Robynn Shrader: New Head of Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide

The National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA) has announced that its chief executive officer, Robynn Shrader, has been elected president of Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide (CCW), a sectoral organization within the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). 

According to the NCGA news release of November 21, 2013,  “In her new role as president of the organization, Shrader will work to raise greater awareness of consumer cooperatives and to support the organization’s guiding philosophies. CCW and its members believe that consumers have a right to a reasonable standard of nutrition, clothing and housing; adequate standards of safety and a healthy environment; unadulterated merchandise at fair prices with reasonable variety and choice; access to information on goods and education on consumer topics; and an influence in economy through democratic participation.”

The ICA (www.ica.coop) and its members resolved in an October 2012 general assembly to fulfill a “Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade” – located at http://ica.coop/en/media/library/member-publication/blueprint-co-operative-decade-february-2013. The “Blueprint” is dedicated to helping the cooperative form of business by 2020 to become:

•The acknowledged leader in economic, social and environmental sustainability

•The model preferred by people

•The fastest growing form of enterprise