WORKING TOWARDS A LOYAL AND CO-OPERATIVE ENGAGED MEMBERSHIP

Followers of the Robert Owen Group’s website will have noticed that the Members’ Council has posted a paper on member engagement for wider discussion and feedback. We do encourage all our members to read this paper and engage in the feedback – we need your thoughts and views on what is a challenging area for all co-operatives.

The Members’ Council at their recent meeting discussed at length the concept of loyalty as it is related to engaged members and this is reflected in the discussion paper. Loyalty is a tricky concept and particularly relevant in the contemporary world where the traditional bonds of loyalty are visibly changing and weakening. Loyalty is usually seen as a virtue, albeit a problematic one. It tends to be constituted by perseverance in an association to which a person has become intrinsically committed. It is found in friendships where loyalty is integral and many other relationships and associations seek to encourage it as an aspect of affiliation or membership. Our families expect it, organisations often demand it and countries do what they can to foster it. Two of the key issues in any discussion on loyalty concerns its status as a virtue and, if that status is granted, the limits which should be placed on loyalty.

As a working definition, loyalty can be seen as a practical disposition to persist in an intrinsically valued associational attachment. The strong feelings and devotion often associated with loyalty have led some to believe that loyalty is primarily a feeling or sentiment with an expression in actions. The test of loyalty is in a sense a measure of the resultant conduct rather than an intensity of feeling. It is primarily a glue which bonds the individual to the people or the organisation with a perseverance which others can feel. The loyal member of a co-operative organisation such as the Robert Owen group stays with and remains committed even when it is disadvantageous or costly to carrying on so doing. Our Robert Owen Group Members’ Council discussion paper on member engagement advances the notion that a sense of ownership of a co-operative is  an emotional response.

Although we are inclined to speak of loyalty as though it were a free floating practical concept it is also common to associate loyalty with certain natural or conventional groupings. In fact our loyalty tends to be expressed in loyalties. In other words one that tends to be tied to conventional associations such as friendships, families, organisations, professions, countries, religions, trade unions, sports teams and so on. Our loyalties are closely bound to those we call ‘ours’. Thus my loyalties are to my friends, my co-operative, my butcher’s shop, my school, my family, my country , not yours unless yours are also mine. Accordingly the fate or well-being of the objects of loyalty become bound up with my own. We feel shame or pride in their actions and we will take risks or carry burdens for them.

The primary subjects of loyalty tend to be individual persons, but loyalty is not restricted to these. Mutuality is a feature of many loyalties, and it is often an expectation of the loyal individual that the collective to which the individual is loyal will also be loyal in return. In short loyalty becomes a necessary two way road. Thus our members of the Robert Owen Group must see clear benefits in co-operative membership and be clear that members are also loyal to one another on both an individual and on a collective basis. Remember the CLARST pillars of a healthy co-operative:

• Loyalty
• Co-operation
• Altruism
• Reciprocity
• Solidarity
• Trust.

For a co-operative organisation with a largely school based membership this mutuality of purpose will be challenging to achieve in the current competitive climate in the public services.

However, it is not the part of loyalty to be compliant or servile, though loyalty may be corrupted into such. In any bonds of loyalty within a co-operative structure there must be openness to corrective criticism on the part of both the co-operative and the member. This qualification is essential if we are to uphold our common value of democracy. What must happen is that the opposition stays within bounds that are compatible with the well-being or best interests or continued business health of the co-operative. Generally speaking a loyal membership will not advocate rebellion or revolution for such actions would endanger the whole structure. However, Co-operatives must not become essentially conservative bodies hell bent on maintaining the status quo. They must be capable of evolution, reform and change which is member owned and driven. It is informed member loyalty which will allow the co-operative to grow and develop as it survives within a turbulent world.

The Robert Owen Group was created some twenty one years ago by our pioneer Headteachers who knew and understood the potential of a member owned co-operative held together by bonds of loyalty. We are now at a cross roads where far too many of the new custodians of our schools, colleges and community groups do not understand the true nature and value of co-operative loyalty. Together we must work hard to re-create this mutual bonding. The Members’ Council discussion paper is the start. Please engage with it.

Go to http://www.robertowen.org/about-us/member-engagement-strategy.html to read the paper and take part in the consultation. 

