Somerset Co-operative Services is sponsoring and helping to organise Grassroots, the first Social Enterprise Conference to be held in Glastonbury. We hope that this event will be the first of many, providing networking, trading and learning opportunities for existing social enterprises in Somerset, and a source of information and inspiration for anyone thinking about setting one up.

GRASSROOTS is growing social enterprises in Somerset, so if you are:

* an established social or co-operative enterprise
* a social entrepreneur
* a local authority officer
* a private sector business

Somerset Co-operative Services CIC is run by a team of three who now wish to become four. We need a Fundraising and Social Investment Manager, and for more details you need to download and read the three files below. It is a part time position based in Somerset, open to people with and without experience of co-operatives, with a salary of approximately £30k FTE; do please get your application in to us by the 9th to be considered, and tell anyone you know who may be interested.

Somerset Co-operative Services CIC celebrated Co-operative Fortnight with business breakfasts in Crewkerne and Taunton. Demonstrating the power of Co-operative Principle No.6 “Co-operation between co-operatives” guests at the breakfasts shared information and experience to help and support each other survive and thrive.

Sc * (Ci + Mt) = Co

where

Shared commitment x Common interests + Mutual trust = Co-operation!

http://www.thereisanalternative.coop/node/7625

During the second week of Co-operatives Fortnight, Somerset Co-operative Services is organising 2 Co-operative Business Breakfasts to facilitate networking between local co-operatives, sharing information and ideas, exploring how we can help and support each other and celebrating Co-operatives Fortnight!

The Business Breakfasts will be held in Crewkerne 1st July 9am to 10am at Somerfield,  Falkland Square, Crewkerne TA187JS, and Taunton on 2nd July 9.30 to 10.30am at Makers Craft Co-operative, 6 Bath Place, Taunton, TA1 4ER. A big co-operative Thank You to Makers and The Co-operative for hosting what we hope will be beginning of a continuing programme of co-operative networking events in Somerset.

SCS sprang into action in January with a campaign to make contact with all the Transition Towns in Somerset. We believe that the co-operative model is the ideal vehicle for people who want to work together in sustainable projects and enterprises which do not exploit people or the planet's limited resources. We attended the Taunton Transition Cafe to talk about social enterprises, and hope that the contacts we made there will result in mutual benefit.

DECEMBER 09
Somerset Model Rules Seminar at the RISE Business Advisors Network meeting on 8th December was a great success. The seminar aimed to help participants:

• * explain the benefits of the Rules and say when they are appropriate
• * understand where other model rules are available and when they should be used instead
• * be able to make some common, simple changes to model rules

Feedback from seminar participants was very positive:

"A dog helps dog world" Ed Mayo, new Co-operatives UK CEO speaks at the launch of Andrew Bibby's "After the Crash" - suggesting that the co-operative business model offers a way to build strong, profitable businesses which are sustainable in the long-term, both environmentally and financially.

Deal Between Mondragon (Spain) and the United Steelworkers (USA)

ACT ! – Addressing the Climate Threat – is a new campaign being run by Cooperatives Europe which will launch on 21 September 2009 to coincide with the UN’s Global Climate Week.

The campaign will co-ordinate and promote the activities of co-operatives across Europe to ensure that their voice is heard and that there is an effective response by co-operatives and their members to the threat of impending climate change.

Bob Burlton, the driving force behind ACT ! and also the Chair of Co-operative Financial Services, explains the reasoning behind the campaign.

Somerset Co-operative Services (SCS) a Somerset based Co-operative CIC announced at its recent AGM the launch of the Somerset Rules - a new and unique set of I&PS Model Rules for a multi-stakeholder co-operative, combining the accountability and democracy of co-ops with the social reporting and investment opportunities associated with social enterprise