The Mid America Cooperative Council is a multi-state trade association of cooperative businesses and supporting companies in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.  All sectors of cooperatives were engaged in establishing MACC.  The founders wanted to address the lack of unique co-op educational resources  available in the Midwestern region.

Our 110 members range from billion dollar businesses to a handful of growers that market their products, cooperatively.  Our cooperative members supply goods and services to the agricultural community and provide financing, insurance, electricity, food, housing and laundry services to rural and urban communities in the Midwest. 

Our goal is to explain the unique cooperative principle based business structure through a variety of educational programs for cooperative employees, members and citizens in their communities. 

We focus on start-up and existing cooperatives, and also work in larger communities by assisting financial, electric and healthcare cooperatives.

ATTENTION MACC MEMBERS:

If you are a member of MACC, you will need to click on “Log In” and then “Register” to  obtain a USER ID and PASSWORD.  Once you have registered, you must login first and then you can sign up for our educational programs at the reduced member rate and receive any other member discounts/benefits that are available to you.

ATTENTION NONMEMBERS:

You do not need to register at this website.  You may sign up for MAC-Ed programs and receive the regular registration rate.

If you should have any questions about registering on our website or questions about registering for our programs, please call (317) 726-6910 or email knowledge@macc.coop.  Thank You!

MACC MEMBER NEWS – Every month, MACC will be featuring a different sector of our membership.  In June, we are featuring the Insurance Industry sector. Please click here to read about the history of the insurance industry, the Affordable Care Act, current regulations being placed on the industry and insurance industry co-op links: http://macc.coop/news/macc-member-news/

What is a Cooperative?

Cooperatives (co-ops) are businesses that keep people at the center of the business versus money.  The co-op business model is defined by three fundamental interests:   

1.  Who controls the company? 

2.  Who benefits from the company?              

3.  Who owns the company?

The co-op model is the only for-profit enterprise where all three interests are vested directly in the hands of the owner/member/customer.  For-profit companies are designed to produce a profit for the owners/shareholders.  Yet, since owners/members of a co-op are also the customers, lower prices and extra services are acceptable instead of profits. 

In many ways a cooperative is like any other business; but in several important ways it’s unique and different.  A cooperative business belongs to the people who use it – people who have organized to provide themselves with the goods and services they need.  These people are called member-owners of the cooperative.

Currently over 120 million people are members of 48,000 U.S. cooperatives. As cooperatives expand in the U.S. and globally it is critical for every employee of your cooperative to understand the cooperative business model which exists because of the Cooperative Legacy.

Seven Cooperative Principles

Cooperatives around the world generally operate according to the same core principles and values, adopted by the International Cooperative Alliance in 1995. Cooperatives trace the roots of these principles to the first modern cooperative founded in Rochdale, England in 1844. 

1. Voluntary and Open Membership – Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all people able to use its services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.
2. Democratic Member Control – Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members—those who buy the goods or use the services of the cooperative—who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions.
3. Members’ Economic Participation – Members contribute equally to, and democratically control, the capital of the cooperative. This benefits members in proportion to the business they conduct with the cooperative rather than on the capital invested.
4. Autonomy and Independence – Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If the co-op enters into agreements with other organizations or raises capital from external sources, it is done so based on terms that ensure democratic control by the members and maintains the cooperative’s autonomy.  Read More