Saturday, November 3, 2:40-4:40 pm
201. The Forgotten History of Student Co-ops
Jim Jones, NASCO
This course will survey the history of student and group equity co-ops, from roots in the women's movement after the Civil War through the Great Depression years, World War II, the McCarthy and Civil Rights eras, the Baby Boom and the recent expansion of interest to a non-student audience.
211. Board Roles and Responsibilities
Cary Hubbard, Waterloo Cooperative Residences, Inc.
Are you a new or seasoned member of your co-op's board of directors? Not sure what your roles and responsibilities are? In this workshop we will look at the board's role in governance, planning, and communication within the co-op as well as the responsibilities of individual board members
221. Stump the Chumps
Laird Schaub, Fellowship for Intentional Community
Ma'ikwe Ludwig, Sol Space Consulting, Zialua Ecovillage
Ask our team of crackerjack consensus facilitators your tough questions about meeting dynamics, and we'll try to come up with brilliant and humorous responses, showing how you don't have to be stuck (or stay stuck) after all. The format will be Q&A: you bring the Q and we'll supply all the A you can stand.
222. We're All Teachers Here: Cooperative and Popular Education
kiran nigam, Clonlara School; former NASCO staff
Many co-ops offer trainings that address power, privilege and oppression for house officers, board members, or the membership at large. There are many challenges to organizing these trainings: How do you inspire people to action in an hour and half (or even less), without leaving folks feeling defensive or guilty? How do you get people to attend to begin with?
This workshop will give you some tools to organize, promote, and advocate for trainings on power and privilege in your co-ops. You'll come away with strategies for creating a positive, constructive and action-based atmosphere within those trainings. In addition, we'll share effective conversation starters, activities, and exercises to use with your co-op members. I'll share what I've found works and doesn't work based on my experiences leading such trainings for co-ops as a NASCO staff person; I invite you to do the same.
231. Strategies for Cooperating Out Of Poverty: an African Youth Cooperative Perspective
Victor Oyegoke, Nigerian Youth Cooperative Network/Cooperative Federation of Nigeria
The workshop will teach participants some identified strategies the youth in cooperatives in Africa are using in cooperating out of poverty, using the Nigerian Youth Cooperative Network as a case study
232. Cooperatives & Community Economic Development
Jolan Rivera, School of Community Economic Development, SNHU
Charles Hotchkiss, School of Community Economic Development, SNHU
Cooperatives serve a broad range of communities from the preservation of rural towns to the redevelopment of urban neighborhoods. This workshop will examine case examples of how cooperatives have been successfully used to give community residents greater ownership and control of their local economy. This workshop will be highly interactive and include a simulation exercise to provoke thinking and discussion of the issues.
233. Participatory Economic Vision - Implications for Strategy Today
Michael Albert, Z Magazine
What implications does seeking a new classless economy have for what we do now, in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and in the larger economic sphere of life as well, including especially our collective strategies and actions.
234. Connecting with Community Builders
Daniel Apfel, National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions
Michael Appel, Avalon Housing
Steve Dubb, Democracy Collaborative
Marge Misak, Cuyahoga Community Land Trust,
Nancy St. Germaine, Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund
How do we build a solidarity economy and support economic justice? One way is by working with existing community-building groups. At this workshop, you'll hear from activists in community-based groups such as community development corporations, community land trusts, and community loan funds about some of the issues they are working on. Discussion will center both on how these groups operate as well as how you and your co-op might link with such groups in your community to develop and reach common goals.
241. Worker Cooperatives as a Job Creation Strategy for Students and as an Economic Development Tool for Local Communities
Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo, GEO Collective
As global competition increases, jobs that traditionally awaited college graduates are fast disappearing. Many companies are paying less, and others leave the U.S. for countries where the cost of labor, transportation and other resources are cheaper. Meanwhile, the U.S. spends billions of dollars to fight an unjust war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to fund its hypocritical "war on terror," to target other countries for economic "hits," leaving many U.S. communities struggling to fill the gaps in basic services in schools, housing, and in public and social services. More and more students want their work to reflect their ideals and to use their education, experiences and passion to create a new world based on cooperation, economic justice, peace and love. How to do that? What are the steps that we can take and tools we can use now to create our own jobs and to serve the needs of local communities and the planet, while fostering cooperation in the world?
251. Anti-Racism: Being a White Ally
Jonah Aline Daniel, Anti-Racism Working Group, New Orleans
The struggle for racial justice needs each and every one of us. Unexamined whiteness and white privilege often prevent white folks from being effective agents of social change and perpetuate white supremacy within social movements designed to dismantle white supremacy.
This workshop space is welcome to all and designed to be an open discussion of solidarity, coalition building, and racial justice organizing and activism across identity, including the limitations of the concept of "ally" in social justice movements.
252. Beyond Pink and Blue: Intro to Trans Issues
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Anti-Racism Working Group, New Orleans
In this workshop we will begin to challenge given assumptions of the gender binary system such as the relationships between sex, gender, and sexuality and broaden our understandings of the myriad genders existing in our world. We will also address how transphobia affects trans folks especially as it intersects of with other systems of oppressio
261. Cooperative Strategies for Responding to Sexual Assault
Philly's Pissed and Philly Stands Up
This workshop will review strategies for addressing sexual assault in our communities. First, presenters will discuss some issues co-ops face when dealing with sexual assault and explore the models developed by Philly's Pissed and Philly Stands Up for creating & maintaining safer spaces, and restoring communities in the aftermath of assault situations. Then, participants will split up into two conversations: one, led by Philly's Pissed, will focus on the nuts & bolts of working directly with survivors, while in the other, Philly Stands Up, will detail systems for working directly with perpetrators. The breakout groups will explore cooperative structures for doing this work, addressing the challenges co-ops face and advice we can offer each other. This workshop is open to participants who already work on sexual assault, as well as those who do not yet have experience with this type of work but are interested in learning.
262. Realistic Responses to Substance Abuse in Cooperative Communities
Anthony Meza-Wilson, Barrington Collective; Clonlara School
Substance abuse is a very difficult and common problem in many communities. In cooperatives we have a higher likelihood of seeing the signs and struggles of those members of our community to whom substances pose a danger. In this course we will cover community healing from substance abuse from a harm reduction perspective. We will focus on education and support as our tactics. Specific substances may be addressed in detail, depending on the interests and needs of the group. This class will be run non-hierarchically and collectively; so come expecting to take an active role.
271. Challenging the Triple Bottom Line: Where's the Justice in Sustainability?
Spencer Mann, Montréal Urban Community Sustainment Project
The buzzword of sustainability is often depicted as a triple bottom line in which social values and ecological values are respected in addition to the single bottom line of economics. This nicely balanced image of society, economy, and ecology is used as both a tool for radical social change and a convenient whitewash for government and corporate action.
Building up from the immediate experience of projects in Detroit working towards sustainability and justice, this workshop will take a critical look at the triple bottom line. Facilitated conversation will begin with the argument that the triple bottom line is in fact only a one-and-a-half bottom line in which only profitable ecological values are respected and social justice is largely ignored.
281. Part 2: Incorporation and Tax Exemption
David Sparer, Herrick & Kasdorf, LLP
IRS has their own rules about non-profit status, and it's not automatic just because you have incorporated as a not-for-profit in your state. If you want to know more about this issue and how to address it, or have stories and successes to share with others, come to this workshop. Some other tax filing questions can be addressed here as time permits.
