Quentin Burdick Center for Cooperatives

PERSONNEL CHANGES--Kathy Coyle moved from the QBCC to USDA Rural Development in northwestern Minnesota on May 1, 2001.  Marge Lougheed joined us on May 15th as the communication and research specialist.  Marge completed her second degree (this time in agribusiness) at NDSU this spring.

RESEARCH PROPOSALS SUBMITTED--Three proposals were submitted during this time period.

We submitted a proposal to USDA Rural Development-Cooperative Services-Cooperative Development Center program.  Project summary attached. This is a 18 month project for $190,251 if funded. It will greatly increase the training and feasibility activity of the Center. This project was not funded, USDA dropped the number of programs from 21 to 15, most of which were continuing programs.  

The second proposal was submitted by the Energy & Environmental Research Center of UND. QBCC will lead the economic feasibility and risk analysis and  impact assessment and be involved in the extension/education & outreach functions of the study. The project title is "Dual-Fermentation Biorefineries: An Opportunity for Rural Economic Development and Diversification". It was submitted to the Fund for Rural America program. QBCC's portion of the budget is $40,329. This project was not funded.

The third proposal is the "Marketing Study of Hybrid Striped Bass" submitted through the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center, Michigan.  It has a budget of $60,000 and includes the analyzing the feasibility of market information cooperative composed of producers.  This proposal has been funded.

Agricultural Information Technology (AgIT plans to be a farmer owned information cooperative) approached QBCC for help in their feasibility study.  A $40,000 proposal has been submitted to APUC by AgIT.  If funded, QBCC will be the primary research organization.

QBCC did work with "Cooperation Works" to submit a proposal to be a part of the national value-added center funded by USDA-RBS/CS. Cooperation Works is a national association of cooperative development centers (Dakota Cooperative Development Center-Bill Patrie, is a member and was part of this initiative). This effort was not successful.

ONGOING RESEARCH--The marketing project conducted for Aquacare International was completed and presented to Aquacare management personnel and representatives from AURI, Minnesota Technology and Minnesota Small Business Administration. Ed Janzen was the lead researcher assisted by Kathy Coyle and Theresa Golz.

The final report was prepared and submitted to Sustainable Agriculture Research & Extension (SARE), University of Nebraska.  A departmental report also was published with Kathy Coyle completing the job initiated by Ben Larson.

USDA/CS funded project on the "Training Needs of Traditional Local Cooperatives". This project is conducted in collaboration with University of Wisconsin and Montana State University.  Two phases are nearly completed, a survey of directors and an analysis of changes in industry structure.   The final phase, development of training materials has been initiated. This is aimed at development of strategic planning materials to be used by local cooperatives in planning their long-term strategies.

USDA/CS funded project on the “Evaluation of Financial Strategies of New Generation Cooperatives (NGC)". The purpose of this project is to evaluate alternative equity management strategies upon the long term financial performance and stability of NGCs. A spreadsheet model for estimating cooperative financial statements over a ten year or more time period has been completed and is being reviewed for accuracy. Background information on processing efficiencies, input costs, and output volumes and prices from cooperatives are being collected. It will be entered into the model to estimate the range and probability of profit potential.

USDA/CS funded project on the "Equity Management Issues in New Generation Cooperatives". This project was recently initiated under the leadership of William Nganje. It focuses on stock values of NGCs, their relationship to income allocation decisions of the cooperative, and long term equity management issues.

USDA/CS Project on "A Comprehensive Feasibility Study of Production Level Cooperatives.  A summary of current research and current production level cooperatives has been completed. Analysis of the production enterprises and functions which have potential is being conducted.    

North Central Regional Aquaculture Center--Conducting a marketing study on the demand for Hybrid Walleye and Sunfish in conjunction with Michigan State University and Illinois State University.

EDUCATION & OUTREACH

Executive Training--The fifth executive training program for NGC directors and managers, Focus on Finance, was conducted March 13-15 at the Arrowwood Radisson, Alexandria, Minnesota.  Twenty-five participants, representing 15 cooperatives, participated in the program (agenda attached). Frayne Olson led in the organization of this program in addition to direct participation as a speaker. Evaluations were very good and are available.

