Hi everyone! Sophie from Corporate Watch here. Apologies for any cross-posting.

We're hiring!

1. Trainee anti-capitalist researcher, to research & write about companies + the social & environmental impact of corporate power.

2. Freelance contributors to do similar work.

We're especially encouraging Black & POC applicants, but all will be carefully considered. Closing date 10th Jan. Many thanks!

https://corporatewatch.org/were-hiring-seeking-trainee-anti-capitalist-researcher/

https://corporatewatch.org/work-with-us-call-for-contributors/

We have a few places left on our Barefoot 3.0 training programme for members of existing co-operatives and community businesses beginning in January 2022. Short deadline for applications (end November)

https://www.culture.coop/training/barefoot-co-op-and-community-business-development-training-3-0/

We are recruiting for a new Lending & Relationship Manager to join our team here at Co-op & Community Finance; replacing Ian Rothwell as you may know who is retiring at the end of this year.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a small and dynamic team, and be part of our award-winning organisation that has been supporting the co-operative and community business sector for almost 50 years and continues to influence and develop a unique market across the country.

All the information about the role is available on our website, engage with us on social media. Or do contact me directly if you need to know more.https://coopfinance.coop/2021/09/14/lending-and-relationship-manager-recruitment-opportunities-at-co-operative-community-finance/

In 2021 Co-op Culture trained 21 new co-operative development advisers. These "Barefoot Practitioners" are already delivering support to new and existing co-operatives and community businesses.

Now we're going to do it again.

Suitable for:

• People involved in the management of their co-operative or community business

• Existing development workers

• Staff of infrastructure bodies

Find out more...

We are recruiting new trustees to create a more diverse board: We need you to help grow the co-op and community business sectors in 2021 and beyond.

What we do:

ICOF Ltd trading as Co-operative and Community Finance or CCF is the Lender for Social Purpose, lending to ethical businesses since 1973. We offer fair, supportive, and tailored loan finance to meet the needs of a range of co-operatives, social enterprises, and community businesses, across the UK, that are democratically owned controlled by their members. We also provide project and loan management support and consultancy across the social investment sector.

What skills and experience we are looking for:

Post Covid-19 and approaching our 50th Anniversary in 2023 we will be moving into an exciting new phase for the organisation and are looking for both experienced Trustees and individuals looking for their first role, to join us on our journey.

To help us improve the equality and diversity on our board we would very much like to hear from women and individuals of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic heritage.

We are looking for new Trustees that have skills and experience in a range of areas and sectors across the social economy. Individuals that could bring some expertise in either finance, governance or company/ society law would be of particular interest at this stage, to fill skills gaps on our existing board, but we will consider members* and anyone with a particular interest in Co-ops and Community Business and building a fairer future in local communities.

What is the commitment?

The board meets four times a year, held during the day, plus an AGM and we typically have a two-day business planning/ strategy day. Trustees that have specific roles such a Chairperson or Treasurer will have extra responsibilities and will also be required to attend occasional subcommittee meetings.   

This is an unpaid role but all reasonable travel and out of pocket expenses will be reimbursed. 

To find out more:

Please visit our website where you will find our Trustee Recruitment Pack containing more information about us and about the role.

We are happy to arrange informal one-to-one chats or have arranged two drop-in chats, via Zoom, where staff Tim or Alain will be available to chat through any questions or queries about the role.

Drop-in Chats:

Friday 26th March 2020 - 10:00am – 12:00pm

Tuesday 6th April 2020 – 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Please also connect with us on Twitter @coop_finance and Facebook @CoopCommFinance

To request a nomination/ application form please contact [email protected] directly. We will require you to complete a short application/ nomination form*, provide us with an up-to-date CV, and attend an online interview if shortlisted.  We are also happy to accept video applications addressing the same application questions, if that’s easier for you, but please be advised that videos will be shared widely with ICOF members, if you are successful at interview.  

Application deadline is 18th April 2021 (we will contact you asap to tell you if you have been selected for interview)

Short interviews will take place via Zoom on 26th April 2021

Thank-you so much for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you.

* Members and Nominations

ICOF Ltd and its associated businesses have open membership and nomination enshrined in their legal make-up and any member can nominate themselves, or others, to be considered for board appointment at the AGM. This year, the board, in order to proactively address skills gaps and improve board diversity, are introducing a shortlisting and interview process and widening the search for new board members. Any existing member can of course still apply or nominate individuals, but we ask they do so through the process set out in the information above and in the Trustee Recruitment Pack available. Please contact us if you have any questions.  

