Baligh for strengthening Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) exam system, regional network
PostBaligh for strengthening Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) exam system, regional network
ISLAMABAD: Education and Training Minister Balighur Rehman has directed the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) to further strengthen the examination system and its regional network and improve the standards of education. A five-member delegation of the AIOU, headed by the Vice Chancellor Ali...
I recently moved to rural Polk County, Wisconsin. While I traded the scenery of big box stores for freshly manured fields, my interest in developing the local co-operative economy did not waver. Various discussions have revealed that the local co-operatives and credit unions have the makings of burgeoning co-operative economy. In Polk County we have:
Two credit unions
A grocery co-operative
A co-operative newspaper
Several agricultural producer co-ops
A rural electric co-operative
A farm store/propane co-op
A couple mutual insurance companies
These “Regional Networks”, as NCBA refers to them (See http://tinyurl.ms/4wru for 2012 IYC Regional Network Toolkit!), can become powerhouses within each local economy. As the toolkit cites, these regional networks can and should:
share local insights & understanding,
swap best practices,
discuss region-specific issues,
cross market to increase the patronage of each other,
reduce expenses through shared purchasing,
highlight the number of co-operatives in the region,
let each co-op’s members know that co-operatives exist in other sectors,
collaborate on joint-education & training programs,
create loyalty to the co-operative model,
share the responsibility of educating about co-operatives, and
support new co-operatives to form to meet the communities' other needs.
If these networks are manifested the result will be more local jobs, more regional security, and more benefits to the members and the people in their communities they care about.
For Polk County, all of these benefits and possibilities can exist. I am pleased to note that there has been a call for the leaders of these co-ops to get together to start a “regional network” discussion. It has not happened yet but it will sooner or later. It is inevitable. In this International Year of Co-operatives, Victor Hugo has never been more correct in stating, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
