Everyday Participation
Free workshop 12.30 – 4pm Tuesday 3rd July at 10 East Reach, Taunton
Please make sure that your co-op or social enterprise is represented at this crucial event! Everyone is welcome, but for members of SCS CIC or SDWC this will also include the Annual General Meeting.
The new everyday participation toolkit is essential for any membership organisation. Deeper engagement by stakeholders + processes that generate new ideas = better social impacts. We need to go beyond the formalities of membership and use the seven modes of membership to make participation real.
All this, and the future of Co-op development in Somerset and beyond
12.30 – 1.30pm: Lunch
1.30 – 1.45pm: Discussion on co-op development in our region
1.45pm - 2pm: AGM business
2pm – 3pm: Everyday participation – training, activities and discussion
3pm – 4pm: Networking
For details and RSVP (or to participate via video conference) please call 0300 456 2265 or email services@somerset.coop.
Tuesday, 3 July 2018
Monday, 25 June 2018
Co-operatives fortnight 2018

However, the remaining events are very much all to play for as I write:
Street stall in Yeovil, Thursday June 28th: 12noon - 1.45pm Mudford Road Co-op Store,
2pm - 4pm Middle Street (near Primark). Please join us to raise awareness of co-ops in South Somerset and get some new members signed up to them! Featuring Southern Co-operative, South Somerset Community Energy and the Ecological Land Co-op.
Annual General Meeting of Somerset Co-operative Services CIC (and Somerset Development Workers Co-op) featuring a workshop on Everyday Participation. Tuesday 3rd July at 10 East Reach - more to follow on this later in the week.
Street stall in Taunton, Wednesday July 4th: 1pm - 4pm Fore Street (outside Next). Please join us to raise awareness of co-ops in Taunton Deane and get some new members signed up to them! Featuring Somerset Co-op CLT, Brendon Energy and Somerset Community Credit Union.
You can download the whole newsletter by clicking here.
You can download the whole newsletter by clicking here.
Monday, 29 January 2018
Co-operative incubation - in Somerset and beyond
A
new national consortium of co-operative development workers is
proposing a to pilot a wave of co-operative incubators around the UK,
following a research project by SCS. They believe that the mix of affordable workspace for
social entrepreneurs, linked to a local network of technical and
financial support, could be an effective model for growing a new
generation of community owned businesses.
SCS carried out the study as part of a Bristol
University programme, in order to identify the conditions for more
business support aimed at enterprises that are managed democratically
by employees and other stakeholders, and are run in accordance with a
policy of sustainability of community development. Despite recent
interest in social enterprise across the country, Co-operatives UK
found in 2016 that specialised support services were in steep decline
– and had been for several years.
Drawing
on examples from Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Sheffield and Taunton, SCS
found that a key part of reversing this trend would be a new approach
to business incubation. “Grant funding for social enterprise hasn’t
encouraged incubators, and grant funding for incubation hasn’t
benefited social enterprises. What we need now is fully financed
incubators in which the tenants have a diverse range of business
ideas but share co-operative values and work together in co-operative
ways; supported by staff that are actively engaged in bringing
together talented people with good ideas and networks of ethical
investors,” said Alex Lawrie, the author of the report.
The
proposal is being actively investigated by The Development
Co-operative, a new national consortium of co-operative development
specialists. They are looking for groups and experienced individuals
that are interested in starting new co-operative incubators; with a
critical mass of projects, the Development Co-operative can start
working with the growing number of social investors to help them get
off to the best possible start. Interest from all over the UK is
encouraged, and by projects at any stage of development.
Somerset
Co-operative Services already manages a hot desking hub for
co-operators at 10 East Reach in Taunton, where the new social
enterprises taking shape include an urban farming collective, the
UK’s first co-operative train operating company and a community
business developing tram systems. A second incubator is planned for
nearby Wiveliscombe, taking over complex of small offices developed
for sole traders. “It’s very important that as well as helping
micro-businesses, an incubator enables good ideas to scale up – to
the point where they outgrow the incubator. We can add value to
existing business premises by adding high quality advice and
training, and by encouraging more mutual aid and use of shared online
services.”
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