[Imc-outreach] Re: Coop Teach-In

[Pengdust at aol.com]

Cooperative Teach-In (as of 5/8/01)

dave p. here (I'm kind of the point man on this project).

The date for the teach-in has been pushed, tentatively, to Sat. Sept. 1 
(Labor Day weekend), to give us more organizing time since the list of 
participants, and potential ones, is growing. So far we have the Independent 
Media Center, On the Job Consulting, Common Grounds Food Coop, Walter 
Matherly (he used to work for the Institute for Cooperative Associations in 
Somerville, MA as an organizer and consultant), and Moth Light Design 
Collective (which I'm a member of) on board. Other contacts, which I'll get 
to this week, are: WEFT, the School for Designing Society, Mikhail Brun, and 
Peter Miller. With COUCH and FPCS on board that's 6 orgs. so far. 

There has been a suggestion to make the event more participatory than just 
having people get up and talk, or having tables, and having it in Carle Park. 
Something where people can actually participate in a coop briefly to get an 
idea of what goes on. It's a good idea

At this point the goals of the event are threefold: 

1). To give the orgs an opportunity to do outreach to the local community and 
raise visibility, and communtiy involvement
. 
2). To give the orgs a chance to network with each other and... "cooperate." 
and, 

3). To present our experiences, inform others in the community, use these 
orgs as examples to spread the cooperative ideal... so that maybe we'll see 
new ones will startup as a result. 

Also, it would be great if a group would start where the local coops could 
meet, occasionally, and share information and such for "survival."

If you have ideas about anything or any other potential participants that I 
haven't mentioned here let me know. And, if you'd like to come to the 
organizing meeting, by all means do. We meet every other Sun. right now 
through the IMC outreach meetings... the next one is Sun. May 20, 11:00 a.m. 
at the IMC in Urbana.

Thanks for responding and hope to see you,

dave p.