{"id":10428,"date":"2018-06-01T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/azaroff.com\/?p=10428"},"modified":"2023-12-15T16:28:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T00:28:36","slug":"back-to-bologna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/?p=10428","title":{"rendered":"Back to Bologna&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>in June of 2009 I had an experience that would transform my career. I applied and was selected to join Vancity\u2019s annual tour to the vibrant co-operative sector in Bologna, Italy. In the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, where Bologna is located, up to a third of the GDP is created directly by co-operatives. Consumer co-ops, worker co-ops, producer co-ops, social co-ops and others all contribute to a vibrant economy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/blog.azaroff.com\/uploaded_images\/Bologna-004-739895.jpg\" width=\"240\" height=\"320\" \/>While in Bologna\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/?tag=bologna&amp;order=asc\">I blogged a lot<\/a> and tried to make the most of my valuable time there.\u00a0Since that time, I have become quite the self-progressed co-op geek. Although I had been a member of some co-ops in my life such as MEC and REI and I grew up visiting Vancity branches as a kid with my Mom, I didn\u2019t know much. At the time I went to Bologna, I was living in a housing co-op where I was Treasurer, and I remember what I learned studying co-operative economics at the University of Bologna and visiting so many different co-ops on our tour made me realize how little I know about the model where I was elected as a governor.<\/p>\n<p>If I hadn\u2019t been to Bologna in 2009, I doubt I would have run for the board of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.modo.coop\/\">Modo<\/a>, where I have been a happy board member for over four years. I most certainly wouldn\u2019t have been able to <a href=\"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/?page_id=965\">give the talks<\/a> I have given on co-ops over the years.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sawdust, Empty Bottles and Moustaches: A Retelling of the Co-operative Story\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/108974722?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And now, nine years after that first visit, I\u2019m hours from leaving to go back to Bologna, leading this year\u2019s tour of Vancity colleagues and community partners. I feel very privileged to return, to take a dive with my more experienced eyes into the academic and hands-on aspects of one of the world\u2019s great co-op success areas. I am even missing my beloved Credit Union Water Cooler conference, which I never want to do.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be blogging, as I did nine years ago. So follow along, ask questions and leave a comment, and let\u2019s explore the world of co-ops together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>in June of 2009 I had an experience that would transform my career. I applied and was selected to join Vancity\u2019s annual tour to the vibrant co-operative sector in Bologna, Italy. In the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, where Bologna is located, up to a third of the GDP is created directly by co-operatives. Consumer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[239,240,167,190,161,171],"class_list":["post-10428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bologna","tag-cooperative","tag-cooperatives","tag-credit-union","tag-credit-unions","tag-vancity"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p37qUH-2Ic","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azaroff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}