From adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com Mon Jun 14 17:17:11 2010 From: adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com (Adam Trott) Date: Mon Jun 14 17:27:45 2010 Subject: [vawcnews] Support VAWC in a co-operative organization award Message-ID: <285749.16129.qm@web36904.mail.mud.yahoo.com> If you're a member of River Valley Market you have a unique opportunity to bring some attention to worker co-ops and VAWC through their Austin Miller awards. Not only would it be a great way to recognize all the great work everyone's been doing, but also a way to bring different sectors of co-ops together. What an opportunity. All you need is your member number and your version of what I typed up below for the nomination description. Good luck to us, Adam __________________________ Worker/Owner Collective Copies Representative to the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives Working for a Co-operative Economy www.valleyworker.org ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Adam Trott To: betsy@rivervalleymarket.coop Sent: Mon, June 14, 2010 5:13:49 PM Subject: Austin Miller nomination Hi Betsy, Below is my nomination for an Austin Miller award for an organization. Call or email if you have any questions. Thanks, Adam __________________________ Worker/Owner Collective Copies Representative to the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives Working for a Co-operative Economy www.valleyworker.org Your name: Adam Trott Your member number: 2553 Your email address/ phone number:adamtrott2000@yahoo.com, 215.666.1266 Nominee: Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives (www.valleyworker.org) Nominee contact information: info@valleyworker.org Category: Non profit membership organization Explain how your nominee has promoted cooperative values and principles: The Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives is dedicated to building a sustainable local economy by facilitating the growth and development of worker co-operatives. To realize this we provide support for our members, develop new worker co-operatives and promote worker co-operatives by educating and developing community awareness. *After the 2005 Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy*, members from three worker co-ops in Western Massachusetts began meeting as a way to stay in touch and share information. Five years after holding our first gathering the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives has grown to an organization of eleven worker cooperatives in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts and Southern Vermont. Together, our co-ops are made up of approximately 75 members. Highlights of our work together include: Working with our educational institutions partners in schools and universities. From Jackson Street Middle school to UMass Amherst and Clark University, VAWC has presented how co-operation in the workplace and is benefitting businesses, their workers and their communities. We're currently partnering with UMass Economics Department on co-operative curriculum and a certificate in research of co-operatives that would inform our moevement as well as inform students about co-operative solutions to community issues. Another educational effort for one of our committees is co-writing a book on the past, present and future of worker co-ops and how we help shape the overall co-operative economy. VAWC is also initiating a co-op directed and funded development program, the VAWC Staff Project, where worker co-ops dedicate their own resources and time to fund and direct co-op support, media outreach and development. We dedicated our Ad Program exclusively to four food co-op newsletters, very thankful that such a resource exists to reach over 10,000 people already involved in co-operation. We are already expecting our first conversion from a traditional business to a worker co-operative with VAWC support this summer. VAWC is actively retaining and creating jobs in our co-operative economy. Whether through our education, media or marketing, our ownership structure and co-operative principles are foremost in why we are different and sustainable. In a web seemingly weaved by our movements founders, customers of one co-op are applicants and members of other co-ops. Lastly, our Working for a Co-operative Economy campaign aims to illustrate worker co-ops as just one example of how co-operatives work and serve needs of members and community. We work to situate worker co-ops in this broader economic landscape with a vision of being able to live an entirely co-operative life: work, housing, consumption, the arts and culture, etc. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.valleyworker.org/pipermail/vawcnews/attachments/20100614/7d8887da/attachment.html From adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com Wed Jun 16 13:05:02 2010 From: adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com (Adam Trott) Date: Wed Jun 16 13:11:54 2010 Subject: [vawcnews] VAWC wins the River Valley Market Austin Miller Award!! Reception 6/17 at 6:30pm Message-ID: <420686.3193.qm@web36908.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Adam, Congratulations everybody! We have some exciting news!? The co-ops of VAWC have received the Austin Miller Co-op Hero Award in the business category.?The award will be announced this Thursday at the Strawberry Social at 6:30 pm. This is a great opportunity to?talk to board members at RVM about how we can work together, describe what each?of our co-ops do, etc. So, please?come to River Valley Market's Ice Cream Social to accept the award. The more co-ops we have there, the more we can point people to them to?bring co-ops together. See you there! Adam ?__________________________ Worker/Owner Collective Copies Representative to the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives Working for a Co-operative Economy www.valleyworker.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.valleyworker.org/pipermail/vawcnews/attachments/20100616/be8f4ef9/attachment.html