NEWS
from the Quentin N. Burdick Center for Cooperatives
North Dakota State University
May 1994
The mission of the Quentin N. Burdick Center for Cooperatives is to conduct, promote and coordinate university education and research on cooperatives, to strengthen cooperatives' operation, and to work toward expanding employment and economic opportunities through cooperatives.
From the Director
This is an exciting time for the Quentin N. Burdick Center for Cooperatives to come on line. Agricultural producers in North Dakota and the region are creating a new wave of value-added cooperatives. The cooperative community is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Rochdale Cooperative; the N.D. Coordinating Council of Cooperatives is doing just that, cooperating; many local cooperatives are facing up to the often painful process of restructuring; Congress is funding efforts to promote cooperatives as vehicles for rural economic development, and there is a general recognition of the need for improved education and enhanced research on cooperatives. Cooperation with the Center from all sectors has been gratifying; the Burdick family, university officials from many disciplines, political officials, and, especially, cooperatives themselves and their associations.
The Center has already served as a facilitator in coalescing efforts for multidisciplinary research and educational efforts.
The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a brief report on the status and activities of the Center to contributors to the Center and other interested parties. We solicit your comments, suggestions, and questions.
Endowment Fund
By the end of April, $450,000 had been received by the Burdick Center endowment from the more than $820,000 in pledges. NDSU pledged at the beginning of the fund drive that all income received in behalf of the Burdick Center would be reinvested until deposits reached $400,000. This goal has been reached and when the next fiscal year begins July 1, 1994, interest income from the endowment available to the Center for its first year of funding (1994-95) will be $12,293.
Program for New and Emerging Cooperatives
The Burdick Center for Cooperatives is organizing a training program for the boards and management of new and emerging cooperatives. The first of a two-part training session will be held at Mandan in the N.D. Assn. of Rural Electric Cooperatives/Rural Telephone Cooperatives Building June 28 and 29, 1994. A pre-program session on starting a cooperative is scheduled for the evening of June 27 for those who have had limited experience in their formation.
Presenters with national and international reputations have committed to make major presentations at the workshop. They include: Bruce Anderson, Comell University, Ithaca, NY, speaking on board/management communications and director/member relations; Bill Jorgenson, partner in Senechal Jorgenson and Hale from Danvers, MA, discussing strategic planning and marketing strategies; and David Barton, director of the Capper Center for Cooperatives; presenting financial strategies. Area presenters include Lee Estenson, St. Paul B.C.; Bill Patrie, N.D. AREC; Joe Tolley, Kermit Bye, and David Cobia of Fargo.
Topics, format, and location of the training program were based on results of a survey of key personnel from new and emerging cooperatives. A scholarship for one representative from each identified new and emerging cooperative is planned to help defray lodging expenses. Registration and most meals are free. Invitations and registration materials are being sent to these groups. A limited number of spaces will be reserved for representatives of such groups as economic development agencies and state government agencies.
This training program is being financed by a federal grant received through the North Dakota Coordinating Council of Cooperatives. Jack Piela is managing the grant.
Please contact David Cobia, Larry Stearns, or Lucy Radke at
701-237-7442 if you have questions about the program.
Survey on Cooperative Curricula
One of the objectives of the Center is to incorporate one or more modules on cooperatives into university-level law, accounting, marketing, and agriculture courses. Advisory Board Member Dennis Hill observed that we should first find out what is currently being taught so we can know if progress is being made. Taking a cue from this suggestion, Dr. Cobia, in collaboration with Dr. Cropp from the University of Wisconsin and Tom Rowe from Cooperative Development Services, surveyed all universities and colleges in Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. They found, that for North Dakota, some concepts on cooperatives are taught at six schools in 10 courses. Four of these courses feature cooperatives less than 5% of the time, four 10% of the time and one at 17%. Only one course, taught by Dr. Cobia, is entirely devoted to cooperatives.
Six of these 10 courses were in agriculture-related courses such as agricultural finance and agricultural marketing, three were rural sociology and one was in business. No course in law or accounting was found to introduce the topic of cooperatives. The next phase of this project is to collect, classify, and make available teaching materials used by instructors in the four-state region.
Research on Cooperatives
Burdick Center personnel are involved in additional research projects that are nearing completion. These include studies on distribution costs and market area considerations for cooperatives distributing fuel and fertilizer, incentives for executives of local cooperatives, and response of grain marketing cooperatives to loss of government storage income. Highlights of these projects will be reported at a later date.
Proposals for grant funding have been made for introducing TQM or re-engineering to new cooperatives and financial bench marks for cooperatives.
Tour of North Dakota
David Cobia and Larry Steams, NDSU, Research Associate, will be traveling around the State of North Dakota the week of May 16-20 to make contacts in support of the Center's objectives. They will meet with faculty at state universities about their education programs on cooperatives, and will contact new and emerging cooperatives regarding a June 28-29 training program and other needs. They will also visit with contributors to the Center regarding research results and the Center.
Cooperative Principles
User benefits: The purpose of cooperatives is economic benefits for its users or patrons. Benefits are returned to patrons in the form of patronage refunds, favorable prices, and/or access to markets and availability of supplies.
User ownership: Cooperatives are private businesses owned by their patrons. Ownership is achieved by direct investment, retained patronage refunds, and/or per unit capital returns.
User control: Cooperatives are controlled by member-patrons through boards of directors. Members typically elect their boards and make other major decisions on a one-member, one-vote basis.
Rochdale 150 Years
We join the cooperative world in observing the 150th anniversary of the creation of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers Ltd., in England. This group of tradesmen is credited with the creation of an economically successful cooperative founded on "rules of conduct and points of organization" from which our cooperative principles, statutes, and operating practices have evolved.
The Rochdale cooperative, looked upon as the father of successful modern cooperatives, has survived to this day. You are encouraged to read more detailed accounts of this anniversary in other cooperative literature.
Boutwell, Others, to Address World Trade Symposium June 21-22
Several key cooperative executives will be among speakers at the Fifth Great Plains Symposium on World Agricultural Trade, set for June 21-22 at the Fargo Holiday Inn.
Wayne Boutwell, president of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, will speak on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Boutwell has been a senior adviser to the GATT negotiations. Others on the program include Joseph Famalette, CEO of American Crystal Sugar Co.; Martha Cashman, vice president for international development with Land O' Lakes; and speakers from throughout the world, including Mexico, Canada, and the Newly Independent States (former Soviet Union). U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy has been invited to speak.
Sponsored by North Dakota State University, the Northern Crops Institute, and the NDSU President's Agriculture Club, the symposium is held every other year and is considered the premier agricultural trade conference in the Upper Midwest. For a copy of the program and registration materials, call Vern Freeh, symposium facilitator, at NDSU, 701-237-8522.
International Education and Training
David Cobia has been conducting workshops and seminars on the potential role, function, and management of cooperatives to international groups, most recently to a group of five Chinese professors from the Zhengshou Grain College. They were interested in developing a course on cooperatives at their university. Presentations include one to 12 Russians in an NCI feed grain school. A repeat session is scheduled for July 11.
USDA Agricultural Cooperative Service Becomes RDA-Cooperative Service
Under the USDA's reorganization plan, the Agricultural Cooperative Service will lose its agency status and be incorporated into the Rural Development Administration as Cooperative Service. Its mission will be expanded to include all cooperatives--not just agricultural. The RECs and RTs are excluded as they already are served by another agency.
There is a plan to establish 30 field offices for cooperative development and technical assistance. It is anticipated that these field offices will be housed in selected state FHA offices, including North Dakota's.
Aldrich C. Bloomquist Lectureship Series
American Crystal Sugar Company, Moorhead, has contributed $25,000 to establish the Aldrich C. Bloomquist Lectureship Series endowment fund at NDSU. This endowment may be augmented by contributions from friends, associates of Mr. Bloomquist, and others interested in the objective of the lectureship. The lectureship will be administered through the Burdick Center.
The endowment will provide funding for guest lectures to students, faculty, and cooperative and agribusiness leaders and will stimulate the intellectual environment of the University for more creative research, teaching, extension, and international activities in cooperatives, agricultural economics, economics, and business. The first lecture is planned for the spring of 1995.
