Co-op College History - Centre for the Study of Co-operatives

6 C REWE
P HILOSOPHICAL B ELIEF AND P RACTICAL N EED
When the CUS, along with Siemens, took the idea of the Co-op Institute to
FCL, it was inevitably greeted with enthusiastic support. FCL granted the use of the meeting
room in their Saskatoon home office for classroom space. Even more significant to ensuring
the future of the institute was the allocation of FCL’s Management Training Programme operating
costs of $100,000 along with $6,000 from the CUS. This, combined with the initial
$4,000 raised by Siemens and the ICI board, provided the financial springboard required for
the institute to begin. 15
It was not finances alone, however, that would ensure the success of such an endeavour.
Purpose and direction were balanced between the need for a practical training centre that
would also preserve the co-op philosophy. In these early years of the Co-op Institute, the
CUS and FCL shared a mutual commitment to promote this idea. During the FCL board
meeting in August of 1955, directors agreed with the expressed need to preserve their heritage.
It was concluded that “...a co-op educational institution should include the teaching
of co-op philosophy, whether the primary reason for taking the course was related to technical
or commercial training, or in the leadership field.” 16 This vision was the decisive impetus
for the Co-op Institute to finally proceed. As Olaf (Ole) Turnbull, executive director from
1972 to 1982, later remarked, “The college was the result of a certain culture that was present
at the time, where particular people were spokesmen, believers, and leaders. They believed
[co-operatives] were another way for society to organize itself—not another way of selling
cornflakes.” 17
C ENTRE FOR THE S TUDY OF C O - OPERATIVES