[Needtoknow] Fwd: Building Sustainable Local Economies

[Colby E. Peterson]

From: "E.F. Schumacher Society" <efssociety at smallisbeautiful.org>
Date: April 21, 2006 7:24:58 AM EDT
To: <office at green-rainbow.org>
Subject: Building Sustainable Local Economies

Dear Friend

The E. F. Schumacher Society cordially invites you to a seminar entitled

Building Sustainable Local Economies

With Erbin Crowell, Eric Harris-Braun, Elizabeth Keen, Chris Lindstrom,
Stephanie Mills, Alex Thorp, Chuck Turner, Greg Watson, Susan Witt, and
other guest speakers

May 24th to 28th of 2006
At the E. F. Schumacher Library and Simon's Rock College of Bard
Great Barrington, Massachusetts

How can regional communities regain the power to revitalize the means of
production for basic necessities (food, energy, shelter, clothing) in  
the
face of a deepening economic, social, and ecological crisis? Join us  
this
May to learn about successful, citizen-driven models for community
revitalization and how to take action in applying them to your own
community.

How do we work together as individuals and a community to:

1. Create non-profit community development financing systems such as  
local
currencies;
2. Become social entrepreneurs devising community and worker-owned
businesses;
3. Provide affordable access to land for farming and housing;
4. Build strong regionally based and democratic economies?

Who should attend?
Anyone interested in new and alternative models for economic  
revitalization
of their local economy should attend.  Register soon, as space is  
limited to
25 participants!

Seminar cost of $500 includes tuition, materials, and seven meals.
Housing is available at Simon's Rock College for $300 (single room w/  
shared
bath, includes breakfast).
To register please return the registration form, available online.
Or call 413-528-1737 or email efssociety at smallisbeautiful.org

Faculty:

Erbin Crowell is a Quaker active in the co-operative, Fair Trade and
sustainable agriculture movements. Since 1995, he has worked with Equal
Exchange, a worker co-operative and Fair Trade Organization that  
trades with
small farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia, marketing their
products to food co-ops and other businesses in the U.S. He also  
serves as
president of the Cooperative Fund of New England.

Eric Harris-Braun is chairman of the board at the E.F. Schumacher  
Society.
He lives in rural New York, where he is part of an intentional  
community.
Eric is a software developer by profession and is working on a global
platform for local currency deployment, as well as launching a local
currency in Columbia County, NY (CCASLE).

Elizabeth Keen and Alex Thorp are the owners and operators of Indian  
Line
Farm on land leased from the Community Land Trust in the Southern
Berkshires. Indian Line Farm, located in South Egremont, MA, is the  
first
Community Supported Agriculture farm in this country.  In addition to
farming, Al serves as president of the board of the Community Land  
Trust.
Elizabeth is a founding board member of Berkshire Grown and a committed
pacifist.

Chris Lindstrom organized the Society's June 2004 conference, "Local
Currencies in the Twenty-First Century: Understanding Money, Building  
Local
Economies, Renewing Community," which brought together currency  
theorists
and activists from 17 countries. Chris is a founding board member of
BerkShares, a local currency initiative for Berkshire County, MA. He is
currently coordinating the BALLE pre-conference on complementary  
currencies
and is active in creating a national fund for community currencies.

Stephanie Mills is an author and speaker who has been working on the  
leading
edge of ecological concern since 1969. She is the author of Epicurean
Simplicity, In Service of the Wild, and Whatever Happened to Ecology?  
and
her current works in progress include a biography of Robert Swann.  
Mills is
active in her local community outside of Maple City, Michigan, and  
serves as
President of the Traverse Area Community Currency Corporation.

Chuck Turner has been a Boston City Councilor since 1999, well known for
challenging education inequality, discrimination, neighborhood
gentrification, and the war in Iraq.  He has championed and been  
actively
involved with cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises, a leader for  
many
years at the Industrial Cooperative Association (now the ICA Group).   
Chuck
brings the perspective of working with diverse urban neighborhoods to
redistribute wealth and bring economic power back to communities.

Greg Watson is former Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood  
Initiative
and former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Food and
Agriculture.  Greg currently serves on the board of directors of  
Ocean Arks
International, Clean Air-Cool Planet, and the Buckminster Fuller  
Institute.
An advocate for environmental justice and building sustainable  
communities,
he is now leading the Outreach Team of Massachusetts Technology
Collaborative's Cape and Islands Offshore Wind Initiative.

Susan Witt has served as executive director of the E. F. Schumacher  
Society
in Great Barrington, Massachusetts since 1980, leading its national
educational programs while at the same time remaining deeply  
committed to
implementing Schumacher's economic ideas in her home region of the
Berkshires.  She is administrator of the Community Land Trust in the
Southern Berkshires and founder of the newly formed BerkShares local
currency program and its predecessor SHARE micro-credit program.

Seminar Costs:

The tuition fee is $500.00, which includes tuition, materials, and seven
meals (4 lunches, 3 dinners), featuring food from local farms.  
Participation
is limited to 25 people, so please reserve as soon as possible by  
completing
our online form (www.smallisbeautiful.org) and making your payment under
"Lectures/Seminars/Conferences." Those wishing to gather sponsorship  
from
their local community in order to attend the seminar, please see our
promissory note also on-line.