Unfound update from Co-operatives UK

Co-operatives UK are excited to announce that we have re-launched the UnFound Accelerator, a 10-week business support programme for teams at the early stage of setting up their platform co-operative.

A Platform co-operative is a democratically owned and controlled business that uses an online platform or mobile app to trade, connect people and pool resources or data. It is built on co-operative principles and values which ensure the platform business:

• Truly responds to the needs of its community

• Embeds equity and social purpose from day one

• Has a growth model that does not involve giving up control to external profit-driven investors.

A cohort of eight teams will accompany each other in the exciting journey of turning their pioneering ideas into concrete business solutions. They will be provided with guidance and support to set the foundations of their platform business through Co-operatives UK and Stir to Action’s extensive network of experts.

Teams that complete the UnFound Accelerator will get the chance to pitch their business idea to access funding and support at an event on 21 July 2021 (TBC), towards which the Co-operative Bank has contributed a £10,000 prize pot.

The deadline for applications is midnight 11 April 2021.

If you know any groups who might be interested in applying, please share the application guidance and encourage them to attend our webinar at noon on 1 April 2021 where we can provide additional information and answer any questions. (register here)

Short term (6 month) Consultancy opportunity with Co-operatives UK.

"We need a suitably skilled individual to help us develop a new approach to ensuring our network of providers and internal systems are capable of meeting our members' current and emerging needs."

Individual consultant preferred but open to how this is structured and resourced i.e. delivery led and managed by a named individual, with support from others behind the scenes could be an option.

More information and tender documents

Cath recommended that I post notice of this coming event hosted by New Lucas Plan on May 13. The plan is to buy an extended zoom license for the event after the 100 registration limit was breached in 2 days..

We also chatted about the possibility of having a New Lucas Plan workshop at Doing It Ourselves based on the 30 min film by Steve Sprung - be good to talk to Mark about this some time.

A New Lucas Plan for post-pandemic socially useful jobs?

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-new-lucas-plan-for-post-pandemic-socially-useful-jobs-tickets-103803438880

An online event on how worker-led industrial conversion to deal with the coronavirus pandemic is a model for the future.

May 13 7pm- 8.30 pm online

Speakers include:

Phil Asquith - former Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Combine member.

Hilary Wainwright – founding editor Red Pepper, co-author, with Dave Elliott of 'The Lucas Plan: a new trade unionism in the making', fellow of the Transnational Institute'.

Representatives from Green Jobs Oshawa in Canada on their call to repurpose the former General Motors car plant to a public manufacturing facility

Register

For more information contact [email protected].

P6 Community members may be interested in the series of webinars being organised by the Open Co-op. Clearly there's no shortage of online events available currently, and some of us may already be struggling with webinar-fatigue, but these stand out for me as being highly relevant to what Platform 6 is all about. This Thursday April 30th there is one focussing on the Digital Life Collective. As well being a Platform 6 member and director, I'm also the current chair of the Digital Life Collective, so forgive the plug. The Digital Life Collective is a UK-registered co-operative society, with several hundred members from around the world. Its focus has been to bring together people with insight and knowledge about how we use and relate to technology, about how important it is that we can trust the technology that we do use (which is clearly a very troublesome area - see Zuboff's book on surveillance capitalism for more on that), and how we might bring about a situation where we can have agency and trust with respect to the tech we use.

As part of the work of the Collective, it has brought together some useful tools that help to enable rich conversations to flow within the membership. We've since opened those tools up for others to use, on a purely experimental and non-commercial basis, partly as a way to bring other groups and collectives into the space so that we can work on how we can enable communications not only within these groups, but between them.

Platform 6 has committed to join in with this , and move away from our current use of the proprietary Slack platform, which the directors use for internal comms, and use the Mattermost system that is a key part of the Collective's offering, which is known as "Co-operation as a Service" or CaaS. If that goes well we'll look at inviting our members and others into the space as well. We're also interested in being the focal point within the CaaS ecosystem for advice and support around co-operative development.

This cross-fertilisation of information and ecosystem-thinking is, I believe, critically important in the creation of wider co-operation at scale, breaking down the factions and repairing the fragmentation that typifies what we might call progressive culture , and exploring the massive untapped potential of what we might call the "adjacent possible".

Anyway, if you'd like to find out a bit more, the webinar is free, you can register for it here: https://open.coop/events/open-2020-webinar-digital-life-collective/, and it starts at 4pm tomorrow (Thursday 30th April).

Cheers Pete. That looks really useful. I'll share wider too.