Wednesday, January 22 | 1:00pm EST (1 hour)
Featured speakers: Siôn Whellens, Gerard Peron, Tom Webb

*Free to attend*

[ Register Here ]

The Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network invites you to this webinar to explore how co-operatives brand themselves as such and whether there is a benefit to leading with the co-operative identity. The three featured speakers will engage participants in dissecting the co-op brand and identifying how it appeals to members and the public.

About the Speakers:

Siôn Whellens from Calverts in the UK, the firm (graphic design co-op) behind the new International Co-operative Alliance identity. Siôn was instrumental engaging a worldwide survey of co-operators to inform the new co-op branding. Siôn will provide highlights from the survey that unpack ideas of co-op branding. Siôn Whellens has been a worker co-operator for 30 years. He is Client Services Director at UK design and production co-op Calverts and a member of the UK Worker Co-operative Council. Siôn served on the board of Co-operatives UK from 2006 to 2011.

Gerard Peron will speak about the ‘Certification of compliance with cooperative practices©’ a program developed out of Quebec as a way of certifying co-operatives that abide by the internationally accepted co-op principles. He will explain why the certification was developed, how it works, why it is a helpful branding mechanism and why it was not yet implemented. Gérard Perron has held management positions since 1977. His expertise is recognized in economic development (local and cooperative development) as well as in organizational development (corporate governance and project management).

Tom Webb has been a co-op practitioner and educator for many decades and as well has worked in corporate communications in the co-operative sector. Tom will respond to the first two presentations, providing a reflection on how co-op branding and identity can serve as a marketing advantage and how this can be done, providing examples from co-operatives who have done successful marketing of their co-operative identity.

*Please note we have changed our audio set-up so prepare to join via VOIP on your computer or otherwise phone a Toronto-based number*

Contact Info:

Erin Hancock
Manager of Research and Education
613.238.6711 ext 211
toll free: 1.866.266.7677 ext 211
erin.hancock@coopscanada.coop

Thursday, January 23, 2014
1-2 pm ET (noon-1 pm CT)

Join Marjorie Kelly, The Democracy Collaborative, as she shares insights on the emerging ownership revolution based on her new book. Join us!

[ register here ]

About Marjorie Kelly's Owning Our Future:

Looking around at the wreckage left in the wake of the world economy s latest crisis, veteran business journalist Marjorie Kelly noticed that some institutions were left relatively unscathed. What did they have in common? The key, Kelly realized, is seemingly obscure: ownership. Prominent among the survivors were organizations that combined the flexibility of traditional private ownership with a focus on the common good.

As long as businesses are set up to focus exclusively on maximizing quarterly returns for a limited group of individuals, the economy will be plagued by destructive boom - bust cycles. But now people are experimenting with new forms of ownership. We are in the midst of the most creative period of economic innovation since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Kelly calls these new forms generative: aimed at creating the conditions for life for many generations to come. They are in contrast to the dominant ownership designs of today, which can be called extractive: aimed at extracting short - term financial wealth.

To understand these emerging ownership alternatives, Kelly reports from all over the world, visiting a community - owned wind facility in Massachusetts, a lobster cooperative in Maine, a multibillion - dollar employee - owned department - store chain in London, a foundation - owned pharmaceutical in Denmark, a farmer - owned dairy in Wisconsin, and other places where an economy that works for all is being built.

Event Contact

Deb Markley
Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
919-932-7762
deb@e2mail.org
http://ruralwealth.org/page/webinars-1

What's happening in your community?  Are there needs for local investment?

Are there opportunities to support the transition of ownership from an older entrepreneur to a younger one?

Are there new businesses that are really needed?

Are there existing businesses that want to expand?

January 22, 2014
12:00 - 1:00pm
Free Webinar

Unleashing Local Capital is an innovative model for local residents within your community to support your own local community through investing in your own Opportunity Development Co-op (ODC). Through your investment, you can be actively engaged in the success of your community and the growth of your investment, using your own cash savings or your RRSPs.

Join us to learn:

• What is it?
• Where did it come from?
• How does it work?
• What are some successful examples here in Alberta?
• What can this do for you?

This free webinar that will give you what you need to gather some friends and do some really genuine and meaningful work in your community that will enhance the entire community.

