About the CCMA Conference

The Consumer Cooperative Management Association is a 3-day gathering of three or four hundred food co-op managers, directors, educators, and consultants, plus their national allies. At CCMA, speakers and trainers from outside the food co-op sector supplement the contributions of local and national co-ops. The annual conference, held in early June, is rotated annually among East/Central/West regions. The 2011 CCMA conference is in San Diego.

CCMA began in 1957 as a kind of weekend retreat for consumer co-op managers and their spouses. Co-ops represented included grocery co-ops formed in the 1930s and 1940s plus major co-ops in other sectors, such as Nationwide Insurance and Recreational Equipment Inc.

In the 1980s, older generation grocery co-ops were declining while a “new wave” of consumer food co-ops had sprung up, and representatives of the new co-ops began attending CCMA. The annual gathering rotated among the locations of leading co-ops, such as Hanover, Berkeley, Chicago, Seattle, and Minneapolis, and the number of attendees grew to more one hundred co-op managers, directors, and educators. The National Co-op Bank and National Cooperative Business Association brought a cross-sector perspective, but other attendees came almost entirely from consumer food co-ops.

The CCMA conference is a program of the National Cooperative Business Association, which has contracted for planning and administration of the conference. Since the early 1990s, CCMA conference planning has been carried out by Ann Hoyt and support staff at the University of Wisconsin, most recently through the UW Urban Cooperative Initiative.