An Introduction to NASCO
NASCO is an association of campus cooperatives in Canada and the U.S., providing student cooperatives with operational assistance, encouraging the development of new student cooperatives, and serving as an advocate for student cooperatives. NASCO teaches leadership skills, provides information, and serves as the central link facilitating the fruition of the Rochdale vision in the student sector. By strengthening the student co-op movement, we believe we can strengthen the future of cooperatives generally.

NASCO's History
In the spring of 1968, participants in a conference sponsored by the University of Michigan Inter-Cooperative Council proposed the organization of a group "for the purpose of expanding the cooperative movement across college campuses." Three weeks later, a group gathered in Chicago to organize NASCO.

One of NASCO's earliest and most important networking tools has been its newsletters. From an initially small newsletter, NASCO developed a magazine called the Journal of the New Harbinger and later Co-op Magazine, serving the broader movement as well as the student sector until publication was discontinued in 1980. In the eighties, NASCO returned to the student movement newsletter format. Under the Newsbriefs masthead, NASCO informed student co-opers, and the co-op movement as a whole, about student co-op development and events, providing an indispensable networking link. The current newsletter title, Co-op Voices, reflects the many individual co-op enthusiasts in the student co-op sector.

The cornerstone of NASCO's growth, the regional conference, has developed into the NASCO Institute. Initiated in 1977, the annual Cooperative Education and Training Institute provides leadership and technical training to student co-op staff and members from across North America.

The late eighties saw the development and implementation of a new business plan for NASCO. It's call for increases in development activity through the incorporation of the Campus Cooperative Development Corporation (CCDC) has brought in a new age of student co-op development through the assistance and initiation of student housing co-op ventures in Davis, California; Chicago, Illinois; Athens, Ohio; and elsewhere. In a related effort, technical and financial assistance has been increased, and member services (such as career development) augmented.

NASCO Governance
NASCO's Bylaws say that NASCO is governed by a 13-person Board of Directors elected by the membership. The Board meets twice each year, while the Executive Committee, consisting of board officers and the Executive Director, meets an additional two times per year. Advice about issues of concern to student cooperative is provided to the board by the Active Member Caucus (AMC), which is made up of one representative from each of NASCO's Active Member co-ops. The Active Member Caucus chair is elected at large by the AMC and serves a one-year term on the board of directors.
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Source: www.nasco.coop