Montana educator develops co-op business lesson plans - Newsline - Martin Frick - Brief Article

Rural Cooperatives, July-August, 2003 by Patrick Duffey

A set of cooperative business lesson plans have been developed by, and are available from, Martin Frick, a University of Montana educator. The topics are based on a cooperative director's needs assessment that was conducted in North Dakota and Minnesota. Lesson plans cover a wide range of subjects, including: Preparing a Vision and Mission Statement for Your Cooperative; The Economic Justification of Cooperatives; What the Director Does; Legal Foundations of a Cooperative; Cooperative Mergers and Consolidations; Servicing Cooperative Debt; Working Capital Needs of a Cooperative, and Assessing the Effectiveness of the Cooperative Director.

A PowerPoint presentation is available for each lesson plan from which educators can make transparencies. "Lessons have been pilot tested on a regional basis," Frick says. The plans are available on the Internet at no cost: http://aginterrnational.msu.montana.edu. Then click on the "Co-op Lessons" link.