National Cooperative Business Association

National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International

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Type	Cooperative Association
Industry	Cooperative Business Association, International Development
Founded	1916 (1916)
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Judy Ziewacz, interim CEO
Number of employees	98
Website	ncba.coop

Founded in 1916 as the Cooperative League of the United States of America, the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) is a United States membership organization for cooperatives, businesses that are jointly-owned and democratically-controlled.

The league's founding president was medical doctor James Peter Warbasse, who served in that role until 1941. Thereafter, the league's presidents included Murray B. Lincoln, former U.S. Congressman Jerry Voorhis, Stanley Dreyer, Glenn Anderson, Morgan Williams, Bob Scherer, Russell C. Notar, Paul Hazen, and Michael Beall. In November 2015, after the resignation of Michael Beall, Judy Ziewacz became interim CEO.

In its first few decades, it focused on consumer cooperation, and published a monthly magazine, Co-operation.

History

In 1922, it originated and trademarked the twin pines symbol used to represent North American cooperatives. "The pine tree is an ancient symbol of endurance and immortality. The two pines represent mutual cooperation—people helping people."

In 2000 the group successfully lobbied the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to establish a new top-level domain exclusively for cooperative organizations. The domain, .coop, became active in 2002.

NCBA members include some well-known United States consumer brands, such as Ace Hardware, True Value, Florida's Natural, Cabot Creamery, Organic Valley, and CHS Inc..

External links

• Official site
• Co-operation magazine facsimile archive, 1921–1947
• [1] archive of organizational records, 1914-1982