Member Pioneers and Co-op Memories

What were the ‘Member Pioneers’?  *Banner image advertisement for the scheme (Co-operative Group) 

The scheme was started in 2015 by the Co-operative Group to employ staff working four hours per week as a link to the community around local stores to build relationship and offer advice and support for local causes. The organization had been through some difficult years and was re-committing to its identity as a co-op and role in communities instead of copying the tactics of other big retailers with discounts. There were 766 Member Pioneers when the scheme ended this summer, and 61 of these became regional Member Engagement Officers on full-time basis.

We have been in contact with some of the staff from the South West of England region who have been collecting memories in person and online from their own community as part of our 180^th year celebration. Special thanks to Maureen Breeze, who had the idea in the first place and has been busy gathering memories for us to share. We are doing so at this time, because although this is a modern aspect of the Co-op Group's business, and the changes affect people differently, it forms part of the historical narrative of lived experience and will be of interest to people in the future to understand the ways in which co-ops interacted with their communities, as well as how and why this changed.

The August 2024 stop-motion ad campaign for the Co-op Group ‘Owned by you, Right by you’ aims to explain to younger generations what make co-ops and mutuals different from other businesses and that members own and control the business.

1980's ad based on membership for discounts rather than ownership - CHT Co-operative Group Collection

Membership, and ‘active’ membership has always been important for co-ops. Beyond convenience and getting a share of the profits (dividend) or other benefits, one of the most important things members can do is decide how a co-op is run and what they do with the profits. Many businesses support charities and local causes, but co-ops must do this as part of their reason for existing.

Over the past two centuries, different independent co-ops have tried incentives to encourage members to work with them, and even sometimes fining people for not showing up at community meetings! Most of the time this was carrot rather than stick, with the offer of live music, free food or cheap tickets to events. Lots of working-class people became members because it made financial sense to do so, and others were committed to building a better environment for themselves and their neighbours but in a changing society in the twentieth century, co-op leaders acknowledged that getting the members on board was becoming harder.

Tea Label for Seaham and Horden Co-op's Members annual trip - CHT Co-op Group Collection

Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (R.A.C.S) had a campaign to recruit new members through ‘Member Pioneers’ dressed up as mountaineers in the early 1950’s. Mountaineering was very popular in the early twentieth century and the peak of excitement came in 1953 when Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hilary became the first to summit the mountain successfully. The campaign R.A.C.S produced claimed it was as difficult to get members to join in as to climb Everest!

Royal Arsenal Member Pioneer recruitment campaign 1950's  - CHT The Co-operative Group Collection

Co-operatives are all about membership – it is the members of a co-op who share in

 

Robert Coles – From the Co-op Memories Facebook Group

"Hello, I'm Robert and something to know about me is...in 1968 aged 16, I went for an interview with Bath and West Co-op. It was held in the boardroom of Westgate Building in Bath. I got the position of Trainee Manager and started at the Church St branch in Trowbridge under the Manager - who was Lionel Hailstone. I stayed with the Co-op for six year and worked in numerous stores in Bath and North Wiltshire including a summer on mobile shops.

I went on to manage Bath East on Chelsea Road, St Peter's Terrace and finishing as the Assistant Manager of the Foodhall in the basement of the Westgate Buildings. They were a wonderful. They were a wonderful organisation to work for. Lots of training, including day release, night school and three trips to Stamford Hall residential college. The only reason I left was that I couldn't support my family and mortgage on my salary. I earned twice as much labouring in a distribution centre for Tesco."

The Boardroom of the Bath Co-operative Society Offices - Westgate Buildings c.1960 - CHT - Co-operative Union Collection

Tina Richardson

"Here is an early memory from one of our members living in South Bristol...My Mother belonged to the Co-op. I can still remember her number - it was 60905.

You had to give it every time you shopped at the co-op. Mum used to take in an order to the shop and an employee by the name of George used to bring the shopping in a van on the day requested. He very often would come in and have a cup of tea. I can remember him telling me that in the bad weather when the lanes round Dundry were blocked with snow he drove up there on top of the snow, level with the top of the hedges! He also used to deliver a few things mid - week. Mum used to order some lambs liver and sausages and because we were all out when he used to deliver, Mum had an enamel bread bin by  the front porch and he would leave the shopping in there."

Image of a co-op delivery van - permission of Adrian Cottle via The Co-op Memories Facebook Page

Maureen Breeze

"When I was a child, we used to have an old tea caddy like this on a high shelf in a cupboard in our house- in what was the West Riding of Yorkshire and it is where as a family, we kept all our small important documents, such as birth certificates. It was something not to be played with. I thought the man's photo on the caddy was the King. It was only years later I discovered that he was the President of the Barnsley British Co-operative Society, that my Mother was a member of and she had obviously received it as a gift at some point. I can't imagine co-operative societies being motivated to produce an item like this and honor elected members in such a way these days!"

Barnsley British Co-operative anniversary tea caddy. With permission of Maureen Breeze - from the Co-op Memories Facebook Page 

Barnsley British Co-op (BBCS) celebrating 9-0 years of trading in 1951 - CHT Co-operative Union Collection

Amanda Jane Davies

"I was a student at Stanford Hall in the 1980's (Co-operative Residential College in Loughborough) and when I went there was a nude statue at the foot of the stairs and some students took to the local village and put it in a phone box. Allegedly this happened on a regular basis. Student pranks were kind of appreciated back then!"

Stanford Hall Student Bedroom  - Promotional Brochure, 1940's - CHT Co-operative College Collection

Sarah Williams There are two pictures of my Nan's co-op book from 1955. My Nan sadly passed away when I was eight years old, so I never actually spoke to her about the co-op...however, her experiences lived on through my Dad. He would often talk of her 'divi number' of 118639 and tell us his memories of joining her on shopping trips when he was a small boy with a wooden cart he had made himself to help her carry the shopping home. I only got to see the book myself for the first time recently, but without properly looking at it I could still recite the number 118639 after all those years after my Dad had first spoken of it. As a Co-op Employee myself of almost 26 years I am proud to say Co-op has lived on through three generations of our family and probably more before that!" 

From the Co-op Memories Facebook Page - With permission of Sarah Williams

Fabricated store of Bristol Co-operative Society - 1950's. CHT Co-operative Union Collection