The lecture series recognizes Al Bloomquist on his foresight, leadership, and perseverance in creating the American Crystal Sugar Cooperative and significantly impacting the sugar industry in the Red River Valley. Mr. Bloomquist became the first executive secretary of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association in 1961. He played an important part in overcoming legal and financial obstacles to the organization of American Crystal Sugar, which became the nation's first sugarbeet cooperative. He is the recipient of an NDSU 1992 honorary doctor of sciences from NDSU in 1992 and was also one of the three recipients of the University of Minnesota's new Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture in 1993.
Burdick Center Establishes Advisory Board Committees
Three committees will review, evaluate, appraise, and assess programs and initiatives and make recommendations and suggestions to the director. Helping to establish a balanced approach and to develop priorities will be particularly important, and committees will serve as sounding boards to the director. The objectives and function of these committees will undoubtedly change as we gain experience, as needs change, and as personnel changes.
Education Committee. Mark Watne, chair; Harriette McCaul, Dennis Hill, and Dale Stenerson, members. The primary focus of the Center's education objective is at the university level. Balance will be needed in advancing existing programs, expanding geographically to universities in adjoining areas, and introducing cooperatives into accounting, legal, and business curricula. Orienting rural economic development agencies regarding the potential cooperatives is another need.
Research Committee. Gerald Kuster, chair; David Loer, Dennis Meland, and Jack Rose, members. Research on cooperatives should provide important descriptive information, and more importantly, seek answers to perplexing questions that hinder cooperatives from achieving maximum benefit to their members help them capitalize on the strengths of cooperatives and minimize their weaknesses, and help capitalize on structural changes in the economy and society at large.
Developing a philosophical framework and establishing priorities will be particularly challenging to this committee.
Development Committee. Don Anderson, chair; Francis Leiphon, Roger Maras, and Robert McPhail, members. Doug Tollefson, advancement officer, College of Agriculture will be a nonvoting member. A fund drive seeking pledges from individuals will be initiated this summer. Our goal is to reach the million dollar pledge milestone by Jan. 1, 1995. Efforts will be continued at least until we reach the goal of $1.5 million in pledges.
Dedication Luncheon for the Burdick Center
The Quentin N. Burdick Center for Cooperatives was dedicated Sept. 30, 1994, in Bismarck. Held in conjunction with the fall meeting of the North Dakota Coordination Council of Cooperatives, the dedication came at the start of National Cooperative Month.
Holding the dedication at Bismarck underscored the fact that the Center is an institution, not a building and that the Center will serve North Dakota and surrounding state cooperative education and research needs.
The dedication event provided an opportunity to mark the establishment of the Center, and to recognize contributors to the endowment. The Center was presented by Advisory Board Chairman Sidney Olson and received on behalf of the university system by Chancellor Douglas Treadway, on behalf of the Burdick family by Jocelyn Birch Burdick, and on behalf of the contributors by Ed Ellison.
Besides representatives of contributing cooperatives, those in attendance included Burdick family members, government and university officials, friends of Senator Burdick and friends of cooperatives. Vern Freeh, St. Paul, an NDSU graduate and retired Land O' Lakes executive was master of ceremonies.
Meet the Director
Dr. David W. Cobia was named Director of the Burdick Center in January 1993. He is professor of agricultural economics at NDSU. With the exception of two years, Dr. Cobia has been at NDSU since 1967. In 1979-80 he was in Washington, D.C., where he coordinated a research project on equity redemption at the USDA Agricultural Cooperative Service. In 1985-86 he was at Brigham Young University where he did most of the work leading to the publication of the textbook, Cooperatives in Agriculture. This textbook is used throughout the country in university courses devoted to cooperatives. He has taught a course on cooperatives almost every year he has been at NDSU. He has also written several research reports on cooperatives.
Dr. Cobia served as acting chair of NDSU's Department of Agricultural Economics in 1987-88 and in 1989-90 as interim chair.
Dr. Cobia spent his first 12 years on a small grain and livestock farm in Southern Alberta. In 1946 his family moved to Moses Lake, Washington, where they raised potatoes and sugarbeets and had a small dairy. After high school and two years of college, he completed a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served a tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Korea. His interest in cooperatives was kindled at Brigham Young University, where he received his B.S. degree. After working a year with the Great Basin Milk Marketing Order, he obtained M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University.
