I get a great deal of value from my annual membership with the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives, and one of the most valuable benefits is free access to their Cooperative Learning Network — “webinars that provide easy access to presentations, panel discussions and conversations by leading experts and fellow members on a variety of topics and issues important to those in the cooperative world”. (I would argue that any small business consultant will get great value from these — not just those who work with co-ops.) However, you can take these classes as a non-member as well, for a small fee (usually $56), which includes CPE credit. They are usually well worth it, as there are some topics that they cover, such as small business fraud and preparing for a third-party audit, that no other accounting/bookkeeping membership organization seems to do quite as well.

I mention this because they have a great line-up of CLNs in the next few months and I wanted to highlight some of them:

More information here:
https://nsacoop.org/events/financial-forecasting

More information here:
https://nsacoop.org/events/inside-mind-auditor

More information here:
https://nsacoop.org/events/common-fraud-schemes-facing-small-businesses-today

For those out there considering expanding your scope to include cooperatives, I strongly encourage it, as there are simply not enough co-op bookkeepers and accountants out there to fill the need; cooperatives are one of the fastest-growing segments of the small business population and we need your help to keep them on solid financial footing. NSAC offers Basic and Advanced Cooperative Accounting Seminars — training in the core concepts unique to working for or with cooperatives such as equity management, tax planning and risk management.

I’ll be attending all three of the above webinars and hope to “see” you there!

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