What do you have to lose?  Or, what do you have to gain?

Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity to hear from TWO great speakers at our next webinar learning event. Our speakers will highlight the importance of integrating and marketing your co-operative advantage; they will provide you with the proper tools and methods to engage your co-op stakeholders and distinguish your co-op brand from the rest of the competition.

[ register here ]

The "MOCA" Strategy

Georgina Whyatt of Oxford Brookes Univeristy will be presenting on the Marketing Our Co-operative Advantage (MOCA) Strategy . Webinar attendants will understand how to implement this as a marketing strategy and what organizational factors in your co-op can enable you to capitalize on your co-operative advantage. Applying MOCA to your co-op business is very much the responsibility of all levels of the co-op and not simply the marketing team.

The MOCA Strategy Presentation will highlight:

• Understanding the core elements of MOCA
• MOCA's relevance to co-ops of all sizes and types
• Why implement it as part of a marketing strategy?
• What organizational factors enable/ hinder its implementation?
• How to address the challenges to your co-op's MOCA strategy

Creating a Co-operative Identity Online:

In today’s wired world, the internet is the single most important tool for marketing your business or organization. For co-operatives, this means more than just marketing their goods and services: it also means promoting what makes co-ops different from other enterprises.

Donna Balkan,has researched the extent to which Canadian co-operatives reflect the co-op difference on their websites, and the results may be surprising.

In her presentation, she will talk about:

• Why it is important for your website to reflect co-operative values and principles
• The Co-operative Identity Web Index (CIWI), a tool for measuring online co-op identity.
• Best practices in promoting co-operative identity online, including co-op websites and social media sites from Canada and beyond.

The Behavioral Economics Technical Assistance (BETA) Project is a partnership between CFED and ideas42 with key support from the Citi Foundation. The goal of the Project is to use behavioral economics theory to improve the effectiveness and reach of products and services that help people increase their financial stability.

The Project accomplishes this by designing and testing behavioral interventions through real world products, processes and services, and then sharing the lessons and insights from these efforts with the assets field in highly accessible ways that help drive improvements in practice and policy. The BETA Project will tackle a range of issues, but at the core of the project will be the work with the pilot organizations to design and implement manageable, low-cost program adjustments based on well-documented behavioral theory and findings from behavioral economic and psychology research. The BETA Project delivers impact through quick, powerful innovations adapted within the existing framework of a given behavioral problem.

In 2012, the BETA Project team issued a Request for Proposals for sites to pilot behavioral interventions. To learn more, read this brief which examines themes among the 99 proposals received and identifies common challenges programs are facing. Check back often to see what we’re learning through the Project.

Register now

Jump on a CommunityMatters® conference call for a 60-minute conversation about critical issues, tools and inspiring stories of community building.

This event is free but registration is required.

After a design or planning process, most communities end up with scores of potential actions. How do you prioritize dozens of competing options? How do you get some cool stuff done without breaking the bank or exhausting your list of volunteers? Easy: start with the petunias. That’s one key lesson from the “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper” framework.

Join us and learn how to find the easiest, quickest and most impactful ways to start making things happen in your town. If you've used a Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper approach to get things done in your community, tell us about it when you register for the call.  We'll ask a few people to share their story on the line!

What is Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper?

Here’s how it works: Forget trying to raise five-, six-, or seven-figure sums to implement all of your streetscape improvements right away. Instead, go spend $15 at a garden center, grab a helper, and transform one weedy corner with some new planter boxes. Once people see what a difference that can make, it won’t be hard to get $100 bucks and enough volunteers to create a sidewalk café for a day, showcasing the potential of the space. And when people see how cool that is, it won’t be long until you have $1,000 and to buy some tables and chairs and create a pop-up pedestrian plaza. And if that works? Then you think about shelling out more money and making it permanent.

>> Learn more

SPEAKER:

Brendan Crain, Communications Manager, Project for Public Spaces

[ register here ]

This call is part of a capacity-building series offered jointly by CommunityMatters and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design.

The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) and CommunityMatters are co-hosting a unique conference call series on Making It Happen. This three-part series will help you and your town move a design or planning process from paper to reality. Learn how to prioritize projects and score some quick successes, find the funding and resources for bigger projects, and build the long-term and support for change.