Volunteer Stories
Eric Bowman
El Salvador
Cooperative Governance
"Eric served as a cooperative development specialist at the Northwest Cooperative Development Center in Olympia, WA for over 10 years. As a cooperative development specialist, Eric provided business development services and technical training in business planning, management and governance, accounting and finance. Bowman also serves as the director and board chair of the Tulip Credit Union."
Profession: Executive Director, Nutritional Therapy Association, Inc.
Home State: Washington, U.S.
Career Summary: Eric served as a cooperative development specialist at the Northwest Cooperative Development Center in Olympia, WA for over 10 years. As a cooperative development specialist, Eric provided business development services and technical training in business planning, management and governance, accounting and finance. Bowman also serves as the director and board chair of the Tulip Credit Union.
Areas of Expertise: Cooperative development, natural resources and marketing for value-added/organic agriculture. Eric has a BA, focused on Economics and Business Administration, from Evergreen State College.
Language Spoken: English
ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW
Name of project: Cooperative Governance
Country: El Salvador
SPSP Grantee: National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA)
Objective: To provide El Salvadorian cooperatives, particularly Board Members and management, governance trainings to help strengthen and grow the cooperatives.
Volunteer Assignment and Impact: During his two-week assignment, Eric worked with four cooperatives in El Salvador—El Jabali, APRAINORES, the Cooperative Association of Organic Producers (ACOPO), and the Cooperative Association of Acocaluco (ACOCALUCO). He provided trainings to the cooperative’s board members and management on governance issues affecting cooperatives, including how to conduct board meetings, the role of the board of directors, conflict resolution, and cooperative principles and values. Eric also worked with these cooperatives on business and financial planning.
While working with the four cooperatives, Eric quickly discovered the members’ understanding of governance and business management was also very limited. In response, he worked with the members to help them understand key governance functions and concepts, as well as helping them develop action plans to put the ideas they discussed into practice. In addition, within all of his trainings with the board of directors, management, and members, Eric focused on participatory and group activities to encourage team-building and emphasize the community aspect of cooperative business. Overall, Eric’s effort to assess each cooperative’s strengths and weaknesses enabled him to tailor the trainings for maximum impact. For example, board members demonstrated an increase in knowledge of governance functions and were excited to implement their action plans.