On March 7th, QBCC initiated its first member oriented "leadership discovery and development/ strategic issue analysis" with 25 members of Minn-Dak Growers Cooperative.  A second session was held on April 10 and the program will continue for a year, ending with a formal presentation of their strategic issue recommendation by the four taskforces to the management team of Minn-Dak. Bill Nelson and Marge Lougheed have met twice with two of the taskforces, Policy and Member Relations, this summer.

QBCC provided specific board training for two NGCs in the Spring 2001. A one-day session was held on April 12th for Chippewa AgriFuels, and a similar session was held with Central Minnesota Ethanol on April 18th. Content included: principles & values, roles and responsibilities, strategic planning & SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats), communication & conflict resolution.

QBCC conducted an one day training program for Bushel 42 Pasta in October 2001. The focus was on governance and finance.

The sixth Executive Training Program, Roles and Responsibilities of Cooperative Directors, was conducted on December 10-11 with 30 persons attending. The evaluations from this program were the highest ever received by QBCC.

Outreach

Training NIS Faculty in Free Enterprise Economics and Business--Low level of continued involvement with five Ukrainian agricultural universities as they modify their teaching curriculum and research to a market economy.   Bill Nelson was in Ukraine from May 19 to June 2, 2001, with a five day trip to Gomel, Belarus during that time. Nelson is continues to work with Lviv Agrarian University to organize a organic agriculture industry and marketing/processing cooperatives in western Ukraine.

 At Gomel, Nelson visited and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gomel Cooperative Institute (GCI). GCI is a 3,000 student college that teaches students for careers with cooperatives.  GCI is a private college sponsored by the Belarus Consumers Cooperative. The Belarus Consumers Cooperative is a national, federated cooperative with over 3,000 retail establishments, most are rural, convenience/general/grocery stores. The visit to Gomel was arranged by Igor Kotov who was a Fulbright scholar with QBCC in 1999.

The final part of the European trip was spent in Sweden attending the 7th annual European Conference on Social Economy.  The focus was on cooperative business and nonprofit associations.

.

Education

Additional funding from the Cooperative Foundation was received to continue the process of moving the cooperatives course to a completely on-line course. The initial funding was received from the Farmers Union Foundation. Our strategy was to link the Internet course to the forthcoming book edited by Cobia and Anderson.  We have switched to a selected set of readings available on the Internet, the entire course is available electronically. Requests for access to the 374 Cooperatives homepage have been granted to South Dakota State University, University of Wisconsin--Platteville, Texas A&M, Ohio State University, South Carolina State University, University of Maryland Extension and Verne House. 

Four modules have audio have been completed. These modules now have Kathy Coyle's voice on each module and are available for distribution on C.D. The first three modules were sent to Estonia and Croaitia. Our plans are to complete the process of incorporating audio on each PowerPoint presentation in the Spring 2002. Other education/outreach activities are highlighted in the Spring 2001 QBCC newsletter.

QBCC was represented at the annual meetings of the National Council of Farmers Cooperatives (Olson), CenexHarvestStates (Nelson), North Dakota Farmers Union (Coyle), Land O Lakes (Nelson) and CoBank (Nelson and Olson).

PLANNED FUTURE EFFORTS

Research:

It is proposed to analyze three aspects of each cooperative: 1. factors related to the formation stage (vision & visionary, composition of steering committee, creditability, startup documents-feasibility analysis, business plan & prospectus, track record of assistance), 2. characteristics of the product line and industry entered (competitive structure, business cycles, differentiation within the markets & characteristics of demand), 3. internal operations of the cooperative (directors and management, debt vs. equity, quality & consistency of product, efficiency of production process, location, infrastructure, workforce, tax considerations, marketing vs. production emphasis).

Education/Training: Cooperatives 374 was not offered at Dickinson State University again this fall, they have opted to move to a once every two years. In addition, Nelson taught the "National Agribusiness Marketing course during Fall and Spring semesters, and Co

Outreach: QBCC continues to respond to multiple inquiries per day on questions associated with cooperatives and cooperative development.  Substantial effort continues to be placed on updating and improving the homepage, which stimulates many of the email requests.  

 Back to About QBCC

QBCC-Update0102.doc