Misconceptions - those intentional and those accidental

My teaching career to date spans some forty eight years and during most of this time change has been in the air in one form or another – sometimes it has been structural as with the mass introduction of comprehensive secondary education; sometimes it has been organisational as with the reform of primary education post Plowden Report; sometimes it has been in matters curricula as with Raising the School Leaving Age post Newsom Report; sometimes it has been in the area of assessment as with the introduction of GCSE; sometimes it has been in the pay and conditions of service arena as in the post Houghton world; sometimes it has been about children as with the special needs revolution that followed the Warnock Report and sometimes it has been about just plain old change. However, the common factor has been the stubborn resistance of the education establishment across all sectors to embrace change.

From ‘Half our Future’ through to Free Schools there have always been groups of colleagues who have resisted change with a great passion and generally with much hot air and noise. For some the objections are ideological, for others it is a very real fear that they will not be able to cope on a personal level with the change, for others there has been a real worry that the changes will not be in the best interests of the young people in their care and for some there is a clear sense of institutional, organisational and personal protection.

The reasons for resistance are perhaps easier to understand than the methodologies adopted to try to make sure that nothing changes or at best that the proposed changes are minimal. It goes without saying that for those colleagues working in the maintained sector resisting change is a personally risky business and can be seen as a call for mutiny. In the publicly funded sector we are all public servants and in a democracy our clear duty is to work and deliver the agreed agenda of the democratically elected government of the day – whether it is the one we as individuals voted for or not. However, we are all citizens and we have hard fought for rights to inform public debate and in our private lives to work with those whose ideas we find sympathy with to create a different tomorrow.

In opposing the current reality it is beholden upon all of us as education professionals to use our expertise to be accurate in all that we say to inform public debate and not to be economical with the truth. Creating intentional misconceptions in specific public debates is unforgiveable, extremely unprofessional and a clear betrayal of public trust. If we go down this road to serve our own narrow personal and organisational self interests we must not be surprised if the public become distrustful and we lose our credibility.

Free Schools are very much a flag ship project of the present Coalition Government and of the current Secretary of State for Education. Free Schools are effectively a laboratory for new and radical ideas to be brought before the Secretary of State for his consideration. As education professionals we are all too ready to agree in our private discussions that the current public education system does not deliver effective provision for all our young people throughout the length and breadth of England. Yet the offer to translate radical ideas into practice through the Free Schools initiative has produced howls of hysterical outrage and resistance from the usual culprits. It is clear that the Free Schools initiative won’t be on offer for ever and at some time in the future there will have to be an evaluation of all Free Schools to see what has worked well, what has worked well in patches and what has been a general failure. The outcome from the Free Schools ‘Experiment’ can then be laid out for public debate and future planning can be better informed so that all children can have the best possible education on offer. We live in a globalizing world and standing still in education is never going to be an option. We need to embrace change.

I have been privileged in that I have attended several meetings on Free Schools involving parents, communities and teachers and I have also corresponded and talked with many people throughout England on the possibilities presented by the Free Schools initiative, as well as helping several communities prepare proposals. The common message I receive from parents, grandparents and young people is that:

• Parents want choice for their child
• Parents and communities want a greater say in what goes on in and around their school
• Confidence in local authorities to serve parents’ and children’s needs is at an all time low
• Parents are worried about educational standards and want the best for their child from the publicly funded system
• Communities want to take back their schools into genuine co-operative ownership free from the bureaucratic and expensive shackles of local authority control
• Their Head teachers seem to have little faith in the quality of local authority services with many eager to bail out as academies.

Clearly the Robert Owen Group has a vested interest in all this with our new Robert Owen Vocational School opening on 2nd September 2013 under the Free School initiative but we do become concerned when we are subject to the introduction of misconceptions into the public discourse and when parent groups are vilified for their wish to save their school and to maintain continuity for their child. A sample of deliberate misconceptions to whet appetites:

• Free Schools will be made to employ unqualified teachers
• Free Schools will be forced to pay teachers less than national pay and conditions of service
• Free Schools will take money away from other schools
• Free Schools will damage local authorities
• Too late to submit a proposal for a Free school now
• Applications for special schools will not be accepted
• If you put a Free School application in you will close other schools
• Free School bids are submitted by idiosyncratic people - i.e. not normal people like you & I
• Everything is fine around here we don’t want any new schools
• We can’t provide you with the necessary data to help your Free School proposal because it would be an infringement of the Data Protection Act
• We can’t as a local authority provide you with names of parents in the catchment area
• The Councillors won’t be happy if you develop a Free School proposal.

