Filipino Housing Coops attend NSW Confab in Sydney
By Ruben Amores
Sydney-Australia
July 25, 2018
Some officers of the Kapitbahayan Cooperative Ltd and Sedgwick Housing Cooperative attended the Coop NSW biannual state conference on June 21- 23, 2018 at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).
Some officers of Kapitbahayan and Sedgwick Housing Coops attending the 3-day NSW Coops Conference at UTS Sydney: from left are Ani, Dolly, Marie, Jo, attendee from another coop, Pabs, Cen and Jimmy. Photo by Ruben .
The conference was attended by representatives from the different types of cooperatives in NSW: agricultural producers, logistic suppliers, consumer-owned banks, mutuals, consumers, service providers, housing, employees, food, breweries, dairies, etc.
Among the speakers were: Hon Matthew Kean MP, Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation; Peter Martin, Fairfax Economics Editor; Wally Newman, Coop Bulk Handling (CBH) Group Chair (biggest grain coop in Aust), Lieza Dessein, SMart Coop Belgium Manager (organising freelance interpreneurs); Rose Webb, NSW Fair Trading Director; James Brown, CENSW CEO, Prof Emmanuel Josserand of UTS Centre for Business and Social Innovation and Prof Greg Patmore of University of Sydney Coop Research.
The KCL delegation was composed of President Pablo Lee, Founding President Ruben Amores, Dr Cen Amores, Ani Son, Marie de Luna, Dolores and Rafael Amarille while Sedgwick Housing Coop was represented by President Jimmy Lopez, Myrma Lopez and Josephine de los Reyes.
The conference discussed the challenges and opportunities of cooperatives as a whole and in the different sectors. It is revealed that while coops and mutuals are very important players in the national economy much are still to be done to promote its ideal growth and development. In one of the open fora, Ruben Amores, volunteer community organiser, expressed his frustrations of not getting adequate support in organising more coops and mutuals in Western Sydney, particularly the lack of specialised trainers from peak organisations and agencies. During the small discussion forum, various housing growth strategies, including the current CENSW model, were debated by representatives of the various housing coops of NSW.