A year in the life of a Member Activator

Our network of 90 Member Activators help to raise awareness of Co-op Membership locally. They work closely with Co-op Members, local groups and other colleagues to deliver initiatives on the issues that matter most in communities across the UK. 

Since September 2024, our Member Activators have completed over 320,000 member interactions to help make a positive difference for them and their local community.  

Our Member Activators build relationships with members, local groups and Food and Funeralcare colleagues to bring to life the Co-op difference through our social value strategy and help their communities thrive. They do this by hosting local forums and events to raise awareness and bring our member-owners and communities together, hold instore product tastings to promote Member Pricing and help drive sales, and fundraise for Barnardo’s to raise £7 million to support positive futures for 1 million young people across the UK. 

To celebrate a year in post, Kate Skinner, Member Activator for Argyll and Bute in Scotland, tells us what she loves about the role, her 2025 highlights, and how she’s been connecting with members and encouraging them to get involved in Co-op campaigns and activations locally.

Can you tell me a bit about your role as a Member Activator?  

The main purpose of my role as a Member Activator is to create and provide resources and opportunities locally for our member-owners, raise awareness of the benefits of our membership, and bring communities together to participate in Co-op-led activation and campaigns to thrive together.  

My aim is to help member-owners ‘feel’ Co-op and bring to life the Co-op difference. I find it is relatively easy to get people interested in some aspect – be it member-owner benefits, our values or our history. 

What does your typical day as a Member Activator look like?  

While no two days are the same, I guess there is two kinds of ‘typical’ day.  

I live on a remote Scottish island where the Co-op is the only food store. It’s a real community hub, which makes my role even more important. If I am out in the community, my day will start early to get the ferry to the mainland. I always travel in Co-op uniform because it makes it easy to chat to people. I usually make a couple of appointments but also go with a few other things to do in mind, so I don’t waste any time but still have some flexibility. I have a great relationship with some of my store managers, and I am sometimes asked to support them in various activities or speak to member-owners in store. I may visit community groups where we have a Co-op store or funeral home and often join in activities or help with the washing up – it all makes it easy to chat.  

If I am working from home, I will be catching up with what’s going on, skimming social media to see what local groups are doing and viewing the games on the Co-op App so I know what’s on offer. I also find telephone calls are more effective than email when it comes to making arrangements.

What have you been up to since you started the role as a Member Activator? 

Naturally, like in any new role, I was little unsure how the role was going to take shape when I started last year. However, the first events I organised in November made me feel much more comfortable. Two were part of Celebration where we promote all the great support Co-op gives to our local communities on behalf of our member-owners and all four focussed on tasting the Christmas food range and were – on the whole – well attended.  

Since then, I have been on the radio raising awareness of activities and hosted hot cross bun tastings. I’ve worked with a school to design a Fairtrade mural for a Co-op store, attended a Pride event, litter picked, hosted events for Big Lunch and Great Big Green Week and fundraised for Barnardo’s. 

As you can see, the Member Activator role is a very varied role, which I think is why I love it. 

How have you engaged with Co-op Members, community groups and other colleagues over the past year?  

There are three main ways I engage – face-to-face with groups, with individuals and through social media. I have had particular success with Facebook reels. Being a member of the community Facebook groups across my area helped me reach 14.4k views for the Great Big Green Week reel I posted.  

Thinking about the community events you’ve organised and run over the past year, which was your favourite, and why?

No good parent has a favourite and I have been proud of all the events I have organised in the past year – not that I haven’t also learned a lot for the future too.  

I enjoyed the Great Big Green Week events I ran. I held one in a second-hand shop and promoted it on social media with a reel of me trying on a lot of the clothes. The reel received 7.7k views to help raise awareness of swapping new for used, and this linked well with this year’s Great Big Green Week theme which was all about swapping for good.  

The other event – which started with Co-op working with one group and ended up being a five-way collaboration involving all sorts of ‘swaps’ and a Big Lunch – saw me encouraging members to swap branded products for Co-op own-brand. 

What project / event / campaign are you most proud of?  

The Rhinns Lighthouse Festival took place in August, and I have never been involved in such a big event. It began with the Co-op kick-starting the rejuvenation of a harbour association with a community donation and culminated in a four-day celebration of co-operation.  

Four community groups were on the organising committee along with me and we were also able to bring in over 50 other groups and businesses in the community. Comprising a Ceilidh, Sports Gala, Exhibition, multi-faith Church Service and a Street Party.  

The majority of the 1,786 attendees across the weekend were Co-op Member-Owners, which on an island with a population of 3,200 was astounding.  

What skills or strengths have you gained over the past year or been able to use to excel in your role?  

If you ask my manager, he will say I love a training course, and I have both sought out and practiced all sort of things over the past year to make me better in the role. I enrolled in an online public speaking course which was invaluable in helping me give my first few presentations. I also feel that I have become more effective with my social media posts, including being brave enough to post the occasional video and receiving thousands of views.  

What else do you have planned for 2025 and how will you engage members and other colleagues to get involved?  

I’m looking forward to Fairtrade Fortnight. I have a forum planned which is a get together with local member-owners followed by supporting the friends of Portnahaven Church, a youth group and an eco-group for a talk and activities. 

 I’ll also be running two Fairtrade events in my local Co-op store in September, encouraging member-owners to swap to Fairtrade tea in our Co-op tea break activation. I’ll even be on Argyll FM radio to promote one of my events.  

I am running a banana dressing competition aimed at young people – an idea stolen from one of my colleagues – and I’ll be filming a recipe reel making ‘Eskimo Bananas’ using Fairtrade ingredients.  

So, it’s going to be a jam-packed fortnight, bringing the benefits of Fairtrade and shopping with Co-op to our members. 

What would you say to someone thinking about becoming a Member Activator?  

It’s a fab job, I love it! I love helping our members to engage and participate in Co-op activations and campaigns, helping them to feel more connected to the Co-op and understand how we are more than just a retailer, we are a different way of doing business that helps them, and their community thrive.  

It’s great to be able to chat to people about Co-op’s history because it’s definitely something to be proud of.  

Find out more about our Member Activators or contact the Member Activator in your region by using our online directory.