By Carly Zierke, board member
Over the past few months, we’ve gathered for our “Principles in Practice” series to learn from cooperatives of many shapes and sizes that help our community thrive. Through conversations with cooperative leaders and members across northeast Iowa, we’ve explored the values and principles that guide cooperative work.
Now, as we wrap up this series, we’re turning our focus toward the future.
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, we’ll gather for the final session in the “Principles in Practice” series: What Our Community Needs: A Cooperative Visioning Conversation. This session centers on the seventh cooperative principle, Concern for Community, and invites community members into a shared conversation about what our region needs right now with an emphasis on how cooperatives might help meet those needs.
Rather than a panel or formal presentations, this gathering will be a facilitated community conversation grounded in shared reflection, dialogue, and collective visioning. Together, we’ll explore questions like: What does our community need? and How might cooperatives support our visions for the future? There will be space for many voices and ideas to surface.
What Our Community Needs: A Cooperative Visioning Conversation
Tuesday, Feb. 3, 7–8 p.m.
Pulpit Rock Brewing Company Event Room
Why are we hosting “Principles in Practice?”
In northeast Iowa, cooperatives play a role in so many parts of daily life—from banking and transportation to food access and shared services. They help people pool their resources, lessen individual risk, and amplify collective impact. Through this series, our goal has been to learn from one another, build connections, and better understand how cooperative values show up in real life.
“Principles in Practice” began as a board-level brainstorm at the Oneota Community Food Cooperative. After learning that 2025 was designated a United Nations International Year of Cooperatives, we wanted to take the opportunity to lift up the many cooperatively-owned businesses and organizations that make our region thrive.
For our final session, we’ll be looking at the future. As we close out this series, we hope this conversation creates space not just to reflect on where we’ve been, but to imagine where we might go next, together. We invite you to bring your curiosity, questions, and hopes for our community, and join us in conversation.