Recruiting 24 leaders for January 2014 in Calgary!

Simon Fraser University is recruiting twenty-four leaders to take the Community Economic Development program from January to May 2014 with a special cohort of Calgary's most active change-makers.

Thrive, Calgary's Community Economic Development Network, is graciously hosting this learning opportunity. First Calgary Financial has created a generous bursary fund to help make this possible.

Apply between Oct 18 and November 28. Participants that meet the criteria will be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This program is offered through the SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development (CSCD).

Registration:

Register by November 15th and receive a $250 early bird registration discount (applications must be received no later than noon on November 13.)

To reserve your spot, full tuition fees are due on November 30, 2014. We expect this to sell out fast. We will respond to applications within 48 hours.

[ apply here ]

Speakers

Living Wage Employers:
Alex Johnstone, HWDSB &
Catherine Ludgate, Vancity

via Conference Call
November 7, 2013

Paying a Living Wage makes good business sense! In this tele-learning we will hear from two of Canada's leading living wage employers, Catherine Ludgate is the Manager of Community Investment for Vancity Credit Union and Alex Johnstone who is a trustee with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

Vancity Credit Union has more than 2500 employees with 57 branches which makes them one of the largest living wage employers in Canada. They have also ensured that many of their external contracts are also paying the living wage for their employees. For more on Vancity as a living wage employer, click here.

In March of this year the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board adopted the living wage for it's over 7000 employees. It is the second, but largest, public school board in Canada to do so. Read more.

During this tele-learning we will hear about what it takes to become a living wage employer and why it makes good business sense to do so! We will also touch on what a living wage is and highlight the living wage movement in Canada. This tele-learning is part of Canada's inaugural Living Wage Week!

There will be opportunity for questions and answers during the call and a podcast will be made available to all registered participants following the conversation.

[ more info & registration ]

CUMA and CUMO Cooperative Services
(Cooperative use of agricultural equipment and Cooperative use of agricultural labor)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Eastern time
Cost:  FREE

The CUMA cooperative is a service that provides its members the means necessary to their operations. It thus provides an opportunity for its members to use farm equipment at the lowest possible price, meeting the needs of each. A cooperative use of agricultural equipment (CUMA) is a group of farmers established under the Law on Cooperatives. The first mission of a CUMA is to enable its members to use farm equipment at the lowest possible cost and the needs of each member. The CUMA is a great way to reduce the capitalization in machinery and equipment, thus reducing production costs. It also allows the use of more efficient machines and free up capital that can be directed towards productive investment.

The CUMO cooperative is the equivalent of the CUMA, but where we share a resource workforce. The CUMO model offers producers a reliable source of skilled agricultural labor at an affordable cost. For employees, this allows them to be employed full-time, to enjoy better working conditions and enjoy a variety of experiences. The CUMO assigns a full-time employee to fill the partial needs of labor by an average of eight producers.

This webinar will explain some of the features and consolidated benefits of these cooperatives.

Guest Speaker:

Carrolyn O'Grady agr.
Advisor, Agri-Environment and Regional Development
Regional Directorate of Montérégie West
The Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Ms. O'Grady has extensive experience in project management and territory mobilization planning. She is a general agronomist and has worked in several areas including agricultural livestock production and regional development. She also worked with the community on projects of agricultural cooperatives and is working to promote the adoption of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques among farmers. She has worked with the Montérégie West directorate of The Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) since August 2012.

Registration:

Webinar participation is FREE, but registration is required.

Once registered, you will receive the access instructions for webinar participation.

[ REGISTER HERE ]

[ MORE INFO ]

The Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network is pleased to offer this free public webinar:

This webinar will open the dialogue on ethnocultural co-operatives (specifically reflecting on examples across Canada and the US) and the place of these co-ops in the larger society. The two featured speakers are both undertaking research as part of the Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network: Jo-Anne Lee of the University of Victoria and Jessica Gordon-Nembhard of John Jay College, affiliated with the City University of New York.

[ REGISTER HERE ]

Jessica Gordon-Nembhard will begin the webinar by providing a description of co-ops emerging in African American contexts in the US. Through her discussion of the history and examples, participants will better understand how co-operatives emerged in response to the social context, race relations and people living on the margins.

Jo-Anne Lee will examine how researchers have written about cooperatives and the absences in our understandings of co-operatives in Canadian society using the Japanese Fishing Cooperatives on the West Coast as a case study.  Co-operatives play many different roles in nation formation.  As social entities, co-operatives are bound to reflect existing power relations in the larger society including those of race, gender, class and colonialism. In addition, Jo-Anne will explore a couple of key questions:

How can we understand the relative absence of knowledge about "ethnic" cooperatives?
How has this lacunae affected our knowledge and understanding of cooperatives?
She will engage participants in a conversation that shifts from normative and descriptive discussions to critical thinking and reconceptualizing the role of cooperatives in larger social, cultural, political and economic contexts.

>> Speaker bios available here