden One Credit Union, where members borrow from each other. How do cooperatives in Davis work? What makes Davis a model city of cooperatives? To answer these questions, let's look at one of the most successful co-ops in Davis today, the Davis Food Cooperative. In traditional supermarkets, most of the work is normally done by paid staff, but the people you see here are not paid employees, but a few of the approximately 2,000 members who use and own the Davis Food Cooperative. Each member can vote for the board of directors, serve on committees and participate in the co-op. The Davis Food Co-op offers different prices for working and non-working members. Working members work in the cooperative for several hours each month. There are, however, similarities between the Food Co-op and the corner supermarket. They both are run by a management team. They both hire staff personnel, and they both cater to the general public. But the differences are what makes the Davis Food Cooperative a fast-growing alternative for the people who shop here, the most important of which is direct involvement. Carol Shirley, general manager. The ways that members are actively involved in the store is in the choice of goods that are sold by the store and choice of goods that are not sold by the store. The members on the whole support us carrying and emphasizing natural foods and whole foods. They prefer produce that is unprocessed to frozen or canned produce. Members also have the ability to take products off the shelf if it's something that is not approved of. A particular company has values that are not supported by the members of the co-op and will not carry it on the shelf. This is one of the strongest ways that members can have an impact on the type of store that they're owning and controlling. The Davis Food Co-op began in 1972 when a group of friends got together to purchase quality food in bulk at reduced prices. Ann Evans, mayor of Davis and one of the founders of the Davis Food Co-op remembers how it all started. In the spring of 1972, a group of us got together and decided we wanted to buy food in bulk. And so we organized a buying club of about 40 families and ordered and distributed food out of my living room. And eventually got out of control because so many people were attracted to the idea of cheap, very, very good food. And so a couple of us got together over a weekend and restructured the organization and named it the People's Food Conspiracy. And we were very conscious of involving members and having members of the business make the decisions for the future of the business. Well, it grew and grew until about 300 families and in fact up to 400 families were members of the buying club and we were located in a church in town and in a halfway house. And finally we decided it really needed to move into its first store in order to continue on. We had a grand opening in October of 1976 in our little first 500 square foot store on L Street and grew out of there in one year and moved around the corner. And in that new facility we actually knocked down the walls three separate times because we were growing so fast. And about halfway through that time in about 78-79 the membership really began discussing whether it should move to a bigger store in a more central location. And as the membership always did it took a long time and a lot of discussion, a lot of leadership to finally come to its decision. And so we moved in 83 to our present store in the middle of town at the old public market. But I think really that for me one of the central aspects of the co-op which I know was very key to my own leadership development and assisted me in becoming mayor of the city of Davis was that people did take the time really to articulate the issues and to feel strongly about the issues and we fought hard over the direction of our store because all of us felt that sense of ownership about our store. And as a result there began to grow a leadership community who two of us went on to become mayor of the city. One person is chair of the planning commission. Many people went on to start other businesses of their own and so Davis began to have a cooperative community as well as the cooperative economic system. With the food co-op in its new location it offers all the foods and services one would expect to find at their local grocery store. Co-op offers a full line of grocery and dairy items as well as fresh organic and commercial produce. Many of these products are purchased from producer cooperatives such as Welch's, Blue Diamond, Ocean Spray and the Co-op brand. Most of these are known nationally and conventional food markets as well as consumer food cooperatives. Here at the Davis food co-op shoppers may choose from excellent choices in domestic and imported cheeses as well as a wide variety of California and imported wines. The co-op also specializes in providing bulk foods at considerable savings. Whether items are bought in quantity or not the prices are competitive with other grocery stores in town. Members may also serve on committees that provide input to the board of directors. Here the personnel committee discusses the advantages of adding an extra staff position. For those not currently serving on these committees there are other ways to voice their opinions. If a member wishes to see a change in product lines or in the operation of the store all they have to do is drop a note in the suggestion box for consideration. If they are hoping to rally support among the other members they can make their opinions known on the comment board. In fact the Davis food co-op goes out of its way to make shopping more enjoyable for its members. For example the children's corner is a popular spot for kids to play while parents do their food shopping and during specified hours children are entertained by a member fulfilling their work time as a child care supervisor. These are just some of the benefits available to active members of the cooperative. Members also gain personal satisfaction from participating in consumer democracy in their own community. This isn't a new idea. The Davis food co-op is part of a cooperative movement that encompasses thousands of such organizations throughout the world. The first modern cooperative started in Rochdale, England in 1844. David Thompson director of international relations for the National Cooperative Business Association and board member of the Davis food co-op. The Rochdale cooperative began in 1844 mainly as a result of people moving into the city who were suffering from the implications of the industrial revolution. They needed work, they needed food, they needed all sorts of things and they are having difficulties getting those in the stores of their town. So they began their first cooperative so that they could provide themselves with quality goods, with safe goods and with goods at an inexpensive cost to them. The cooperative idea then took off in the rest of England. It spread to Europe, it went to the rest of the world and by the early 1900s there were cooperatives in almost every country in this world. Today there are cooperatives in over 70 nations with a half a billion people being members of cooperatives which are members of the International Cooperative Alliance, an international group formed to provide and to promote for the activities of cooperatives. One of the things that has helped the cooperatives develop are the very principles laid down by those people in 1844. The first one was open membership, no discrimination, not by religion, by creed, by race, nor any other means that everybody who wished to use a cooperative could use it. The second one was one member, one vote, that each person was given the right to vote and that voting was not based upon power or privilege, position, money or whatever. The next one was limited return on share capital that capital should receive only a nominal rate of return that those with capital wouldn't be rewarded but the user was the key one to be rewarded by the cooperative. The next one is that the economic results of the society should be given to those who used it. That was the key thing is to reward those people who shopped at the store, those who lived at the housing cooperative, those who were members of the credit cooperative, that if the cooperative made profits, made a surplus, it would be provided back to those who used it. The next one was education, that cooperative should educate people about the cooperatives, about consumer issues, about issues which affected their organization and their business, that they should know that business, that they should be strong about it, that their knowledge would help them provide for a better one. And finally, cooperation amongst cooperatives, that each cooperative would help another cooperative and that hopefully through that we would create the cooperative republic that the people of Rochester in 1844 dreamed of. A variety of cooperatives contribute to Davis and the surrounding community in many ways. One such co-op is the Davis Parent Nursery School. Started in the late 1950s, the school provides a preschool environment that not only prepares the children for public school, but also serves as a laboratory for parent education. The parents at DPNS participate on a rotation basis as teacher aids. They can also take special adult education classes geared to make them better parents through an understanding of child development. Another cooperative which has served Davis for more than a decade is the Artery. It was founded in 1974 when a group of artists got together to meet the needs of the local arts community. They began in a tiny upstairs storefront with 15 members and are now in their third location. Wanting to share their work with the community, they base their co-op on the philosophy of quality work, originality and mutual support. The Artery is a producer's cooperative with required work hours from its members and a screening process by which they accept new members. Their retail store features different kinds of displays and exhibits and includes a functioning gallery with new shows every month. They display fine arts and crafts including ceramics, woodworking, glasswork and a variety of paintings as well as clothing, sculpture, photography, textiles, stained glass and many other works. It has become a popular location for Davis residents to browse and purchase beautiful artwork. Just a short drive outside Davis in the farm community of Wetters is the Wool Scouring Co-op. Here customers from all over the United States send harvested wool to the clean. The service began in 1982 when it was discovered that wool harvesters weren't able to process small amounts of wool without having to sell the wool outright to big business. The Wool Scouring Co-op sorts and cleans the wool then ships it back to the customer charging competitive rates for its services. The Co-op takes pride in utilizing energy efficient technology for the washing process and has offered a much needed service to the agricultural community. Another cooperative serving Davis and Sacramento is the Capital City Cab Cooperative. In 1981, 20 cab drivers and five office workers who had been on strike formed a workers cooperative to provide taxi service to the greater metropolitan area. Capital City Cab is now the second largest cab company in Sacramento with more than 40 air-conditioned taxis and the cooperative has grown from 25 to 80 members within the last four years. All members of this cooperative must pay an initial equity fee to become members of the Co-op. The drivers also pay a lease fee for use of the