United Community Services Co-op 13^th Annual General Meeting

Date: Wednesday, October 26th
Time: 4:30 – 6:00
Place: Vancouver Airport Marriott

7571 Westminster Highway
Richmond, British Columbia V6X 1A3

Click to RSVP

Please join us for the 13th Annual General Meeting of the United Community Services Co-op. We look forward to reporting out on the year’s activities with our owner-members, partners and stakeholders.

As part of the AGM, we will also be announcing more details about the Beachy Dialogues, which are a legacy gift from the sector to the Co-op’s founding CEO Tim Beachy.

We also welcome John Restakis, Executive Director of the BC Co-operative Association, who will be delivering an engaging keynote on “Co-ops and the Renewal of Social Care.”

This year, we have worked with the Federation of Community Social Services of BC to schedule and locate our AGM to coincide with their Fall Meetings in Richmond.  We encourage members to consider registering for the FCSS workshops during the day (ending at 4:00pm) and then attend our AGM (held at the same space at the same hotel) at 4:30pm.

To RSVP for our AGM, click here.

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The United Community Co-op’s biennial signature event, Leading Change, is coming up soon!

Leading Change has always been geared towards supporting leadership and growth of the non-profit sector. In previous years we have used Leading Change to generate and facilitate dialogue around innovative practices for the sector. This year, we’ve decided to take dialogue and turn it into experiential learning and outcome-driven change. Everyone – from the frontline to the executive team – has this opportunity to be a leader and create real innovative action.

Over the course of two days, the Co-op and mentors and coaches from the community will guide you through an accelerated process of dreaming up a lofty goal and then scaling down to a bite-sized, achievable project, driven by you and supported by your peers. Leading Change 2011 is an ideas laboratory of sorts – a safe and controlled environment in which to experiment with that idea you’ve always wanted to turn into a real project.

At the end of two days, your proposals will be put into a silent auction for community members, mentors, coaches, and your peers to bid on with in-kind support and constructive feedback. You’ll be able to see immediate results of your proposal writing as it’s happening!

Registration is open now: for more details and to register, visit our event website at Leading Change. We hope to see you there on June 6 and 7 at Creekside Community Recreation Centre in Vancouver, BC.

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As you may know, the Co-op is part of the Canadian Nonprofit Innovators Network. The CNPI is proud to invite you to its Nonprofit InnovationCamp on March 4 and 5, 2011, at the SFU Segal Graduate School of Business here in Vancouver, BC.

The Nonprofit InnovationCamp will be an open-space, unconference style event with a few keynote speakers throughout the two days.

Early Bird tickets are now available for a short time – click here to register.

Keynote speakers and other news will be announced shortly, and you can stay updated over at the event website, www.npinnovationcamp.wordpress.com.

Hope to see you there in March!

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Tim, Barbora, and Greg have spent the last few months working on a project we are proud to present today.

The Changing the Model Site is an initiative of the United Community Services Co-op to develop, and share factual data and tools related to the upcoming change in the Employment Services model and prepare non-profit organizations for successful proposals in the Spring of 2011.

During this process the Co-op also learned about key differences between the current and new models and developed a Financial Modeling Tool (FMT). To learn more about this tool and see a video of a recent presentation visit the changingthemodel.ca.

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Here at the Co-op, Justin and I had the opportunity to volunteer on the planning committee for Wiring the Social Economy. This event was intended to encourage cross-pollination and ideas development for sectors including non-profits, community economic development, social enterprise, technology, and community-based organizations.

Wiring the Social Economy began bright and early this past Saturday, December 4, at the beautiful W2 Storyeum space in Gastown, a neighbourhood well known for being a culture hub of Vancouver. The event was organized to be a mostly spontaneous, attendee-generated sessions, similar in format to ChangeCamp and BarCamp, though with the beginning of the day dedicated to three short curated keynote sessions.

For those of you tuned in to our Twitter feed, you’ll know that our CEO, Tim Beachy, was selected to be the third of the three keynote speakers (the first two were Carol Madsen of SFU Centre for Sustainable Community Development, and Irwin Oostindie of W2). We were – and still are – very excited about this speaking engagement for Tim. Video is below:

[vimeo vimeo.com/17652357]

Justin and I later facilitated sessions ourselves – mine was called “Ask a Dumb Question” for anyone who wanted to know more about the Internet and social media but was afraid to ask, and Justin’s was “Collective IT Solutions” for individuals and organizations frustrated by holistic IT services. We also hopped around to see what other people were talking about, and you can see full notes on each session on the event wiki.

The topics were so diverse and greatly applicable to current practices, and incredibly engaging as well. On a more personal note, I was blown away by how many highly intelligent, well-spoken, and very charming people were there. It was wonderful to meet all of you – I hope that we can keep this momentum going and come together again soon to keep our culture and our sectors fresh, relevant, and vibrant.

Thanks to the driving forces behind this event: Steve Williams, Erika Harrison, Tom Kertes, Judi Piggott, Leah Nielsen, Trina Isakson, and others (I’m sorry if you’re missing from this list!). And thanks to all the volunteers who came out in droves to support us.

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Vancity has once again partnered with the Co-op on its popular Financial Fitness Workshop series for non-profits, including covering fundamentals in the areas of cashflow, accounting, legal and social enterprise. Dates and locations have been set, and we are now ready to begin registrations. Click here for more information and to register!

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MASTER OF ARTS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT – Starting May 2011

The Master of Arts in Community Development (MACD) program offered through the University of Victoria’s School of Public Administration starts each May. Designed with working professionals in mind, the MACD program builds and develops participant capacity to become successful leaders in the civil society and social economy.

