PRINCIPLE SIX CONFERENCE OCTOBER 2020

CMBA will hold its 7th annual Principle Six Conference virtually in October 2020. 

While it’s unfortunate that we had to cancel our spring P6 Conference at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, we are excited to present a modified virtual conference during Co-op Month instead. The event will help cooperatives, their staff and supporters build business skills while also providing networking opportunities for Maine’s co-op community. The conference will now offer three days of workshops scheduled for October 14th, 15th, and 16th from 1 pm to 4 pm. An agenda and meeting information will be provided the morning of each day. You are welcome to attend as many or as few of the workshops as you would like.

Click on the image to get your tickets

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Day 1
1:00 Welcome to P6 2020
1:30 Cooperative Governance in Practice
2:50 Break
3:00 ROC Model Preserves Affordable Housing
4:00 End of Day 1

Day 2
1:00 Welcome
1:15 Beyond Equity & Inclusion 2:50 Break
3:00 Beautiful Troubling: Intervening on Racism
4:00 End of Day 2

Day 3
1:00 Welcome
1:15 Interacting With the Media 2:50 Break
3:00 Advancing our Co-op Advocacy Efforts
3:50 Thank you!

WORKSHOPS

October 14

Session 1 — Cooperative Governance in Practice: Managing Your Expert Manager
Presenter: Thane Joyal (Columinate)

This workshop will focus on practical aspects of governance. We’ll use scenario-based learning to illuminate basic skills and strategies to support strong relationships between board and management. Presenters (with help from a few volunteers) will role-play a board meeting at a resident owned manufactured housing cooperative in which management is not fully meeting board (or community) expectations. We’ll focus on the roles of community members in supporting and holding their board accountable; of board members in supporting one and holding one another and their board leader accountable, and of the board as a whole in supporting and holding their cooperative’s manageable. – Break – Session 2: Stable and Permanently Affordable Housing – Solid as a ROC: How does the ROC model fit into the affordable housing market in Maine?

Session 2 — Stable and Permanently Affordable Housing- Solid as a ROC: How the ROC model builds and supports the affordable housing market in Maine.
Facilitator: Jeanee Wright (NEROC)
Guest: Paul Bradley, ROC USA President

Have you ever wanted to know more about the ROC model of cooperatives? How did it get started? What does it mean to be part of a “model” of ROCs? Why is the ROC model so important to the low income housing crisis and a tool in a community’s housing toolkit? In this session we will explore the story of how this movement started, the state of the movement today and hear from ROC community leaders how cooperative ownership transformed their communities!

October 15

Session 1 — Co-ops: A Portal Beyond Equity and Inclusion
Presenter: Suparna Kudesia (CoFED)

In this workshop, we will share a brief history of cooperative practices of collective liberation that BIPOC-led co-ops in CoFED’s network of young cooperators of color (MyceliYUM) embody. Co-ops led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) cooperators have been budding as alternatives for generations in our communities. For us, the conversation we are in need for is centered around collective liberation and centering the needs, victories, resilience, and joy of our cooperative visions and practices. Participants will leave with a foundation of BIPOC-led cooperative strategies to thrive in a predominantly white-economic infrastructure. BIPOC cooperators will learn how to embody resilience, joy, and liberation in our cooperative work and practice through collectivized care, unlearning internalized capitalism, and compassion. White cooperators will learn how to move our cooperative spaces towards a decolonized praxis.

Session 2 — Beautiful Troubling: Intervening on Racism through Liberatory Practices
Moderated by CDI’s Collective Liberation Work Group

Drawing on the Anti-Racist Principles from The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, this discussion will offer participants an opportunity to move from reflection and assessment to action and accountability in their Cooperatives and communities.

October 16

Session 1 — Interacting with the Media: How can Maine’s cooperative community better interact with the media to advance cooperative development in Maine?
Panel: Maureen Milliken (MainBiz), Chris Busby (Mainer News), Fred Bever (Maine Public)
Moderator: Doug Clopp (CDI)

This interactive session will feature three Maine journalists whose outlets have covered cooperative development in Maine. Session participants will learn the most effective ways to interact with media, what makes a good story, and what to do, and not do, to get our stories of the impact of cooperative development out to a larger audience.

Session 2 — Connecting CMBA’s Work With the Media to Advance Our Advocacy Efforts
Facilitator: Doug Clopp (CDI) & Rob Brown (CDI)

Building on what participants learned in Session 1, participants will explore how we can effectively use and expand our communications capacity and storytelling to educate policy and decision makers to take cooperative development in Maine to scale. In this session we will analyze and discuss ways we can build strategic communications campaigns that are coordinated to advance advocacy efforts at the State House and at our city and town councils.

Please email emmy@maine.coop if you have a hard time covering the ticket fee.

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Principle Six, one of seven cooperative principles, focuses on cooperation among cooperatives. This conference provides the opportunity for Maine cooperatives to join forces in building a strong cooperative economy in Maine. This event will help staff, management, and boards build governing skills. It will also provide attendees with a networking platform, highlight advocacy efforts and opportunities, and bring cooperators together to celebrate the role that co-ops can take in the fight for racial equity.

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The conference is sponsored by a Host Committee including the Cooperative Development Institute, Democracy at Work Institute, Portland Food Co-Op, Cabot Creamery, Insource Renewables, Belfast Co-Op, Columinate, and ROC USA. Additional sponsors are Blue Hill Co-op, Rising Tide Co-op, Cooperative Fund of New England, Fedco Seeds, Town & Country FCU, cPort Credit Union, and Maine Harvest Credit Union. The event is also sponsored by National Co+op Grocers, Fare Share Food Cooperative, U. S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, Maine DECD, Community Credit Union, Maine AFL – CIO, and Rock City Roasters.