Everything Co-op With Vernon Oakes

December 15, 2022 RL Condra and Vernon discuss how the Mid-term Election results might impact the cooperative landscape, and the importance of advocacy and how he became involved in the cooperative movement. As Senior VP of Government Affairs RL Condra is responsible for advocating for issues that directly impact NCB’s cooperative customer segments. Since joining NCB, he has advocated for cooperatives to have access to SBA lending programs, risk retention changes for cooperative housing, and the RCDG program for cooperative development centers. Mr. Condra serves as the advocacy chair for Cooperation Works, a national network of organizations and individuals working on co-op development and on the Inter-agency working group for cooperatives. In addition, he serves as Vice-Chair on the Consumer Federation of America Board of Directors, and is on the board of the Food Co-op Initiative. Prior to joining NCB, Mr. Condra was Vice President of Advocacy for the NCBA CLUSA and spent several years on Capitol Hill as a