Developed in collaboration with practitioners from the community economic development, co-operative, and non profit sectors, the MACD program is a part-time professional program delivered through a combination of online and residential courses. The program is focused on the practice and policy dimensions of three distinct and overlapping streams; community economic development, co-operatives, and non-profits. Each approach seeks to create social and economic change and relies on diverse resources and partnerships that are rooted in values of empowerment, cooperation and inclusion.

For additional information on the MACD program visit the website: http://publicadmin.uvic.ca/macd

To contact the MACD program call (250)721.6446 or email macd@uvic.ca

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Yesterday was the Co-op’s 12th Annual General Meeting, and it was great to see everyone who was able to attend. I live-tweeted most of the day; I won’t repeat the itinerary here as you can check out our Twitter page for to-the-minute updates on what was going on. I will say though, the kids from the Voices of Nature/Lord Nelson Elementary School choir had some serious headbanging skills.

The last part of the day was a Shared Services workshop facilitated by Barbora and Justin. They’d decided to keep the afternoon lively by modeling the workshop on Pecha Kucha style presentations:  six panelists – Tim Beachy, Wayne Hanna, Nancy Gale, Gareth Williams, Jennifer Lee, and Helen Lutz – each with 20 slides and six minutes and forty seconds to present. It kept things fun and upbeat, and I definitely heard giggles around the room each time I flagged the “1 minute remaining” sign at the speakers. The final part of the workshop was a roundtable discussion on how to best deploy shared services for all the owner-members of the Co-op. A quick rundown of some points raised:

• Ensuring appropriate succession of organizational leaders.
• Funding issues: rather than all organizations competing for a small piece of the funding pie, is there a way to change the process so that we are not in competition with each other? Maybe that way we will end up with a whole pie.
• Setting multi-directional goals in order to serve the greatest number of people using the same resources.
• Accountability to a board of directors through an executive director who shares the values of staff on the front-lines of community service.
• Creating better incentives for providing better service: someone pointed out that a lot of non-profit services arise out of a fear or threat to community.

As you can see, a lot of thought-provoking things were said, and we’d love to keep that discussion going. We welcome you to share your comments, or contribute a quick piece for us to post here. We’d also like to express our appreciation to everyone who attended our event and helped make things happen; we can’t thank you enough.

Now – tell us what you think. Go!

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Tuesday October 19, 6:30 PM

The Century Restaurant and Bar, 432 Richards St. (at Pender)

Join co-operators and co-op supporters from across the Lower Mainland as co-ops and credit unions field teams in the first ever I Choose Co-op Quiz challenge. Each team has five participants. This fun evening will feature music, food, drinks, prizes, and a range of challenging co-op activities that will test participants’ knowledge of co-ops while sharpening team skills and strengthening the social bonds among co-operators of all types and stripes.

Registration is $20 per participant and includes a drink.

Participating organizations can register their teams by contacting Brad Boyce at 604-662-3906/general@bcca.coop. Individuals are also welcome!

This event is being organized by the I Choose Co-op sponsors: BCCA, CCEC Credit Union, The Co-op Housing Federation of BC, The Car Co-op, The Co-operators, MEC, United Community Services Co-op, and Vancity.

We look forward to seeing our co-op friends and supporters, old and new, on October 19.

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Last night Barbora attended Pecha Kucha Night #13 at the Vogue Theatre. This afternoon we had a quick chat about her experience.

Was this your first Pecha Kucha night?
Barbora: This was my first Pecha Kucha night, and it certainly won’t be my last. I was really impressed and it totally exceeded my expectations.

What did you expect?
Barbora: I wasn’t sure what to expect! I didn’t realize that so many people show up for this event and it has an almost a…cult-like following and a lot of people I spoke to in the line while we were waiting to get in had been to multiple pecha kuchas. It’s totally a culture.

So I guess you hadn’t experienced the Pecha Kucha style before. What do you think of it?
Barbora: It was really interesting and completely new to me. It was so fast and fun, and I was amazed at how disciplined the presenters were with staying within their time. It’s a format that works really well.

What was your favourite presentation?
Barbora: There were a two that really stood out for me. I really liked the presentation by Amanda Gibbs, Director of Audience Engagement at the Museum of Vancouver (who is also presenting next week at Interesting Vancouver), about the role that the Museum can play in the community. She talked about it as holding up a mirror to our city and that it’s not just about looking at artifacts – the Museum is a place for community-building and interaction and dialogue. I’d never thought of museums in that way before. I also really enjoyed Brendan Meadows’ presentation. He’s an international photographer, and his images were just stunning. It was interesting to see a photographer narrate images that are normally just presented without comment.

Did you see anything that you hadn’t known before about Vancouver?
Barbora: Yes! Quite a few things! Miriam Steinberg talked about the In the House Festival, and I’d never heard of that before. It’s an organization that does all sorts of music, dance, and theatre productions inside people’s houses, and they’ve done over two hundred of them over the last few years. I’d love to go to one. And I also heard about pop-up art by Here Is Now (presented by Victor Wang), and I really want to go to that too.

Do you feel like you learned a lot more about Vancouver?
Barbora: You know, I definitely did. And I think that Vancouverites often complain about how there isn’t enough culture in the city and, you know, in comparison, there’s all these really exciting things happening in other metropolitan cities like New York and London but I think we just need to look a little deeper. There is so much going on in our city and you just have to look for it.

There really is.
Barbora: Yes! And I’m really excited about my foray into Pecha Kucha nights. There’s another one happening in Coquitlam in November, and I’m looking forward to going to that one.

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