The Vooruit No. 1 Cooperative Society (abbreviated to sm Vooruit or also Cooperative Society Vooruit) was a Belgian socialist cooperative. It was founded in 1881 as a breakaway from the Ghent Cooperative Society of the Free Bakers, although it was not officially recognized until September 21, 1886. The organization actively supported the establishment of socialist cooperatives in Flanders, and its working methods were often cited as a model both at home and abroad.
There are no digitized minutes of the theoretically most important governing body, the General Assembly. In practice, decisions were made by the Board of Directors, whose minutes cover the period 1883-1974 with (significant) gaps for the periods May 1890-November 1892 and November 1895-March 1918. In addition, there are minutes of the Board of Directors' meetings for the period 1910-1912 and those of the auxiliary board meetings for the years 1912-1914. Both ad hoc bodies were tasked with relieving the burden on the Board of Directors. The same applies to the Executive Board, whose minutes of meetings between 1929 and 1934 can be consulted in digitized form. These minutes provide an insight into the ins and outs of the Ghent socialist cooperative, which at its peak controlled a significant part of the local and regional economy and socio-cultural life.
