On Friday, June 15th St. Mary’s Bank partnered with The Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) and other business enterprise organizations to sponsor a “Cooperative Enterprise” conference at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) in Hooksett.
Ron Rioux Addressed Conference St. Mary’s President and CEO, Ronald Rioux was one of the featured speakers at the conference. He spoke to conference attendees about the unique and significant role that credit unions have played in America as legally structured financial service cooperatives. Credit Unions, he emphasized, are an ideal example of cooperative enterprise, since they pull together the resources of the individuals in a community in order to support individual and commercial enterprises while simultaneously promoting and sustaining the positive growth of the community as a whole.
St. Mary’s Bank, Rioux observed, was founded at the beginning of the twentieth century to serve the French Canadian immigrants on the West Side of Manchester, and today it serves over 70,000 members from around the state with a wide range of financial products and services. St. Mary’s, Rioux explained, continues to serve individuals and communities, including a whole new wave of immigrants to New Hampshire. It provides the financial resources for people to achieve the basic parts of the American Dream, including home ownership, commercial entrepreneurship, education, investment and retirement savings.
Other Experts Briefed Local Leaders
Participants at this conference also heard from experts in the development of group-based businesses who discussed resources for cooperative business development in New Hampshire. Presenters included Jim Megson of the Boston-based ICA Group and Lois Parris, Board Chair of one of the 85 resident-owned communities assisted by NH Community Loan Fund (NHCLF).
Howard Brodsky was the keynote speaker at the conference. The son of a New England carpet store owner, Brodsky launched Carpet One with 13 member stores. Today, there are 700 members of Carpet One and it is just one of 12 divisions of CCA Global Partners, an $8 billion/year company with more than 3,000 retail outlets and 10,000 stores. They recently celebrated their seventy-fourth consecutive quarter of profitability.
St. Mary's Bank co-sponsored the Cooperative Development Conference with CDI, SNHU, NHCLF and CCA Global Partners. Other co-sponsors included Hanover Consumers Cooperative food stores, the NH Electric Cooperative, the Cooperative Fund of New England, Cabot Creamery, and NCB (formerly National Coop Bank).