So what is the truth that some members of the ‘education establishment’ seem to run in fear of? Well it is simple and can be stated in a few lines:

• The opening of a Free School is subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. Once granted a Funding Agreement they become Academies just like any other Academy
• Free Schools have the ability to set their own pay and conditions of service for staff
•  Free Schools have freedom in delivering the curriculum whilst Academies are required to teach a broad and balanced curriculum including English, Mathematics, Science & Religious Education
•  Free Schools have greater control of their budgets
• Free Schools have the freedom to change the length of terms and the school day
• Free Schools don’t take money away from local authorities any more or less than do existing academies.

So let’s have some truth and fresh air in the system and please can misconceptions be accidental and not intentional. In five years time observers will look back on this period with its misconceptions and lost opportunities with amazement. There is one truth for us all to hang on to:  CHILDREN MATTER – ALL OF THEM.

The Origin of the Robert Owen Group and the Development of our School Centred Approach to Initial Teacher Education

History: The Robert Owen Group essentially grew out of a Vocational Preparation Consortium of Herefordshire schools and colleges formed in academic year 1981-1982 and this in turn formed one of the fourteen national pilot centres for TVEI (Technical & Vocational Education Initiative) in September 1983 through to July 1988. After a year’s period of TVEI Related In Service Training (TRIST) the Hereford & Worcester TVEI Pilot Project in turn became part of the Hereford & Worcester TVEI Extension Project in 1989 and this ran through to July 1995. In academic year 1991-1992 Hereford and Worcester County Council in partnership with Hereford & Worcester Training & Enterprise Council and the Department of Employment offered the Herefordshire high schools and colleges the opportunity to take up Coopers & Lybrand consultancy on future consortium working. This led to the setting up of the Marches Consortium 1n 1992 as a co-operative organisation of Herefordshire high schools, colleges and statutory bodies within an Industrial & Provident Society structure. Over time other co-operatives were added leading to the creation of the Robert Owen Group as the umbrella organisation for the co-operative family.

What we believe is special about us:  We have had a thirty year history and culture of helping schools and colleges to work together within a co-operative membership structure. As a member based family, member engagement is at the heart of all we do. It was the inspiration and drive of our members that started us on the path of becoming an accredited teacher training provider in December 1997. Our members own us and they engage with us through a number of routes:

ü  Our Annual General Meetings & governance structure

ü  Our Members’ Council

ü  Our Co-operative Learning Hubs

ü  Our quality systems

ü  Our partnership arrangements

ü  Direct communications such as Keynotes

ü  Our conference and seminar programmes

We have established that the Values & Principles of the International Co-operative Alliance go to the very heart of all that we do through our networks of Co-operative Schools. These can be summarised as:

Co-operative Values: Self-help; self-responsibility; democracy; equality; equity & solidarity

Ethical Values: Honesty; openness; social responsibility; caring for others

Co-operative Principles: Voluntary & open membership; democratic member control; member economic participation; autonomy & independence; education, training & information; co-operation amongst co-operatives; concern for community.

Why School Centred Initial Teacher Education: When the SCITT Programme was launched by the TDA in the 1990’s it was only natural that our members would look towards Gloucester City and the innovative Gloucester Initial Teacher Education Partnership (GITEP) which was running in partnership with the then Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education. The Marches Consortium SCITT was launched with its first cohort of twenty five secondary trainees in September 1998 in partnership with the same college of higher education and with close developmental links to GITEP. Over time the West Mercia Consortium was added as an Early Years provider and the Robert Owen Consortium was developed as a provider of Employment Based Routes into ITE. Initially the TDA insisted that all three consortia be kept as separate legal entities but later the TDA requested that they be brought together by September 2010 as one integrated ITE Scheme. This integration process is now complete.  

The hands on, school based and school owned ITE sits comfortably with the Group’s Vision for schools and communities. Co-operative learning and the sharing of experience held together by a common bond of trust and loyalty go to the very core of our ITE provision.

Our core beliefs for ITE summarised:

Ø  Co-operation

Ø  Loyalty

Ø  Altruism

Ø  Reciprocity

Ø  Solidarity

Ø  Trust

If anyone has any memories to contribute to the development of the History of the Robert Owen Group please contact Lesley Keay at lkeay@robertowen.org or by telephone on 01568 615510

The UN Millennium Development Goals and Co-operation

I promised readers that the next Blog would focus on the eight Development Goals of the UN Millennium Declaration and I am grateful to those of you who have made contact to share your thoughts. These Goals can be quite simply stated as:

·         To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

·         To achieve universal primary education

·         To promote gender equality and empower women

·         To reduce child mortality

·         To improve maternal health

·         To combat HIV/Aids, malaria and disease

·         To ensure environmental sustainability

·         To develop global partnership for development and address the needs of the least developed countries.

