News and Updates

September 4, 2014
In August, NASCO Staff visited members in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, and Kansas; worked remotely with members in Oregon, Maryland, and Texas; provided development/expansion support to groups in Idaho, Ohio, Texas, California, and Pennsylvania; began preparing for board elections; continued raising funds for the Low Income Scholarship Fund; created a poster for our Shared Resource Library (which we’ll be mailing to our members soon); and finalized the majority of details for NASCO Institute. The NASCO Board has been drafting proposals to bring to the Annual General Meeting in November and preparing for Institute.
September 4, 2014
Most folks show up to NASCO Institute expecting educational workshops, inspirational speakers, social justice work, fun activities, and collaboration with other cooperatives. These are all wonderful reasons to attend, and NASCO Institute is also a powerful space for marginalized co-opers to learn more about themselves, connect with one another, share tools to address issues in their homes, and build strength within NASCO’s governance through NASCO’s caucusing system.
 
The identity-based caucusing system at NASCO Institute creates spaces for individuals who share identities that are marginalized, within NASCO and/or within their own co-ops, to meet with one another, share their experiences, and gain tools for addressing injustice in their home communities.
August 11, 2014

ICC Austin is hiring a Financial Administrator. View their listing. Deadline is August 22, 2014. 

August 4, 2014

In July, NASCO staff continued to busily prepare for NASCO Institute; visited members in Massachusetts, Texas, and California; began planning member visits for the fall; presented at the Association of Cooperative Educators Institute; worked with groups preparing project submissions for NASCO Properties’ open Request for Proposals; trained Rek Kwawer, NASCO’s new Director of Operations; and attended a celebration of the International Day of Cooperatives at the United Nations.

The NASCO board is preparing for its September meeting and the November Annual General Meeting.

August 4, 2014

The USA Cooperative Youth Council (USACYC), has been working towards a more youthful and youth filled cooperative movement for the past few years, having been formally founded at the NCBA conference in 2012 as part of the International Year of the Co-op. Since then many conference calls, e-mails, and in person meetings at other coop/new economy conferences, have taken place. So this July it was a huge success to see a cohort of 26 youth and young adults brought together in Austin at the ACE Institute.

August 4, 2014

NASCO has four full-time staff positions – Director of Development, Director of Education, Director of Operations, and Director of Properties. These four positions work together to ensure that NASCO can provide services and programs for its members. NASCO is a family of organizations with three boards and half a dozen committees, dozens of member cooperatives who we visit, an annual training Institute, a development consulting program, and a network of cooperative properties. 

Each of the staff positions is tasked with working on different parts of NASCO’s programs and operations. As a collective, the four positions also work together on the overall operations of the organization, and collaborate on particular projects. The staff hold weekly meetings to discuss issues that concern multiple program areas and to make decisions about things that fall into more than one person’s job.

August 1, 2014
One of the most valuable assets of the cooperative movement is our collective knowledge, and NASCO’s Shared Resource Library, a constantly growing collection of documents and files, is a tool for sharing that knowledge. Our library relies upon your contributions. Please follow this link to share your co-op’s governance documents, member education materials, and resources.
July 2, 2014
NASCO is currently accepting session proposals for the 38th annual Cooperative Education and Training Institute. This year's theme, "Co-ops for Life: Owning Our Future," will focus on the importance of individual and organizational development as a strategy for cross-sectoral movement building. We are seeking submissions for workshops, panels, roundtable discussions, and skill-shares.
 
 
The deadline to submit proposals is August 05, 2014. Submissions will be evaluated on a rolling basis, so get your proposal in early! Staff are happy to  discuss your session proposal ideas; email Morgan Crawford at morgan@nasco.coop to get in touch.
 
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Presenters receive free registration (1 per session) and partial funding for travel expenses. Because we have limited resources, we may prioritize presenters with lower travel costs or presenters who are able facilitate more than one session.
July 2, 2014
NASCO Cooperative Internship Network participants Mowie Freeman and Scarlett McIntosh were recently featured in a blog post by the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA). Check it out!
July 2, 2014

With the support of NASCO board member Jennifer Scott, we made a significant dent this month in our long-term project to digitize our historical archives. While we still have boxes of documents left to scan, we’d like to share some of our progress. We’ve uncovered a lot of old NASCO publications, many of them published and laid out by hand, files on our members dating back several decades, conference materials, and other resources. We’ve included several of these finds in our Shared Resource Library for your curiosity and enjoyment.