For some individuals, Mary
Hoyer’s job would be like herding long-tailed cats in a room full of rocking chairs. She is
organizing the 4th Biennial Conference of the Eastern Conference of the U.S. Federation of Worker
Cooperatives, a thinly spread group of like-minded individuals up and down the East Coast.
Only Melissa Hoover, who staffs the U.S.
Federation and organizes a nationwide conference every two years, may have a greater challenge.
Hoyer does not seem the least flustered
either by the number of people she answers to as the Conference’s lead organizer, or by the number
of individuals she must negotiate with at the University of North Carolina/Asheville, where the gathering is to be
held, or by people calling to say they want to provide some service.
There may be two reasons why she remains so
calm, even as the event is closing in on her: First, she retired after teaching in Hartford, Ct schools 30 years, all
the while a union activist, and second, she organized a hugely successful conference at the sprawling University of
Maryland campus four years ago. She was unflappable during the 2.5 days then, and is expected to be the same in
Asheville.
Since leaving the classroom, Hoyer became a
staff consultant for the Cooperative Fund of New England. That was 13 years ago. Thus, she knows most persons planning
to attend already and a number of persons in Asheville who are to be part of the event, including artists and
musicians.
And what does she have to say about how
this year’s gathering:
- It seems very exciting. People are
stepping forward voluntarily to share experiences, information and their skills. There are over 30 workshops in three
strands - creating democratic workplaces, managing and financing democratic work places, and building the workplace
democracy movement.
- We have an outstanding keynote speaker and
long-time advocate of worker-owned businesses, Lynn Williams, former president of the United Steelworkers of America,
and the first international union president to actively promote worker ownership in the United States since the 1800s
when the Ironmongers’ Union set up a correspondent school for members wanting to know how to start
cooperatives.
- There will be free spaces for workshops
that will spring up spontaneously, or which have come to her attention since the formal schedule was printed. One of
these spaces will be held by SACCO for persons interested in blogs, to discuss how these now communications means may
help build movements for social and economic justice.
- We have arranged a downtown tour of two
artist-owned and managed cooperatives on Friday evening. Saturday evening attendees are free to choose where they will
dine and walk about in Asheville's exciting downtown.
Buses will take participants back to UNCA.
- The opening plenary panel will take a
realistic look at the challenges and rewards of organizing worker cooperatives in the South. We expect Southerners to
provide answers to most of these challenges, and what they see as rewards.
- Topping the
conference’s business agenda is a discussion of how the Eastern Conference might assist Southerners
trying to organize and to manage worker cooperatives.
For more details go to: http://east.usworker.coop/default.htm
See you there!
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