I am sure that my Trustee and Director colleagues within the Robert Owen Group would sign up to these and I have little doubt that each of our members would find common ground with each of the Goals. We are told that within some of the aspirations there has been heartening progress with 98 million less hungry people in the past year; 90% of countries making progress towards primary education; progress made towards gender parity in primary education; child mortality rates falling from 100 deaths per live births in 1990 to 72 in 2008 meaning that the number of under-fives dying globally fell from 12.5 m to 8.8 million; progress made on maternal health still varies widely but in about one-third of developing countries, skilled health workers now attend 95% of all births with nearly 20% having almost universal access; in the area of HIV 26% of countries have seen HIV infection rates drop with 41% recording no change with progress on malaria; there has been huge progress on access to clean drinking water with deforestation declining but carbon dioxide emissions are now projected to rise again; debt levels have dropped and 40 countries are now eligible for debt relief but the financial crisis has hit the least developed countries the hardest.

At one level it seems encouraging but there are two clear reasons for each of us to be  concerned:

• The numerically large number of our brothers and sisters caught in the net of none or little progress in each and in many cases all of the targets
• The prospect of standstill or regression in all of the targets because of the worldwide economic recession.

This budget week set in the context of the Government’s drive towards the UK Big Society is a good time to focus on these Goals and to reflect on the poverty within our own UK society, how this blights a large number of lives and impacts on a wide range of human performance. We might then consider what solutions and lessons we may learn from other countries – both developed and developing.

Well the co-operative solution is being trotted out at every opportunity as the way to deliver the UK Big Society. I am sure that the newly arrived enthusiasts for this approach understand that there are certain common concepts for all co-operatives worldwide and throughout history and these can be simply stated as:

·         Democracy

·         Equitability

·         Mutuality

·         Economy

The diehard co-operators amongst our members and readers will quite rightly scream Co-operative Values & Principles and, for the uninitiated, these can be found on the Robert Owen Group website. However, those of us who have rolled up our sleeves and are trying to deliver the Big Society on a day to day basis may take a more cynical view of the aspirations and values of those newly arrived at the co-operative table.

Francis Maude, Cabinet Minister, believes that a significant number of today’s public servants could be engaged in mutual organisations running their services on contract before the end of the current Parliament. Well Francis, whilst not doubting for one minute the strength of your beliefs, you need to know that there are an uncomfortable number of public servants who see the Big Society as merely re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titantic in order to preserve their jobs, their status, their remuneration and their conditions of service. Since autumn 2010 we, in the Robert Owen Group, have invested staff time, energy and resources in helping local authorities develop co-operative models to deliver a number of public services only to find that the model once developed is seized by the public servants and the Big Society becomes the Bugger Off & Thank You Society. Partnership becomes very much a one way street.

There is no existing infrastructure to support the setting up of public sector co-operative organisations and little muscle to support prevailing co-operative ideologies and loyalties. There are different co-operative and mutual models and a wide range of international experiences. In the Group’s short and painful experience local authorities and the Coalition Government do not understand the difference between mutual and private businesses. There must also be a clear understanding that co-operative and mutual organisations have to earn their keep as viable and vibrant businesses.

Back to the Millennium Development Goals which impact on all our lives and as the Coalition Government reduces our public sector, poverty in UK society will without doubt increase. How we fill the gap and improve the lives of Our People is going to occupy our minds as co-operators but we can be sure there is a job to be done on our public sector colleagues before the Co-operative Solution can impact. 

The dismantled society - do we know where we are going?

We have been bombarded for some little time now by the views from politicians of a certain variety on the nature of society. These range across a spectrum from ‘Is there such a thing as society?’ to the ‘broken society’, to the ‘big society’ and to what one satirical magazine referred to recently as ‘the bugger off society’. Whatever, our personal views we certainly seem to be in a troubled place with little national direction from the Coalition Government on the nature of social cohesion and the sort of unifying community structures and processes we might all seek to work together to achieve.

