TWO West Midlands Co-op staff members are flying to Canada for an international conference to explore young people's views on the worldwide Co-operative Movement.
Stuart Brain, manager of the society's foodstore in Penkridge, Staffordshire, and Pharmacy administrator Rachel Conlisk will join up to 100 other Co-op employees aged 18 to 30 from various countries.
Both were nominated by their division general managers and were then invited to submit essays about their hopes and expectations for the conference.
They will join a party of 20 from the UK travelling to Calgary for the second annual ?Young Co-operators' conference which runs until May 18th.
Ben Reid, Chief Executive at West Midlands Co-op, said: "Stuart and Rachel have demonstrated leadership qualities and shown themselves to have a real interest in the global co-operative organisation.
"The division managers believe that they deserve to go and represent the society at this important event and this has been backed up by excellent written submissions."
Amanda Sharp, Projects Co-ordinator at the Manchester-based Co-operative College, commented: "The inaugural event last year was such a success that this will now be an annual gathering of young co-op employees, due to be held in the UK in 2006.
"West Midlands Co-op joined us last year and it is great to have two representatives attending the conference again.
"The event is designed to bring together views and practices from organisations of all sizes in different countries and share ideas to help with future development."
The five-day conference will feature a series of workshops and presentations on all aspects of co-operative work in various countries.
The international Co-operative Movement has more than 230 member organisations from over 100 countries, representing more than 760 million individuals worldwide and covers many sectors of activity including agriculture, banking, energy, industry, insurance, fisheries, housing, tourism and consumer co-operatives.
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