From our friends at ACENet and Rural Action:
The Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet) and Rural Action will sponsor a community investment workshop “Local Dollars, Local Sense” featuring author Michael Shuman on Monday, April 9th from 10 am to 4 pm at the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio. In the U.S. long-term savings in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, pension funds, and life insurance funds total about $30 trillion. Ironically, not even 1 percent of these savings touch locally-owned, small businesses. How can we as community investors, increasingly concerned with corporate investment practices and poor returns shift a percentage of our savings to retool our regional food and farm economy?
Local economy author and innovator, Michael Shuman has just released a new book, Local Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity (Chelsea Green), outlining dozens of ways that pioneering individuals, businesses, and communities are reinvesting their money locally and improving their community’s prospects of securing more income, wealth, and jobs. As part of his book tour, he will be visiting with ACEnet and Rural Action to present the “Local Dollars, Local Sense” workshop.
In preparation for the workshop, Shuman said, “Over the past dozen years, since publication of Going Local in 1998, I’ve traveled around the country to convince communities about the importance of nurturing locally owned businesses and about their growing competitiveness. The Small Mart-Revolution, published in 2006, enumerated more than a hundred tools communities were using to measure “dollar leakages,” to promote local purchasing and investing, to create business alliances, to support local entrepreneurship, and to enact policies consistent with these goals. I’ve gradually come to appreciate that the biggest obstacle to expanding local business and reaping the consequent economic benefits is – by far – capital.”
The April 9th workshop will help demystify local investment choices—illustrating new financial mechanisms from institutional lending to investment clubs and networks, local investment funds, community and cooperative ownership, direct public offerings, local stock exchanges, crowdfunding, and more models easily adaptable to our region.
“Focusing on community reinvestment is a real opportunity in our region,” said Michelle Decker, Executive Director of Rural Action. “Rural Action is excited to host trainings that help local entrepreneurs get the support they need to operate in the sustainable economy.”
“Who might find the workshops useful? Anyone interested in growing supporting or investing in our local food economy” said Leslie Schaller, Director of Programs for ACEnet, “which might include local food and farm entrepreneurs looking for new sources of capital; non-profit local food partners and professors or students involved in relevant fields in business, economic development, planning, and local governance.” Elected officials, community non-profits, economic developers, local bankers, credit union managers, investment advisors and philanthropists are encouraged to attend. A local lunch featuring ACEnet client food businesses will be provided.
Pre-registration is $50.00 per person by Sunday, scholarships are available. Underwriters for the workshop include Casa Nueva and the Athens County Convention and Tourism Bureau. If you have additional questions about the Local Dollars, Local Sense” workshop please contact: Jen Harvey or Leslie Schaller at 740-592-3854 or register by email: leslies@acenetworks.org.