There has been much vague talk about co-operatives and co-operative solutions from Coalition Government leaders and the John Lewis model has been much trawled. I fear that this sudden conversion to co-operation, as welcome as it is to me and my fellow co-operators, is hollow stuff and built on foundations of sand. History tells us that opposition to the co-operative business model is built into the genes of many of our business leaders and those politicians who support them. We in the broader Co-operative Movement must also be careful that we are not, yet again, being asked to apply the co-operative business model to failed and failing businesses and service delivery areas whose leaders care not one jot for Co-operative Values & Principles which are the core beliefs of all true co-operators.

There is at present so much visible unhappiness around us and measurable fear amongst those I come into contact with on a daily business that 2011 will become the year of the dismantled society. The Coalition Government machine has wrapped a cloak around the abnormal and like Merlin the magician has transformed it into the new normal. Local government colleagues tell me that planning meetings have now become macabre contests to see who can cut the furthest and hardest on precious public services.

The recent student protests were at one and the same time deeply disturbing and yet encouraging. They were disturbing because I fear that protests will breed more protests and that we will slide rapidly into a culture of protest as faith in our politicians  and our democratic process ebbs away in front of us. The mantra has been chanted that cuts will be to the bone because that is what we need and Coalition Government politicians will now see little point in breaking ranks and offering real co-operative solutions to help build a ‘Big Society’. The battle lines have been drawn and we are marching to a dismantled society with cuts of a pace and scale never attempted before.

I am encouraged because the young are engaging with the problems in their own particular way. They are the product of enlightened Citizenship and Government & Politics teaching in our schools and they feel a sense of overwhelming social responsibility to act on behalf of all of us. They understand that the Coalition Government has embarked on a vast and untried social experiment where the only aim that seems to matter is economic gain.

So what price co-operative solutions? Well I guess that the ‘Big Society’ was always going to be a back of a fag packet job with no clear blue print and no clear understanding of what was needed and what is achievable. Supporting our people with co-operative solutions will then be left to those of us in the broader Co-operative Movement to try to come up with piece meal solutions on a community by community needs basis, responding to neglect and despair in an ad hoc and under resourced fashion. Of course we will do it because we care deeply for our people but watch out for those slick politicians and business leaders who seek to make much of our failures – we have been there before.

In the meantime I am left with the nagging doubt about what exactly Robert Owen would have made of all of this and where would he have seen the need to apply our collective energies to create the co-operative difference. Perhaps poverty in its most general sense would have been his focus?

In the next President’s Blog I would like to engage with co-operators on the eight Millennium Declaration goals agreed by every member state of the UN in 2000 with a delivery date of 2015 on issues such as poverty, education, health and access to technology. Your thoughts please in the best spirit of co-operation.

Good luck.

Together in co-operation.

Chris Morgan.

Land Value Taxation

I am delighted that Chris has opened up this particular debate as it homes in on an issue close to my heart, and one which could have significant benefits in Herefordshire (and elsewhere) in opening up multiple opportunities for sustainable activities with considerable community and environmental value. At a time when we face serious cuts to jobs and public services (Why are we allowing ourselves to be conned into accepting these, especially as over £100 billion is lost to us through tax evasion, avoidance and offshore tax arrangements, which could easily cover the shortfall?) there is a desperate need for affordable housing, and Cameron talks of the 'Big Society' and devolving power (heard that somewhere before?), surely the time has come to look at radical measures. This is one that needs to become mainstream and supported by us all.

The Green Party has had a policy on Land Value Taxation for many years, formerly called Community Ground Rent. It is based on our understanding that land is the primary source of all wealth, it is our common heritage and should be held in trust for future generations and other species. We believe it should not be treated as a capital investment or traded for speculative profit: this has been the source of its exploitation and degradation over time.

No-one should have absolute control over land, only particular rights over use, and these should be controlled by the community through planning regulations. A clear framework is needed which puts a priority on the natural environment, encouraging sustainable use and discouraging unsustainable exploitation. The tax would be payable on annual value of land, not buildings, development or minerals. It would be levied locally and based on current permitted use, so if use is limited because of amenity or habitat value, then tax would be reduced.

Unearned benefits should be shared with the community and this can be done through Land Value Taxation, which should not be on top of other revenue raising measures but replace some of them.

Some of the many advantages of this system are: benefits for the majority, rather than a minority; offers incentives towards good stewardship; reduces corporate ownership; contributes to a decentralised, sustainable society; eliminates speculation and stabilises prices; more and cheaper land would become available, offering opportunities for community initiatives such as housing trusts, worker co-operatives, community supported agriculture schemes and other small scale enterprise.

