Cooperative Development Institute: Northeast Center for Cooperative Business

CONTACT:Jane Livingston
jane_livingston@myfairpoint.net
(207) 947-4117

Jean de Smet
j.desmet@charter.net

WINDHAM COUNTY, CT: Normally, when people think about drivers of economic recovery from deep recession, they think about increasing service sector capacity or new public works projects: roads and bridges.

In largely rural eastern Connecticut—with town populations rising and job generators, infrastructure upgrades and local tax revenues strained to the limit—what’s not to like about that?

Some people in Windham County are taking a different approach. They began meeting in January to develop a plan for making their region a kind of ‘fast-track’ incubator for cooperative business assistance.

Green Worker Cooperatives is a finalist in the Revelation to Action ideas competition. Other finalists include AS220, a community arts cooperative in Providence RI providing living and studio space to artists; Red Tomato, the local foods marketing network in eastern MA; and the Common Ground Country Fair, a revival of agricultural festivals in Maine. Too bad you only get 3 votes! Voting closes this week -- the top prize is $50,000.

Many exciting cooperative events are scheduled in the next weeks and months, in the Northeast and nationally. Mark your calendars now and get set to go co-op!

Sustainable Energy Summit 2010
Saturday, June 19th, 10:30am-7pm, Holyoke, MA
Co-op Power is planning an exciting, fun-filled family event this year with lots of hands-on activities. The Summit will be on the shore of the Connecticut River in Holyoke at the Nuestras Raices 30-acre farm, La Finca, 24 Jones Ferry Road, Holyoke, MA. Workshops on sustainable energy and agriculture, Exhibitors, Family Activity Area, Food Vendors, Paso Fino Horse Show and Live Music all day.

The DFTA Workshop, "Domestic Fair Trade Association: A Movement Based Approach to Fair Trade," is scheduled for Friday morning, June 25th, at 10 a.m. in Cobo Hall Room 02-33. The panelists will include Rosalinda Guillen of Community to Community Development; Joaquin, a young farmworker traveling with Community to Community; Elizabeth Henderson, farmer and NOFA representative; Richard Mandelbaum of CATA-the Farmworker Support Committee; and myself.

Register now to attend the 2010 national worker cooperative conference this August in the Bay Area!

Early registration deadline ($10 off) is June 30. Scholarships are available.

The Work We Do is the Solution
August 6-8, 2010

Come spend the day exploring the world of employee ownership at the Eighth Annual Vermont Employee Ownership Conference, being held June 9th in Burlington. The early registration period ends on May 28th, so register now to take advantage of the lower pricing.

Date: Wednesday, June 9th, 2010
Time: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM (Registration starts at 7:30 AM)
Location: Champlain College, 375 Maple St., Burlington, VT
Cost: Early registration: $120/$85 additional attendees. Late registration: $150/$115 additional attendees. (Early registration ends on May 28th.)
To Register: Click here to register online. You can also download a registration form and mail it in.
For More Info: Call 802-861-6611, or email info@veoc.org.

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TOGETHER ON THE LAND
Options for Ecological Living in Community
MULTI-SITE GUIDED TOUR
9am-5pm Saturday June 12th, 2010
Franklin County, MA

In the tradition of the New Orleans second-line parade, the Coopalooza National Second-line Committee is organizing a cross-continent second-line parade to celebrate and educate about cooperatives all the way up the Mississippi, starting in New Orleans, passing through
Baton Rouge, LA
Jackson, MS
Memphis, TN
St. Louis, MO
Chicago, IL
and arriving at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit in June 2010.

Join their Facebook page, where you can join discussions such as the one below:

A Time to Learn: Upcoming co-op trainings, presentations, meetings, and more

These cold winter months are a great time to bone up on the topics that interest you most. And spring and summer are great for traveling to meetings that will inform and inspire. Below are the upcoming presentations that CDI will be doing, and a selection of offerings from other cooperative centers. If there is a topic you’d like to see, let us know.

CDI Cooperative Development Specialist Lynda Brushett is teaming up with the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance to work with a number of Community-Supported Fishery (CSF) projects underway in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine. Several of these were detailed in a pair of Boston Globe articles by G. Jeffrey MacDonald on January 24, 2010: