The On Co-op Blog

(Apparently I’m all about pop–or un-pop–culture references in my titles now.)

The day is winding down, my list of tasks to frantically finish is dwindling, and after a quick clean-up my desk is looking fairly sparse. It’s the final two hours of my internship.

The last thing I want to say from this particular soapbox is thanks. Thanks to On Co-op for the opportunity and for the skills I’m walking away with. Thanks to co-ops for working to include ethics and sustainability in their business goals alongside profit. And thanks to the readership who has followed me through twenty-six weeks of blogging, fifty-eight posts, and a whole lot of rambling interspersed with inanity (and a few verbal hijinks, of course). It’s been fun, challenging, and educational in equal measure.

Good night, god bless, and may time bring us all our fondest hopes.

It’s time for a little retrospect. I promise I won’t go all maudlin on you, but this being the last week of my internship it seems unavoidable to write about lessons learned, skills developed, co-operations co-operated.

In the early stages of my internship, I often had trouble saying what I did in a day, because it was all variations on a theme: I updated the website. (That entailed a huge variety of activities in itself, of course, but I hate to bog people down with details.) Now, though, I find that I have quite a list to walk away with. I oversaw the launch of a new website; I edited and created hundreds of pages of online content; I created a holiday guide (using graphic design skills I didn’t know I had); I developed a promotional video; I created newsletters, brochures, guidebooks, images, and the occasional tweet; and I blogged until my metaphorical fingers bled. (Also, there was a heck of a lot of data entry–but, for the sake of my sanity, I’m not going to dwell on that.) I got a good long look into what goes into corporate communications, and learned that I can do it.

Whether I will continue to do it is still up in the air. But I’m excited about where these skills can take me; I’ve begun exploring possibilities of starting up something independent with my creative work, and everything I’ve learned here can help me get that ball rolling. I have a great love and respect of the arts–which are, like co-ops, underfunded and under-respected in Canada at the moment–and am eager to see what my new copywriting and communicating prowess can do to help.

And that, I think, is high praise for this program: after my six months with On Co-op, I feel better able to do the work I want to do in the world. I don’t ask for any more than that.

I only have three posts left before I leave the On Co-op bloggership, and I’ve started to think about how I might best use my remaining time. I’ve certainly learned a lot here, and that will show up in my blogging next week, but this position is about me influencing the co-op sector as much as it’s about the co-op sector influencing me. I’d like to leave an interesting thought or two to bounce around co-operative heads once I’m gone.

The first thought, though, isn’t mine. It belongs to Tom Klein Beernink of the Guelph Campus Co-op who, in a meeting on marketing possibilities for IYC, pleaded, “Make it funny.” This plea has stuck with me, recurring to me in a variety of circumstances. I’ve seen a lot of sincere, thoughtful, concerned and even touching marketing from co-ops, but very little that tickles the ribcage. I think Tom was right–it’s time for co-op comedy.

I’d go further too: don’t just make it funny, make it downright silly. Whimsical, off-the-cuff, snappy, brilliant. A lot of co-ops seem to be very traditional in their public persona, striving for a professional image. But co-ops are an alternative to the prevalent business model, bucking trends and upsetting norms. You need a little irreverence to start a revolution. Besides, I’ve never subscribed to the notion that seriousness equals better work; most of the things that I’m genuinely passionate about in my life are also the things that make me laugh the most.

When not aiming for a shiny, polished image, co-ops often try to market themselves with reference to their ethical natures–and they should continue to do so, since that’s their best feature. But private businesses, ethical and otherwise, have been riding the wave of ethical concern for a while now, and that doesn’t always make co-ops stand out. As more and more companies lie or spin stories about their morals, more and more people grow sceptical of these claims.

I say cracking a smile now and then wouldn’t hurt. It might make co-ops look ridiculous from time to time–but let’s face it, we actually are ridiculous a great deal of the time. I say it’s time to celebrate that.

Make it funny. Ironically, it might make people take us more seriously as an alternative.