Racing toward the future of Cooperation, the Co-op 5K is a family-friendly run/walk that is open to all (including strollers and dogs!) and is designed as a cooperative awareness event and fundraiser for the Cooperative Development Foundation.

This year’s race takes place on Saturday, December 1st at 8am at Hains Point in Washington, DC. Want to get involved? There are a ton of different ways!

• You can register to walk or run as an individual or with an existing team.
• You can create your own team by contacting Terence Buen below.
• You can donate on behalf of someone participating in the race.
• You can sponsor the race.
• Donate a prize for the race. Gift certificates to restaurants, hotel packages or sporting tickets all make for great prizes!
• Volunteer at the race

Your support gives CDF the opportunity to do great things globally, and by supporting the Co-op 5K you keep CDF’s tradition of cooperative development alive. So dust off those sneakers and get to it! Help us impact the world – effectively, collectively, cooperatively. For more information, contact Terence Buen at tbuen@cdf.coop or 202-442-2323

For those of you interested in food co-ops, the Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance (MAFCA) will be meeting at Takoma Park-Silver Spring Food Co-op on Saturday, October 20, 2012 in the afternoon. There will be a tour of TPSS Co-op in Takoma Junction, followed by the MAFCA meeting in the Historic Takoma building at 7328 Carroll Avenue  Takoma Park, MD 20912. MAFCA is the Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance and this is one of its three membership meetings annually. There is usually a speaker on topics of cooperative interest and a speaker focusing on a member co-op, followed by breakout sessions. Lunch will be provided. No agenda has yet been released, but topics being discussed on the MAFCA list-serve include a possible follow-up to MAFCA’s co-op start-up conference last year, as well as the needs of existing co-ops needing to grow.

“DC Coop Day: Building Community and Economic Alternatives”

Saturday, October 27th, 2012, 9am-4pm.

@ University of the District of Columbia

Hosted by Coop DC and UDC’s Kirkman Center for the Study of Cooperatives

More info soon!

As you may be aware, we’re trying to put together a one-day conference at the end of October in celebration of the International Year of Cooperatives. Please join us this Sunday, August 12, at 4:00pm if you are interested in helping out with the planning. We’ll be meeting at:

Emergence Community Arts Collective (ECAC)
733 Euclid St. NW Washington, DC 20001

People who want to learn more about cooperation with a group of young
folks who really have their acts together should consider presenting
at the North American Students of Cooperation conference. The
conference handles everything thing from college housing co-op to
community led co-ops and deep economic, social and political issues
for people of all ages.

If you don’t mind sleeping on couches or floors housing will be free,
and they pay everything else for presenters.

NASCO Institute 2012: Cooperating to Survive and Thrive Beyond Capitalism: Building a Solidarity Economy. http://www.nasco.coop/

This year’s Institute will give participants an opportunity to
envision a different economic future, to learn about grassroots
peoples’ movements fighting for economic justice, and to explore
economic alternatives already under construction. In celebration of
the International Year of the Cooperative, we’ll look at models of
cooperation internationally that are meeting human needs while
centering the values of solidarity and interdependence, and critically examine how we can create and sustain relationships across borders that are rooted in justice. We’ll get the opportunity to think big as we imagine a future beyond capitalism, as well as to get down to the nitty-gritty of creating and building on local alternatives.

This year’s course tracks:
1. Shifting the Paradigm: Understanding the Global Economy to Transform It
2. Solidarity Economy: Alternatives Under Construction
3. Youth Rise Up! The Role of Youth and Students in Popular Movements
4. The Science of Survival: Basic Coop Skills
5. The Art of Thriving: Advanced Coop Skills
6. “When the People Come, Will We Be Ready?” Building Inclusive Cooperative Spaces
7. Developing New Coops

Here’s a list of potential workshop topics and themes we’d love to see at Institute this year:

Defending the Commons
The housing crisis and resistance to foreclosures and eviction
The role of coops in the movement for housing justice
Students’ movements–in Quebec, Chile
The shape of inequality in the US & Canada
Mapping the solidarity economy
Economic systems beyond capitalism

Applied Solidarity Economy models, such as:
Alternative currencies
Alternative banking and credit unions
Worker coops as a basis for a democratic economy
Community land trusts
Open source movement
Models for sustainable food production/distrib.; food justice
Solidarity economy efforts across borders
Social economy in Quebec
Mondragon cooperatives
Argentinean factory recuperation
Evergreen cooperatives in Cleveland

Coop skills track
We’re looking for proposals for discrete workshops, but also “experts” to be part of panels focused on answering participants’ questions. Has your coop hit on a great model for organizing labor? Have you served as maintenance coordinator for a few years, or helped plan major renovations on your coop? Please get in touch with emma@nasco.coop, and tell us a little bit about your experience.
Labor systems
Kitchen management
Maintenance
Finances
Member leases and landlord/tenant law

Building Inclusive Cooperative Spaces/Anti-oppression track
We’d be interested in proposals organized around systems of
oppression (racism, classism, transphobia, etc.) and how they operate
in coops. But we’d be especially interested in proposals that explore how an analysis of systems of oppression and commitment to challenging oppression informs how we do things as coops, such as:
Meeting facilitation
Conflict resolution
Member recruitment and retention
Member education
Labor systems

We have lots to catch up on, so if you can make it to a meeting next Sunday night at 7pm in Bloomingdale, please RSVP here! (We’ll finalize location and try to coordinate dinner/snacks between those who RSVP).

Discussion items:

• Updates from Ajowa and Allison on Coop Conference
• Fixing the Future Screening – July 18th
• Recap of June 11 Celebration
• Inquiry support process and collection of resources

Anything else? Please comment below…

Cooperatives, community service and volunteer organizations in the DC-metro area are invited to come together for one evening to celebrate those who give their hearts, time and skills to strengthen our community.

The 2012 Community Tour was created by Cabot Creamery Cooperative and its fellow sponsors as a two-month program celebrating volunteers and communities. The Tour started on May 12, 2012, in Miami, Florida, and will continue 2,300 miles up the East Coast, culminating in Portland, Maine, on July 7, the International Day of Cooperatives. Learn more about the 2012 Community Tour at: http://www.cabotcommunitytour.com/

The 2012 Community Tour stops in DC on the night of June 11. Please join us to:

• Celebrate all those biking and riding on the 2012 Community Tour
• Get to know DC-area service and volunteer organizations as well as local cooperatives and credit unions
• Enjoy Cabot cheese and other tasty items—produced by cooperatives
• Have fun on a summer evening!

Come get to know some of the wonderful organizations and businesses that make our community great.

When?

June 11, 2012
5:30-7:30 p.m., Eastern time

Where?

Congressional/Monument rooms
Courtyard by Marriott
1325 2nd Street Northeast
Washington DC

Who is creating this event?

The National Cooperative Business Association, a membership association based in Washington, DC, is working with local co-ops and credit unions to create this celebration of community and volunteers.

How can I be a part of this?

If your cooperative, credit union or organization would like to exhibit, donate items for the drawing or otherwise participate, contact Andrea Cumpston at NCBA by email at acumpston@ncba.coop or by phone at 202-383-5447. And, of course, please mark your calendars and attend!

The next DC coop group meeting will be on Sunday, May 20th, from 3-5pm at the Emergence Community Arts Collective (733 Euclid St NW). We will report back from the subgroups and hear from Erin Rice, who was a worker-owner at Collective Copies for 12 years. RSVP here.