CGIN

CGIN currently offers three primary services:

Listserves: CGIN hosts five listserves. CGIN’s basic listserve is open to anyone interested in food co-ops.The listserve serves as a lively forum to discuss any topic related to food co-ops and serves to develop a sense of community among food co-ops. The listserve is a popular way for co-op leadership to research ideas and survey one another about topics of interest, as well. CGIN also offers specialized listserves by request for special co-op interest groups and are accessible on a subscription basis. Currently, CGIN is hosting a listserve for co-op Membership and Marketing staff, Human Resource staff, directors of CGIN members and General Managers and Store Managers of CGIN members.

CGIN Resource Exchange: CGIN provides secured-access web pages that allow food co-ops to share information, ideas, and resources. This portion of our web pages is accessible only to CGIN members to protect the proprietary interests of co-ops and to ensure that our materials are being shared exclusively with other cooperative organizations and CGIN members. The exchange is currently made up of the following sections:

• resource library – featuring over 2,000 sample forms, articles, training materials, policy manuals, brochures, and other items
• deli recipe exchange – with hundreds of deli recipes in 18 different categories
• basic retail operations manual – materials covering all aspects of food co-op operations developed by the University of Wisconsin Urban Cooperative Initiative
• CGIN photo gallery – with exhibits illustrating merchandising, displays, equipment, store tours,and other items of interest
• CGIN Livable Wage model – developed by CGIN to help co-ops calculate the livable wage for their communities and what rate would need to be paid in wages by the co-op after factoring in key employee benefits.
• private CoopTube videos – a new section of the site that will contain training videos, ads, store tours, co-op history, producer tours, and other useful videos.
• Ask Cooper – customizable online survey system that allows members to create and respond to surveys. Results are available online in four easy to view formats.

General web pages and information: These pages provide general information of interest or value to all food co-ops and are open to anyone. Current information includes a list of web links of special interest to food co-ops, a place to post job openings in co-ops, publicly accessible CoopTube videos and other general information. These pages also feature CGIN’s online manual about how to start a new food co-op.

We’d love to have your co-op join CGIN. For more information, contact the CGIN office.