The housing fee is $300.00, which includes housing for 4 nights in a  
single
dorm room with shared bath and breakfast at Simon's Rock College.  
Simon's
Rock is conveniently located in Great Barrington, and is the site of our
evening sessions.  Alternatively, you may arrange a stay on your own  
at one
of the many Bed & Breakfasts or Inns in the Berkshires. The Southern
Berkshire Chamber of Commerce has a contact list available at
www.greatbarrington.org. If you have further questions, please  
contact Julie
Macé, seminar coordinator, at julie at smallisbeautiful.org or (413)  
528-1737.

Seminar Program & Schedule:

Wednesday, May 24

Schumacher's Philosophy of Small Is Beautiful – Seminar participants
introduce themselves with description of the regional communities they
represent.  Presentation of the philosophy underlying the work of  
building
strong regionally-based economies, shaped by the democratic  
participation of
citizens with a goal of achieving greater economic self-sufficiency.   
Review
of literature in the field.  Discussion of the evolution of this concept
here in the Berkshires into the complex of regionally-based,
democratically-structured organizations working together to foster a  
climate
of citizen support for local producers.

Thursday, May 25

The Community Land Trust Model – Tour of the 12,000 volume E.F.  
Schumacher
Library, and explanation of cataloguing system, so that it is easily
accessible for seminar attendees. A presentation of the community  
land trust
model describing how a community can create affordable access to land  
for
housing and other purposes; an explanation of the use of long-term  
leases to
ensure equity in buildings to the home owner, while excluding land  
value at
resale (thereby keeping homes affordable to future residents);  
discussion
with local home owners/leaseholders of the Community Land Trust in the
Southern Berkshires.  Discussion of the application of the community  
land
trust concept to farmland and farm residences.  Example: Indian Line  
Farm, a
22-acre organic Community Supported Agriculture farm.  How a partnership
between the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires, The Nature
Conservancy, and two farmers enabled the community to acquire the  
land of
this historic farm to ensure that it remained in active production.   
Site
visits to Indian Line Farm.

Land, Food, and Energy in a New Local Economy – Drawing on his  
experience as
Commissioner of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as
Director of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, and in his  
current
role as Director of Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, Greg Watson  
will
weave together the role of affordable access to land, local food, and  
local
energy production and their importance in building sustainable local
economies.  He will share stories of innovation and success in these  
fields.

Friday, May 26

Community Development Financing & Local Currencies – An introduction to
Community Financing Systems.  Examples of successful micro-credit  
programs.
Principles of creating community (or regional) development financing  
systems
utilizing local banks as administrators.  Introduction to the SHARE
Micro-credit Program with examples of businesses started.  Discussion of
self-financing techniques – how a business can finance its product or
technology without the need for outside bank loans or credit.  Examples:
Deli-Dollars and Berkshire Farm Preserve Notes.  Local Currencies as a
vehicle for communities to regain control of issuing credit.   
Discussion of
successful local currency models including LETS, Time Dollars, Hour
Programs, WIR and other business-to-business programs, backed currencies
(such as Salt Spring Dollars, Toronto Dollars, and BerkShares), and new
innovations in electronic exchange technologies as a way to further  
local
currency issue.

Local Economies: Resprouted and Deeply-Rooted – From first peoples  
through
Polanyi, from the Regional Planning movement to bioregionalism; from  
Gandhi
and Gesell to Berry and Bob Swann, creative intelligence has come  
from every
quadrant of the moral compass to articulate economies appropriate to  
people
and place. Stephanie Mills will essay a brief survey of the extensive
complex of the traditions, history, and ideas that underlie and can  
inform
today's local economic initiatives.

Saturday, May 27

Towards Community Self-Management and Diversification of Wealth –
Diversifying Wealth:  defining how a community can become a "social
entrepreneur," the role that producer/consumer associations can play in
establishing new business initiatives and community accountability.  An
examination of the Mondragon worker-ownership model from the Basque  
region
of Spain.  Case study of Equal Exchange, a worker cooperative  
importing and
distributing "fair trade" products.  In addition to maintaining its own
cooperative structure, Equal Exchange encourages and supports the  
formation
of new cooperatives in its supplier community.

Sunday, May 28

Developing Action Plans – Presentations by participants of how they  
plan to
apply the tools for community economic development they have studied  
in the
training session to the problems faced by their own communities.
Clarification of programs discussed in earlier days; discussion of  
perceived
difficulties involved with application; discussion of ways  
organizations in
a region can work together to support each other.

Schedule:

Wednesday, May 24
5:00 - 6:00 Registration
6:00 - 9:00 Welcome dinner, introductions, seminar overview

Thursday, May 25
9:30 - 10:30 Community Land Trusts
10:30 - 12:00 Indian Line Farm
12:00 - 1:00 Catered Lunch
1:30 - 3:30 Land/Food/Energy
4:00 - 5:00 Tour Indian Line Farm
6:00 - 7:00 Dinner
7:30 - 9:45 Community Land Trusts

Friday, May 26
9:30 - 12:00 Community Financing/ Local Currencies
12:00 - 1:00 Catered Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 Local Currencies
3:30 - 6:00 Free to hike, read, go to town
6:00 - 7:00 Dinner
7:30 - 9:30 Local Economies

Saturday, May 27
9:30 - 12:00 Diversifying Wealth, Co-ops
12:00 - 1:00 Catered Lunch
1:30 - 3:00 Equal Exchange
3:30 - 6:00 Community Tour
6:30 on - Free Evening

Sunday, May 28
9:30 - 12:30 Action Plans
12:30 - 1:30 Catered Lunch/Farewells