vehicles and they pay for their own fuel. After these expenses anything they earn is theirs to keep. Most of the Co-op members are drivers, but membership also includes office workers and administrators. With this kind of growth, Capital City Cab has since been able to provide van service to the Sacramento and San Francisco Air Force. It's one of the most successful worker-owned cooperatives in the area. Recently the largest consumer cooperative in the United States opened a retail store in Sacramento, a short 25-minute drive from Davis. REI, Recreational Equipment Incorporated, started in 1938 in Seattle, Washington and has grown to serve 1.5 million members operating retail stores in nine states. The Co-op specializes in quality outdoor equipment such as backpacking, camping, cycling gear, and outdoor clothing of all types. When the first American team climbed Mount Everest in 1963, they were totally outfitted by REI and led by Jim Whitaker, the chain's first full-time employee. Thank you for calling REI. Can I take your order? REI also provides a national mail order catalog which handles up to 5,000 orders a day during peak buying seasons. And I need your address? Members receive patronage refunds based on the dollar amount of their purchases each year. Before the store opened in the Sacramento area, there were already 8,000 local members of REI. It has become a great way for outdoor enthusiasts to buy reliable equipment from their own store. One recent addition to the cooperative community in Davis is the Davis Community Cable Cooperative. The idea of a cable cooperative came in 1980 when an ad hoc citizens committee formed by the Davis City Council drafted the first request for a cable franchise proposal. Roger Salquist, member of the ad hoc committee, recounts how it all started. When I moved to Davis in 1980, I saw that there was an opening on a committee that had been established to develop the cable franchise ordinance and request for proposal. I went down to City Hall, I applied, and at the first meeting, I think by virtue of the fact that I did most of the talking, I was elected chairman of that group. We proceeded to hold a number of hearings and evaluate what we were looking for from a private franchisee. In the context of that, we decided to why have a private franchisee, why not explore cooperative membership, which had been proven successful in many other fields. We started looking into it and with a significant boost from the local representative from the National Consumer Cooperative Bank, we determined that it would indeed be feasible for us to establish a cable cooperative. And with that and with the support of the City Council, the Board of Directors for the cable co-op was formed. When the committee work was completed in the summer of 1981, the co-op was born and a Board of Incorporators was formed. Later on in June of 1981, the City Council granted a conditional franchise to the cable co-op. Next, we had to obtain financing that was done from the National Consumer Cooperative Bank and with that financing commitment, we had the funds to do a feasibility study and come up with some kind of an operational plan. We accomplished that during the following 18 months, no mean task I might add. And then finally in December of 1982, an unconditional franchise was awarded to the Davis Community Cable Co-op by the Davis City Council. In January of 1984, construction for the $6 million system began and by fall of the same year, over 130 miles of cable was installed throughout the city. Growth was steady under the direction of a professional management company and by January of 1985, the Davis Cable Co-op served over 5,000 of the 15,000 homes in Davis. The Davis Cable Cooperative is a state-of-the-art system offering its subscribers 60 channels of national and local programming with an occasional pay-per-view event. Prices for cable service run about the same as the national average for a system this size. In addition to the cost of cable subscribership, the Cable Co-op charges a fee for the members' ownership interest. One does not have to join the Co-op to receive cable service, but non-members are required to pay the same monthly fee and don't receive the benefits of membership. Because of this, 80% of all subscribers have joined the Cable Cooperative. I'd like to call this meeting of the Davis Community Cable Cooperative. Some of the benefits Co-op members enjoy are voting for their board of directors, providing direct input at the annual membership meetings and receiving patronage refunds when the cable system makes a profit. The most exciting part of having their own Cable Cooperative for the people of Davis has been the dynamic start of local programming. One of the people in Davis involved from the beginning and delighted to see community access become a reality is Judy Corbett, a member of the Cable Co-op board of directors. The question is, why did we want to co-operatively own our cable TV in Davis? And the reason that we wanted co-operative ownership was one thing we wanted to have the profits stay in Davis and recycle in Davis. We didn't want the money from the cable TV going to an owner in New York City. And the other thing we were interested in was really maximizing the use of public access. We have a very strong community here and we knew that there would be a lot of use of a community facility if we could offer that to our residents. We looked at privately owned cable TV companies and we found that what they were doing was locking up the public access equipment in the closet and nobody knows where the key was. There was no commitment to it. In Davis, the board of directors feels very strongly that public access is one of the most important things that we offer the system and so we have two cameras, two staff members