Farming and Ranching Youth for Co–operative Development
Date of Incorporation
August 1999
Membership
Fifty-eight members aged fifteen to thirty-five years, 33% women, 67 % men.
Activity
The youth group is dedicated to training young people so that they can more easily integrate into farming and ranching activities.
Organisational Form
The co-op is not a legal entity but a statute establishes our operating regulations and defines how our officials will be elected.
Service Area
Departments of Las Colonias, Castellanos and La Capital, located in the centre of the Province of Santa Fe.
Antecedents / Context
The association arose within the Guillermo Lehmann Farming and Ranching Co-operative Ltd. It began from a desire to bring young people closer to the co-operative so that they would participate in its activities and be ready to succeed as leaders of it, when the time comes. The initial group was formed by 15 young farm and ranch producers and the children of farm and ranch producers. They all lived in or near a small town of 5,000 inhabitants in the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina; they had not had access to higher education. They started by observing the experiences of some other co-operatives. They conducted an opinion poll among young people to see what they wanted and then hired a professional advisor to help them form a youth group. Our first economic resources came from the Guillermo Lehmann Co-operative and from the co-operative education and training fund. We also received subsidies from the Management of the Province’s Co-operatives, from other co-operatives, and from the local community and private ventures.
Obstacles
One of the first obstacles was that the young people initially had strong feelings of individualism. They had to work hard before they were able to think and act as a group. The main current difficulties have been: (a) stimulating interest among young people so that the co-op can be incorporated and (b) the difficulty heads of farming and ranching ventures have in finding the time to be involved in co-op activities.
Vision / Mission / Goals
Our vision is to be a rural co-operative entity helping to shape the development of youth socially and morally, while providing them with the technical training needed to continue in the co-operative context and also achieve a better quality of life. Our mission is to provide young rural co-operaters with the tools they require to satisfy their needs, farm more effectively, and apply the co-operative doctrine more completely. Since we have the support of a farming and ranching co-operative, we explored the co-operative form carefully and chose it because of its goodness and appropriateness and its capacities to meet the idiosyncrasies of the area. Thanks to its qualities as a democratic, participatory, and autonomous organisation, the co-operative model conforms to the needs and aspirations of youth. It also offers them opportunities to receive training and to integrate socially.
Organisational Structure
The structure resembles that of the Guillermo Lehmann Co-operative. The highest authority is the assembly of members, which meets at least once a year. A board of directors, consisting of nine permanent and three substitute members, is responsible for the co-operative’s management. There is also an Executive Committee, which includes a president, a vice-president, a treasurer, a secretary, and a permanent and a substitute trustee. The different tasks are organised into work commissions. The professional advisor, who graduated in co-operative studies, co-ordinates the activities and manages the organisation and is the only person to receive a salary (which is paid by the Guillermo Lehmann Co-operative). The members of the Executive Committee only receive reimbursement for expenses when participating in an activity that draws them away from their work Although the co-operative’s by-laws require members to pay an entry fee in order to join the group, this requirement has not been enforced. Members who are not part of the board participate through open meetings and in member assemblies in which they have speaking and voting rights. In our meetings, the priority is to search for consensus and vote only when there are differences in opinions or in proposals.
Links to the Community/Network/Scope
The young people are linked to multiple organisations within the community to which they belong, including educational entities, co-operatives, private ventures, and other institutions of the Province of Santa Fe. They are also involved in the Regional Network of Co-operativist Farming and Ranching Youth and the Network of Rural Co-operativist Youth of the South Cone. These activities have helped young people to open their minds and to undertake more ambitious activities within the region.
Achievement
By being involved in the co-operative, some young people have been appointed or hired to jobs in co-operatives, other institutions, and private ventures in the area. They have made important social contacts and they have been able to travel to neighbouring countries. The success of the Co-op is measured by observing that those who have gone through the youth centre are now leaders in their community and successful entrepreneurs in their farming and ranching operations; they know about and defend the co-operative system. Some of them have already joined the board of directors of the co-operative that sponsored them; others have been able to secure a job working in the farming and ranching industries.
Future Plans
In the short term, the co-op’s goal is to continue co-operative training programmes and to attract more youth from neighbouring towns to join our group. In the longer term, the co-op will venture into productive activities, offering services to the community and making the organisation self-sufficient; remaining dependent upon the Guillermo Lehmann Co-operative for funding is not satisfactory.
Learned Lessons
Teamwork depends on a person’s individual skills, and we believe it is important to value the abilities of young people. Young people are able to undertake complex and risky activities. By encouraging young people to undertake a variety of tasks, they will be rewarded by what they do and they will grow as individuals.
Advice
Governments should support and encourage this type of organisation, since it can be very beneficial for young people trying to build their futures. Governments should consider forming strategic alliances with youth organisations to undertake such activities as the provision of public services and the construction of housing by co-operatives. Co-operatives should encourage the creation of youth groups so that they will be able to count on generational succession and continuity into the future.