Cobia and his wife Pat, have three adult children, LeeAnn, Kathy, and Rick, and four grandchildren. He enjoys sports, church work, and TV documentaries.
Meet the Burdick Center Advisory Board
Gerald Kuster, Vice Chairman, representing Harvest States, Reynolds, N.D.
Gerald Kuster, and his wife, Arla Mae, operate a 4,000 acre family farm in the Reynolds area with their three sons, Lloyd, Loren, and Larry. They raise potatoes, grain, edible beans, and sugarbeets. They also grow 500 acres of potatoes under irrigation in the Binford area. Gerald and Arla Mae have four daughters, Lenore, Linda, Lori, and Lisa.
Kuster has served as chairman of Agri-City Cooperative Services in Grand Forks, chairman of Central Valley Bean Cooperative in Buxton, vice-chairman of the Reynolds Cooperative Association, Americus Township supervisor, and member of Trinity Free Lutheran Church, Grand Forks.
David W. Loer, representing Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc., Grand Forks, N.D.
David Loer is the general manager of Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc., Grand Forks, N.D., and represents that cooperative on the Advisory Council. Loer grew up on a family farm near Humboldt, Minn., and graduated from Stephen, Minn. high school. He earned bachelor and master of science degrees in accounting from the University of North Dakota. He joined Minnkota in 1967 as a senior accountant, was promoted to accounting manager in 1978, director of finance and administration in 1986, assistant general manager in 1988 and general manager on July 1, 1990. He also serves as general manager of Square Butte Electric Cooperative.
Loer and his wife, Judi, have four children and live in East Grand Forks. He is currently a member of the East Grand Forks School Board and serves as a member of the Grand Forks Consumer Advisory Board and the BNI Coal Ltd. Board of Directors. He is also active in community and church activities.
Harriette McCaul, representing North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D.
Harriette McCaul grew up in the Leavenworth, Kansas, area and earned a B.S. in personnel administration and M.B.A. from the University of Kansas. She later earned her Ph.D. in management from the University of Nebraska. She and her husband, Kevin, have two children, David, 13, and Laura, 9. McCaul served as an instructor at Moorhead State University from 1978-1982, and as an associate professor in the NDSU College of Business. She is serving as dean of the College of Business Administration at NDSU.
McCaul served as a member of Leadership Fargo, 1989-90; on the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center Board of Directors, 1992-93; and on the Fargo Chamber of Commerce Human Resource Committee. She enjoys reading, skiing, and Bison football.
Robert L. McPhail, representing Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Bismarck, N.D.
Robert McPhail has been general manager of Basin Electric Cooperative since 1985. Basin Electric supplies wholesale power to a 117 rural electric member system that serves 1.2 million customers in eight states. He also is president and chief executive officer of Basin Electric's subsidiaries, Dakota Gasification Company and Dakota Coal Company. Before joining Basin Electric, McPhail served for more than six years as administrator of the Western Area Power Administration, a federal power marketing agency. He is a registered professional engineer and has 27 years experience in the utility industry.
McPhail is vice president of the board of directors of the Western Fuels Association and has served in many capacities in other rural electric and energy-related organizations. In 1983, President Reagan awarded McPhail the rank of distinguished executive in the federal government's Senior Executive Service.
Dennis W. Melander, representing Cass-Clay Creamery, Inc., Hunter, N.D.
Dennis Melander and his wife, Mary Ellen, have four children and 12 grandchildren and have been farming near Hunter, N.D., for 44 years. They have been in the dairy business for 40 years and are currently in partnership with their oldest son, Daniel, on the 800-acre and 150 head dairy farm where they sell grade A milk and raise their own herd replacements.
Melander, a graduate of Hunter High School, has served as chairman and vice chairman of the board of directors of Cass-Clay Creamery, Inc. He is a director of the N.D. Milk Producers, where he and his wife served as secretary/treasurer for ten years. He also serves as the dairy member of the N.D. Beef Commission and on the N.D. Livestock Endowment Foundation. Melander belongs to the St. Agnes Catholic Church and has served on the church council.
Sidney Olson, Chair, Representing N.D. Assn. of Rural Electric Cooperatives, Mohall, N.D.
