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The International Forum is an exciting annual gathering where the best ideas and practices for international development are shared. It is a chance for specialists, decision makers and researchers from different sectors to learn and hear some important perspectives. The Forum brings together delegates from government, northern international cooperation organizations, southern civil society and the private sector, as well as researchers and international development specialists.

Participants will learn and be inspired by fresh new perspectives and diverse expertise that will enhance their contribution and renew their commitment to a more equitable and sustainable world.

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Great International Development Debates

In our work towards sustainable international development, we encounter many challenges and issues that inspire great debates. While there is a wide range of theoretical, political and practical approaches, we know there is no magical solution.

The 2015 International Forum will ignite discussions around a series of Great International Development Debates.

Participants at the 2015 International Forum will have the chance to contribute to discussions and listen to some of the sharpest and most compelling voices on such relevant and crucial questions as:

• What if fair, equitable and sustainable development were good for business?
• Does the South need aid from the North?

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2:00pm to 4:00pm
212 - 1737 West 3rd Ave

Preparation is more affordable than fixing things later. That is why we recommend that a good legal strategy is to get informed about what to look out for and what common pitfalls your co-op should avoid.

Avoiding Pitfalls, Planning for Potentials

Preparation is more affordable than fixing things later. That is why we recommend that the best legal strategy is to get informed about what to look out for and what common pitfalls your co-op should avoid. 

This workshop is an excellent introduction for co-op directors and managers into the common legal affairs facing co-ops. You’ll learn:

• what you need to know about the legal framework in which your co-op operates
• ways that you can minimize your risks
• where to find additional legal resources

The workshop will be led by a lawyer with experience working with co-operatives, and will enable you as a director or manager of a co-operative to build an understanding of common challenges and ways to work around them.

An important note

While this workshop will be led by a legal professional, it is intended to be an introduction and overview of common legal issues and ways for co-ops to plan so that they don’t become problems. If your co-op needs specific legal advice, the BCCA can help connect you to a lawyer who may be able to help.

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Attend in-person or via teleconference.

If you can't make it to the workshop in person, BCCA training sessions are available by webinar or teleconference. We'll make it happen.

Noon to 1pm Eastern Time

This webinar will build on the most recent Canadian statistics from the 2012 Canadian Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Review and emerging SRI opportunitites in Canada. We will explore how consumers can positively impact society by engaging in SRI.

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About Brenda Plant

Brenda is a Partner at Ellio sustainability consultants, specializing in sustainability and responsible investment. She is also involved in the development of an affordable rental housing investment fund (for accredited investors). Brenda has an MSc in International Management from HEC Montréal, a BA in Humanities and a BSW from McGill University.

Brenda is a member of the Québec Association of Professionals in Sustainable Development (AProDD) and a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). She is well known in university circles (sits on the Advisory Committee for HEC Montréal’s Graduate Diploma in Management and Sustainability and lectured at Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University), in professional circles (consultant, Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Capital Équitable – a fund dedicated to the development of fair trade, etc.), and in community circles (member of the Board of Directors and Impact Investment Committee of the Béati Foundation, cofounder of Cataléthique – a network of professionals working to apply CSR and sustainability principles in their practices, past member of the Board of Directors of the Responsible Investment Association of Canada (formerly SIO) and formerly Co-chairperson of Ethical Investors Group).

Recognized by Les Affaires as one of 15 women who will make change happen in Quebec, Brenda Plant is committed to investing her life energy in bettering the world. Brenda founded a public education website focusing on responsible consumption – Ethiquette, the responsible consumer network – which operated from 2005 to 2011. She relaunched Ethiquette in September 2014, this time in conjunction with the business school of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) as a public education website on responsible investment.

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Marketing is something every business needs to do, and it’s something that you can do differently as a co-op. Join other co-operators to explore ways to market the co-operative advantage that we know and love, and learn from some success stories of other co-ops that have used the way that they work to make a marketing difference.

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Start Marketing the Co-op Advantage

Marketing is something every business needs to do, and it’s something that you can do differently as a co-op. Join other co-operators to explore ways to market the co-operative advantage that we know and love, and learn from some success stories of other co-ops that have used the way that they work to make a marketing difference.

Tips and Tricks

This two-hour workshop will be led by a panel of representatives from co-ops with marketing skills, and will focus on tips and tricks of the trade.

You will explore:

• Just what the co-op advantage is, and how to use it as a key marketing strategy
• Use of social media for co-op marketing
• Web-based marketing
• Member marketing
• And more!

Attend in-person or via teleconference.
If you can't make it to the workshop in person, BCCA training sessions are available by webinar or teleconference. We'll make it happen.

1:00pm to 2:30pm Central Time

Free Webinar

Following several decades of losing population, more than 80 communities in Manitoba fell below the minimum requirement of 1000 people to maintain their municipality status. In 2012, the Provincial government responded by an initiative of modernizing rural municipalities, with particular interest to smaller municipalities in the southwest. The amalgamation initiative was informed by applied research that examined functional economic regions as possible local boundaries. Based on where residents live and work, new rural regional municipal amalgamations were proposed. These findings along with provincial activities and resources shaped the process, while requiring local decisions, which resulted in 47 municipal amalgamations. This presentation will provide details related to the functional economic regions and overview the amalgamation chronology.

Discussions will include how you might characterize this initiative, including for example, was this initiative a marriage of top-down and bottom-up or was it an example of a negotiated approach where two levels of government played their own roles or was it simply an imposition on local autonomy?

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Presenting is Dr. Bill Ashton; the Director of Brandon University's Rural Development Institute (RDI). Bill continues to advance research and discourse on public policy, with particular interest in policy development processes.  His career as a practitioner and researcher has taken him across Canada and elsewhere, and he is currently active with topics of immigration, welcoming communities, and economic development in rural, northern, and remote areas.  Community based projects that contribute locally and provincially to economic, social and environmental development are important touchstones in Bill’s knowledge and experience.  He strives to work toward opportunities and develop partnerships that will make a difference within many organizations at different geographic scales and contribute to sustainability.