.Coop eNewsletter

6 January 2011

Enter the 2011 dotCoop Global Awards Now!

On 1 January, the dotCoop Global Awards for Cooperative Excellence began accepting entries for the 2011 Awards on the www.globalawards.coop website.

These awards were created by dotCoop to recognize the application of cooperative values and principles to drive cooperative and business success. The criteria for the Awards have been refined so that it is much easier to submit an entry.

An online translator has been added to the site to support immediate translation to a wide variety of languages to make the award more accessible to more cooperatives.

Alerts will be sent out using Twitter so they can be easily forwarded throughout the global cooperative community. New alerts will be coming frequently as judges and deadlines are confirmed.

Win funding towards a trip to the ICA General Assembly in Cancun, Mexico in November 2011 where the winners will be announced! What a great way to kick off your celebration of the UN International Year of Cooperatives.

2012 Domain Names Available Now

dotCoop is offering any domain name that contains "2012" for three years at one low price through the following registrars.

Prices vary by registrar but each registration is for 3 years to make your name available:

in 2011 as you plan your activities
all of 2012 as you celebrate and
as you wind down your activities in 2013.

Take advantage of this great deal today!

2010 Survey Response Winner

dotCoop would like to thank those who responded to our initial renewal survey during 2010. We wanted to check with you to see how we could get information out to more cooperatives about becoming users of .coop domains and you responded with many great suggestions to help that effort.

In addition, we got some suggestions and questions on other concerns and we are working with your registrars to respond to those questions in the next few weeks.

We are pleased to announce that Corn Belt Power of Humboldt, Iowa, US (www.cbpower.coop ) was the lucky winner of a free one-year renewal of a .coop domain name, courtesy of dotCoop.

We've restarted the contest (as of November 1, 2010) and are busy revising the surveys so be sure to respond to our survey to have a chance to win a renewal for one of your .coop domains at the end of 2011. It'll be a great way to launch the Year of Cooperatives at your co-op!

Thank you and congratulations again to Corn Belt Power Cooperative.

New Registrar - Gandi SAS

Gandi SAS is a French registrar founded and accredited by ICANN since 1999. It was one of the first registrars accredited for .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, .BE, .FR and .EU domains name in France.

Currently they manage over one million domain names for clients in nearly 200 countries and offer over 80 extensions. Their clients range from individuals, associations and small companies, to public institutions and large multinational corporations.

dotCoop is very pleased to welcome Gandi to our growing list of registrars! Please visit their site to find out more about the services and domains they offer.

Co-ops: The Next Wave

Co-op leaders around the world are looking forward to 2012 and already beginning to host activities and make plans for how to promote cooperatives beyond the co-op community.

Paul Hazen, the President and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association (US) shares his thoughts on how his organization and co-ops in the US will build on existing programs and resources (including their www.ncba.coop site!) to educate people who know little about co-ops.

He also has some exciting news about the growth of co-ops in the US and how co-ops continue to present solutions to problems in today's economic climate.