A cooperative is an organization which operates under the leadership of many member-owners. These partial owners all have a voice in running the business. The democratic nature of cooperatives means many people from different backgrounds and knowledge can have input into the company’s decisions. Solutions which consist of the viewpoint of a diverse number of people would likely be more effective than those created by one person leading a company. In addition, a cooperative inherently has a system better-equipped to ensure there are no decisions which would negatively effect the company. There are many people to check to see if the decision moves the cooperative in the right direction, whereas in a company the decisions are largely made by one person who may not have the best plan for the company. In addition, all the members of a cooperative have limited liability and a shared responsibility for the future of the organization. Cooperatives, however, only provide one vote to each member which may be a disadvantage to some businesses which are driven by investors. This will dissuade larger businesses from joining the cooperatives. Also, because a cooperative needs multiple people, decisions may take longer to establish.

Without cooperatives, Santa María de Dota may not have as many coffee plantations. If the cooperative would dissolve the small farms would have to compete with each other for customers. I believe this competition will cause some farms to shut down and will cause others to become larger. The community would have less total farms but more bigger farms without cooperatives.

Café Privilegios is important for the community because it is a major investor in the community. Café Privilegios grants many privileges to the Santa María de Dota community which improve their quality of life through care and opportunities. The café has established senior care centers to ensure the care of the aging generations. Café Privilegios has also invested in the younger generations with schools and athletic programs. Café Privilegios also has setup the future of younger generations with the barista schools. Investments in the community improve the lives of the members of the community by primarily granting them opportunities early in life so members of the community have more freedom to chose how they live later on. Furthermore, if there are more opportunities for younger generations they would be more likely to stay and get jobs in the community rather than moving away.

My favorite preparation of coffee is drip. I believe that is how most of the coffee I have had was prepared. More specifically with the drip coffee, I prefer full-wash medium roast coffee. I like the full-wash better than the honey and natural. I am not a big coffee drinker and really have only had full-wash so I am most familiar with the taste.