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Joining Cooperative Coffees
Applications Currently Closed
We are not currently accepting new membership applications due to:
- our desire to carefully wade through the current financial mess that Wall Street and greedy free market wheeler-dealers created;
- stronger than anticipated growth from our current members that is requiring us to invest all available capital in their inventory needs;
- our desire to shore up our membership policies to prepare for our next decade fair trade, organic coffee sales.
We hope to reopen the process in April of 2009.
Process for Joining Cooperative Coffees
Cooperative Coffees typically accepts between one or two new members per year. The application process takes 3-6 months depending on the timing of our Membership Committee meetings, Board of Director meetings and the applicant's ability to provide information as needed. We take this process quite seriously and ask all applicants to think carefully about "going into business" with more than 20 coffee roasters who could at any given time be considered both colleagues and potential competitors in the marketplace. The future of Cooperative Coffees depends upon our roaster/members' continued ability to set personal differences aside in the name of further developing our model importing cooperative and the resulting greater goal of increasing our equitable trade relationships with a growing number of producer partners.
We do offer a limited selection of spot coffee for sale to non-members as a way to test the relationship and to make sure that a roaster is satisfied with our service and quality before applying for membership. In late 2008, we are also introducing an Associate category for roasters who cannot meet our membership criteria but would like to purchase our coffees.
Application in Microsoft Word format
Application in Adobe PDF format