and we really make good use of that equipment and it's been a lot of fun to develop that in Davis. Many members of the Davis community have become avid producers for the Public Access Channel and the number of programs is increasing every month. Phil Gross, one of the first public access producers talks about how he got started in television production. How I got involved? I used to be a director of a dance and music troupe called Fly By Night in the late 70s and we had a great time and like any dance and music theater troupe, we burned out. I put that aside though I loved it. I didn't see any practical application of it and then as a member of the art commission in Davis we were involved in looking at the public access facilities that were going to be written into the franchise grant for Cable. So I was quite aware when Davis Cable came to town when the public access facilities first started up. I was down there immediately, took the equipment out immediately and started producing. What I knew anything about television at that point is a mute point. I just went out and started doing and learning by mistakes. I later wrote a grant and received money from businesses in the community to sponsor four one-hour shows called the Davis Art Scene where I went in and interviewed performing art groups and visual artists and also included video shorts and other surprises and that's been very successful. All of the people producing local programming took a free training class from the Cable co-op. During this class they learned how to operate the equipment, edit videotape and learn the basics of writing and directing television shows. Dave Block, local program manager for the Davis Cable co-op. We've had tremendous response from the people here in Davis to the availability of our community access workshops. We've had well over 80 people go through the workshop so far and learn not only how to use our access production equipment, the cameras and the video recorders and the editing systems and so on, but they've also learned more about what public access really is, a means of expression through television that isn't available any other way. There is no other media in the country right now where a person can put a program together or any kind of message together and have it run unedited and uncensored, enabling them to express their feelings without some kind of mediating agency getting in the way. As I said, we have had tremendous response to our workshops. There's a long waiting list to get into them right now and I think it does show the enthusiasm that the people of Davis have had for the cable system. A lot of that is due to the fact that the Davis Cable System is the only urban cable cooperative in the country because everyone in the city who's a member has a real stake in this cable system, a stake in having it succeed, they are possibly more apt to want to get directly involved in the operation of the system. Certainly the easiest way to do that is by calling us up, preserving themselves a space in a workshop, learning how to do it and going out and making a program themselves. The Davis Cable Co-op does not require any members to work at the cable system, but there are other ways for members to become involved besides local programing. One of these is volunteering at the co-op offices. These volunteers get involved with public relations work and the processing of memberships for their cable system. The co-ops management team is constantly promoting the benefits of membership with the slogan, making TV what we want it to be and they're having tremendous success. Perhaps the newer co-operatives flourish and succeed in Davis because of community awareness. Stuart Cole, executive vice president of the National Co-operative Business Association. The wealth of co-operatives that already exist in Davis is going to be a critical factor in helping new co-operatives start. We find that the management and leadership that one co-operative develops often becomes the kernel out of which new co-operatives develop. Secondly, there seems to be a demonstration effect when people see one co-operative succeeding they naturally turn their attention and ask what else can co-operative businesses do to help me. And then the final reason is that having successful co-operatives helps alleviate some of the ignorance about co-operatives. Most people don't understand how co-operatives work. Most people don't understand how co-operatives can serve them, but as they see co-operatives work and experience a successful co-operative business it overcomes that level of ignorance and it helps start new co-operatives. The ideas, enthusiasm and co-operation you see here exist throughout the world in towns of every size, political persuasion and population demographics. Co-operatives in Davis and around the world are successful and growing. To learn more about co-operatives please write to Business Association Suite 111401 New York Avenue Northwest Washington, D.C. 2-0005 Davis is remarkably well known on both the national and the international scenes as a leading co-operative community so people in Davis should be proud of the reputation that it's earned. Across the United States people are aware of the new co-operatives being started in Davis and the success generally of co-operative business here. We invite people who are interested in starting new co-operatives and learning more about co-operatives to correspond with us the National Cooperatives Association is prepared to provide them with information and with expertise but most of all we encourage people to watch what's going on here at Davis because we think several years from now people are going to look back and say that something very special happened in Davis, California in the early 1980s and that the community is different