Sidney Olson serves as chair of the Burdick Center for Cooperative Advisory Council. Olson and his wife, Margarete, have three children, Cheryl, Bonnie, and Steven, and operate a dryland grain farm near Mohall. He attended NDSU from 1955 through 1957, and participated in the Farmers Union Farm Exchange to Great Britain in 1956-57.
Olson has served on the Mohall School Board and as past president of Renville/Bottineau Agricultural Improvement Association. Cooperative positions held include: board member of National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Washington, D.C., 1986-present; ex officio member of N.D. Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, Mandan, 1984-86; board member of North Central Electric Cooperative, Bottineau, 1977-84 and 1989-present; and board member of National Farmers Unions Insurance Corp., Denver, 1987-present.
Jack Rose, representing St. Paul Bank of Cooperatives, Wimbledon, N.D.
Jack Rose serves on the board of director of the St. Paul Bank for Cooperatives, and is their representative on the Burdick Center Advisory Board. He also serves on the board of directors for the Farmers Union Marketing and Processing Association of Redwood Falls, MN. He has served as chair, board of directors, CENEX Co-op, Wimbledon; chair, board of directors, CENTROL Co-op, Jamestown; director, Frazier Farmers Union Elevator; chair, Southeast N.D. Directors Association (an organization of elevator and farm supply coops); director and state secretary, N.D. Farmers Union; member, N.D. Family Farm Commission; president, Barnes County Farmers Union; member Wimbledon-Courtney School Board; director, Wimbledon Rural Fire Dept; member, Barnes County Water Management Board; director, Wimbledon Community Club; and lay leader, United Methodist Church, Wimbledon. He also served as a member the Barnes County Crop improvement Association and a delegate to the 1980 London meeting of International Federation of Agricultural Producers.
Dale R. Stenerson, representing Farmland Industries, Inc., Hillsboro, N.D.
Dale Stenerson was raised in the Halstad, Minn., area, graduated from Halstad High School and attended NDSU from 1953 to 1955, majoring in ag education. He and his wife, Carol, have two children, Robert and Todd. They operate a family farm of about 3,000 acres east of Hillsboro in Traill County raising wheat, barley, soybeans, durum, and sugarbeets.
Stenerson serves as a director of Halstad Telephone Company and on the board of directors of Farmland Industries, Kansas City, MO. He has served on the township board, school board, and church council and has held offices in Traill County Township Officers Association, Toastmasters, Jaycees, Lions Club, and Lutheran Memorial Homes, a non-profit 225 bed Church Health Care Co-op. He also served as Chairman and Director of N.D. Association of Co-ops and the maximum 12 years as a director of American Crystal Sugar.
Mark Watne, representing N.D. Farmers Union, Velva, N.D.
Mark Watne joined the Advisory Board in spring 1994. He and his wife, Michelle, have two children, Megan, 5, and Eric, 3. They farm 1,200 acres, 6 miles northwest of Velva, raising wheat, barley, sunflowers, com, and oats.
Mark serves on the N.D. Farmers Union state board; is president of the McHenry County Farmers Union; president of the board of directors of the Velva Farmers Union Oil Company; member of the Advisory Committee for the Verendrye Electric Cooperative; and past-president of the McHenry County Ag Improvement Association. He enjoys fishing, hunting, and camping.
Profiles of Don Anderson, Dennis Hill, Francis Leiphon, and Roger Maras will be featured in the next newsletter.
Ronald H. Dahlen of Michigan and Bill Pietsch of Fargo served earlier on the Advisory Board. Dahlen, replaced by Mark Watne, represented N.D. Farmers Union and Pietsch, replaced by Harriette McCaul, represented NDSU.
This newsletter is published by the Quentin N. Burdick
Center for
Cooperatives, NDSU, Fargo, ND 58105 Ph. (701) 237-7446.
Advisory Bd: S. Olson, G. Kuster, D. Anderson, H. McCaul, M.
Watne, D. Hill, F. Leiphon, D. Loer, R. Maras, R. McPhail, D.
Melander, J. Rose, D. Stenerson; Director, D. Cobia.
May 1994.
NDSU is an equal opportunity institution