The vision of the New Economy Movement is a world in which economic activity to a large extent is in the hands of democratically governed enterprises that operate for the benefit of their workers and customers, the community and the planet.
There are two ways to add new economy enterprises to a community. One is to change capitalist-run businesses into cooperatives and other democratic forms. The other is to start new economy enterprises from scratch. The Entrepreneurs’ Café is a place where we hope such entirely new enterprises will be conceived and set into motion.
This network gathering will engage participants in testing and improving a new way to invent, start and grow new economy enterprises. In the gathering we want to see how quickly the participants can understand the purpose and the process that we have in mind, conduct exercises in accordance with our instructions and provide feedback to help us design a creative and productive process.
It is a timeless tradition for people to meet at taverns, pubs, teahouses and cafés to talk about prospective business ventures. Our café is different in at least two respects. First, we don’t rely on chance to bring people together. We will look for good prospects and invite them to come. Second, we will structure the discussion around four questions:
- What idle or underused resources are there in this community?
- What unmet needs are there?
- Is there an opportunity for a business that would put those resources to work to fill those needs?
- If so, who among us could get excited about building that business?
Once a volunteer steps forward, the group will discuss what training and services such as legal, marketing, accounting and finance they will need to build an enterprise.
This network gathering is open to all CommonBound attendees. Come and learn with us how to pull idle or underused resources together to build an enterprise that will both generate income for its members and serve the community’s needs. For more information, contact Andrew Collver at acollver [at] optonline.net.
Coordinators:
Andrew Collver (Community Builders of Long Island)
Paul D'Ascoli (Community Builders of Long Island)