The full policy can be found on the Green Party website here: Green Party Policy - Land

Felicity Norman

A Co-operative Approach

Well our first President's Blog certainly caused interest and provoked much telephone and email traffic which was all positive. This was really heartening to us but to a person no one was willing for their views and responses to be added to the Blog. I understand this because for many of us, particularly my generation, presenting yourself and your values and ideas to an unseen and potentially limitless number of readers can be quite a threatening experience. Not a bit like standing in front of a class of young people or students where you have a visible audience and where you can assess the impact of every word. So please be brave and seize the opportunity to either respond to ideas in the Blog or contribute to the Blog on matters that interest you and are relevant to potential co-operative solutions for the effective delivery of education, training and social regeneration. Don't be afraid to think outside the box.

I suspect that once we are into the October Spending Review and all that this will mean it will be suggested to us by the Coalition Government that the solutions and responses must be local ones. This after all will be consistent with the concept of David Cameron's Big Society and it will present us with an opportunity to be both innovative and creative. There will be no prizes for signing up for the victim culture and, candidly, it will test our belief in the power of co-operative structures and co-operative values and principles to deliver the goods. The jury is out on how prepared local authorities will be to lead and co-ordinate the construction of the local response to the Big Society. It will take a cultural shift in the attitude and behaviour of many local authority officers and elected members who have been steeped for a long time in a command style of management. We shall see and certainly within the Robert Owen Group we welcome working closely with local authorities in a genuinely co-operative approach to supporting Our People and Our Communities.

On 10th, 11th and 12th September I was invited by the South West Region of the Co-operative Group to be a delegate to the Co-operative Party Conference in Cardiff. This was a first for me and I adopted a very much watch and see approach as a procession of former Government Ministers spoke to the Conference. Without sharing my prejudices suffice it to say that I was really impressed with Harriet Harman and what she had to say in a clear and unequivocal fashion. The discussions were intense on the floor of Conference and in the fringe meetings. Probably the one debate that caught my eye was the Fringe Meeting on Land Value Tax (LVT). Recent articles by respected commentators such as Polly Toynbee, Larry Elliot, Ashley Seager, Sir Samuel Brittan and Martin Wolf on radical land and taxation reform were quoted. Delegates were clear that if we aspire to create a more just and socially inclusive society in which the burden of taxation and poverty no longer falls on the poorest, then Land Value Tax is an idea whose time must surely have come. I was interested to note that the Co-operative Party and the Green Party are the only UK parties to adopt this position so far. The ongoing global financial crisis and the search for more equitable housing policies with a responsible and publicly accountable banking system has moved LVT from the radical fringe to the mainstream of debate in the serious press - The Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times and the Spectator with endorsement from Compass and some of the trade unions. If adopted LVT could make a real contribution to the local delivery of the Big Society. "It is the taking by the community, for the community, of the value that is the creation of the community." - Henry George, Progress & Poverty, 1879.

My thoughts on the way home on the train from Conference turned to 2012 and the United Nations Year of the Co-operative. Within the Robert Owen Group we will have to give much thought to our collective contribution and I am sure that our schools and our teachers will want to be involved in the activities. The President's Committee at the first meeting of the new academic year on 30th September will start the planning process but what an ideal opportunity to target projects and events so that they show how the Big Society can be delivered in co-operative ways. Kofi Annan gives us a perfect steer:

"The co-operative movement is one of the largest organised segments of civil society, and plays a crucial role across a wide spectrum of human aspiration and need. Co-operatives provide vital health, housing and banking services; they promote education and gender equality; they protect the environment and workers' rights. Through these and a range of other activities, they help people in more than a hundred countries better their lives and those in their communities." - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Of course our daily task within the Robert Owen Group, whilst being mindful of the big international co-operative picture, is to make sure that our operational delivery is truly co-operative and effective. In the last two weeks I have been encouraged by staff reports on the enthusiasm and quality of our newly enrolled trainee teachers who have signed up to "share the benefits of teacher training with a co-operative difference." Our Vision & Service Delivery Plan 2010-2011 and our Annual Report 2009-2010 are now out in the public domain as one high quality and impressive document. The new extensions to our Robert Owen Centre for Higher Education on the Bromyard site are nearly completed, the Robert Owen Foundation has been formed as a registered charity to lead the Group and our extremely able staff have been joined by some new faces to replace colleagues who have recently retired and to strengthen our staff team. There are exciting proposals for the President's Committee to consider on 30th September and the future looks co-operative.

Chris Morgan

President of the Robert Owen Group