Mark Fick [0], Chicago Community Loan Fund
Before you buy your new co-op building, you will need some basic real estate savvy and financial tools. Researching the housing market, assessing properties, and understanding proforma budgets are critical to your co-op's success. This course explores purchasing and leasing options, creating realistic budgets and assessing the financial feasibility of your project.
L. Amelia Raley [0], ICC Austin
Ashley Asmus [0], ICC Austin
Feed your co-op a hearty meal with organic and local ingredients for $1.75 per person. Ashley Asmus and L. Amelia Raley, authors of "Common Feast: 26 and Vegan" zine, are members of House of Commons vegetarian co-op in Austin, Texas. Topics will include: kitchen and menu planning, management, community outreach, and of course, yummy food. Attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the zine. Come hungry!
Emily Ng [0], UHAB | Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Frustrated with Quickbooks? Want to increase transparency and communication on financial matters in your house? Connected Books is an online tracking tool designed for housing cooperatives in New York City which turns bookkeeping into a simple and stress free task. This workshop is perfect for small houses as well as larger co-ops, and especially for any co-op looking for a simple way to track, share and analyze finances. We will cover basic bookkeeping principles and a demonstration of the program.
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Daniel Miller [0], NASCO Properties, Sasona Coop, Pacifico Coop
The Fair Housing Act and local housing discrimination laws are set up to prevent discrimination and exclusion in housing for the public. But does your coop's membership system violate the law in selecting members? Is a coop a public entity? Are you allowed to have a say in who you live with? Come discuss these and other questions and learn a bit about the context and history of Fair Housing in the US.
Stefanie Jones [0], Madison Community Cooperative, Madison Cooperative Network, Social Justice Center, NASCO Education Board
Susan Caya [0], ICC Ann Arbor
Rebecca Nole [0], NASCO Education Board, Riverwest Food Co-op, ICC-Ann Arbor Alum
This class is for everyone, from individuals who have never managed staff before all the way to those experienced co-opers with particular staffing challenges. Learn how to conduct annual reviews and evaluations, how to prevent staff burn-out, how to deal with problem staff, how to keep staff happy, and what to do when faced with the seeming impossible task of finding someone to staff your organization. Share best practices for bonuses, probation and termination, and separation of duties. Most importantly, leave this session with a better understanding of how to create the healthiest working environment that leaves staff happy and committed and keeps the organization functioning.
Anthony Poore [0], School of Community Economic Development, Southern New Hampshire University
Steve Dubb [0], The Democracy Collaborative
Deborah Torraine [0], AfroEco, Twin Cities LISC
Being an active member in your co-op and other CED related vocations can be an excellent base to start a career. In this workshop, there will be a discussion of ways to parlay your co-op and related non-profit experience into an actual career path. In particular, will look at the following areas: jobs within the co-op movement itself, career options in community development and finance, and community organizing jobs.
Cheyenna Weber [0], Responsible Endowments Coalition, US Solidarity Economy Network Organizing and Education Task Force
"Using College Endowments to Change the World: Strategies from the Campus Responsible Investment Movement" will provide an overview of how students on campuses around the country are leveraging billions of endowment dollars to support social change. Learn strategies to subordinate and displace corporations, including ways to funnel money into the solidarity economy and to successfully challenge and reform corporate behavior.
kiran nigam [0], US Solidarity Economy Network, US Social Forum, former NASCO Staff and Board member
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs [0], New Orleans Anti-Racism Group, NASCO Education Board
Rowan Shafer [0], The Anti-Racism Working Group- New Orleans
This is the second part of a two-part workshop on anti-racist organizing; participants are expected to have attended Part 1 of the workshop. Building on analysis and practices developed during Part 1, White Allies and People of Color will come together to dialogue and strategize on how to unite our struggles for racial justice in our co-ops and broader communities.
Omar Freilla [0], Green Worker Cooperative
Maria Ramos [0], The Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala
Rachel Wallis [0], Other Worlds
Brett Ramey [0], Urban Lifeways Project/Native Movement
Around the world, indigenous peoples and communities are at the forefront of movements to protect natural resources from destruction. Moderated by Rachel Wallis, Media and Education Coordinator of the Other Worlds Project, this workshop will explore how indigenous movements throughout the Americas are revitalizing the environmental movement and defending the environmental commons.
Speakers include Maria Ramos of the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, who is working to support indigenous activists in Guatemala, who are organizing to protect their land from the devastation of mining and other mega-projects, and Brett Ramey of Native Movement, an organization that supports indigenous leadership development and sustainability programs in Northern Arizona and Alaska.
Esteban Kelly [0], NASCO Education Board, CUNY Graduate Center
panelists TBA
Rebecca Foon [0], Sustainability Solutions
As we continue to be faced with the global emergency of climate change, water privatization and scarcity, and environmental degradation, we need to work together to live sustainably on this planet. The structure and holistic nature of co-operatives gives co-ops a unique advantage to become leaders in sustainability around the world. Hear about some practical organizational actions that can be taken by co-operatives of any size to make an impact around key environmental issues.
Ruth Sullivan [0], Sasona Cooperative, NASCO Education Board
This workshop will look at the causes of and remedies for inefficient energy use and energy loss in residential buildings. We will discuss the following:
-Evaluating the efficiency of your co-op
-Remedies for the most common sources of energy loss
-The easiest and cheapest ways to improve energy efficiency
Brent Bellamy [0], Science '44 Cooperative
Reducing the carbon output generated in your facility is simply about providing efficiency in the way we live our lives and how we operate in our workplace. Brent will guide you through what Science'44 Co-operative Inc. has done to reduce energy consumption and demonstrate that these changes while improving energy output will also reduce the facilities cost of operation. Brent will also talk about stakeholder acceptance and support.
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Elis Franzen [0], River City Housing Collective alum, Wild Rose Rebellion
Pete Flynn [0], River City Housing Collective alum, Wild Rose Rebellion
In this workshop we will explore the politics of food as it relates to globalization, environmental racism, systemic classism, and other forms of oppression. We hope to foster dialogue about building sustainable food systems by interweaving social justice and environmental concerns. Rejecting the idea of a single, homogenous solution, we hope to discuss the unique food issues that our various communities face while broadening our understanding of the common obstacles that we share. We will then brainstorm solutions and develop strategies for addressing these issues both inside and outside of collective living situations.
Kirsten Kelly [0], Spargel Productions
For 30 years, Oceana County, Michigan has been the Asparagus Capital of the World. Now its residents and family farms take on the U.S. War on Drugs, Free Trade, and a Fast Food Nation, all to save their beloved "roots." This is the story of what happens when an obscure U.S. War on Drugs policy threatens to destroy the Asparagus Capital of the World. After 30 years of growing "Green Gold," crowning a Mrs. Asparagus Queen and writing Super Stalk comic book heroes, the people of Oceana County, Michigan are thrown smack-dab into the middle of the global economy. Watch as Oceana's farmers take their fight from Senate Trade Hearings to marketing think-tanks, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the mountains of Peru. See how one rural American community is scrambling to keep its proud identity and source of survival against impossible odds. Join the filmmaker in a discussion after the screening.