From the progressive minds of the Central Co-op and the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies comes the very first SLICE (Strengthening Local Independent Co-ops Everywhere) conference, a day long event covering everything from the roots of the co-op mindset to what it takes to be a co-op proprietor. All that co-operation goes down Saturday at Richard Hugo House. You may have noticed the banner ads on CHS — the event is a paid advertiser but the event is worthy of note here on the site regardless of the ad buy.
The workshop, according to Caple Melton of Central Co-op, will have three themes: So you want to start a co-op, Cooperative Development, and Cooperation in Community, each of which deal with different levels of involvement into co-op culture. The first two follow a business path, covering legal issues, financing and taking your co-op to the next level. The third is more community focused, bringing the concepts of a co-op into community building and exploring the powers of those concepts.
While the fee for the workshop is $30, Melton is trying to make sure anyone can participate by offering other ways to enjoy the information (as well as the food and beverages) at a lower cost through a scholarship program, or through volunteering on site. For more information, check out http://www.madisonmarket.coop
Melton said she is hopeful this workshop will be the start of more opportunities for groups to work together to further co-op culture in Seattle.
Righto. I’d like to take this opportunity to note that it’s not just “progressives” [sic] and “liberals” who support co-ops everywhere and anywhere as an alternative to the parasitic menace of po-mo capitalism. Indeed, the cooperative business model is in greater philosophical symmetry with alternative economic models fronted by conservatives – such as the late poet Hilaire Belloc’s concept of distributism – than the monolithic alternatives of the left intelligentsia.
THX, KBAI – zan