The SEEN Presents: Local Investment for Community Wealth

Has the stock market and corporate big box banking got you down?

Join us on Thursday, February 9 at LaTourelle for four paradigm-shifting presentations that will change the way you think of investing when:

• Fred Schoeps presents Local Investment Opportunity Network (LION) for Tompkins County
• Krys Cail presents Slow Money Central New York
• Kavita Nehemiah, Elaina Dionosopoulos, and Max Shomaecker present BR Microcapital for Local Entrepreneurs
• Tristram Coffin presents Alternatives Federal Credit Union Sustainability Banking

Learn how these initiatives can help us create community capital, support entrepreneurship and strengthen our local economy- by investing in our neighbors' success.

We'll see you next week.

The SEEN Team

$5 - SEEN members
$10 - non-members
Ithaca Hours accepted

DIRECTIONS
La Tourelle
1150 Danby Rd
Ithaca, NY

Share The Ride
Post ride offers or requests at Zimride.com/Tompkins

Explore Your Options
For more information on transportation options, dial 211 for Info & Referral, or email Way2Go at staff@way2goinfo.org

Public Transit
TCAT Ride Map

Take bus route #65 from Aurora Street side of the Commons at 5:07pm and request to stop at La Tourelle.

About Our Presenters

Krys Cail
Krys Cail is a food systems planning consultant, working independently and with the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE) throughout New York State. She is also the owner of Robinia Redux, a small-scale sustainable forest products business selling black locust wood products. Additionally, Krys is an active civic volunteer, serving on many boards and steering committees in the region.

Tristram Coffin
Tristram Coffin is the Chief Executive Officer of Alternatives Federal Credit Union, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in Ithaca, New York.  Since his arrival in 2007, he has led Alternatives during a period of growth and increased community involvement while sustaining the organization’s mission of serving the underserved. In 2010 Alternatives was named Small Business of the Year by the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, and was runner-up for the NEXT Award for innovation in financial services.

Fred Schoeps
Fred Schoeps has been volunteering with Sustainable Tompkins to help create a local informal investing circle or LION (Local Investment Opportunity Network).  Fred is also a SEEN member, serves as treasurer for EVI, Inc., the local EcoVillage educational non-profit, serves on the Groundswell Center steering committee, is a small business owner, and volunteers as a mentor for CCE.

BR MicroCapital
BR MicroCapital (BRM) is a student-run organization that spurs microenterprise development by assisting self-employed individuals reach their business goals. Launched in January of 2009, BRM seeks to meet a critical need by working with promising, but underserved entrepreneurs in the local community. BRM partners with Alternatives Federal Credit Union (Alternatives), a leading community development credit union, and the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise to support microbusiness owners.

About the SEEN

The Sustainable Enterprise & Entrepreneur Network (The SEEN) is a growing community of businesses, organizations, and individuals working together to achieve ecological, social, and financial success. The SEEN is a program of the Green Resource Hub, a local non-profit organization that aims to expand the marketplace for sustainable living in the Finger Lakes region.

Together we're building a more sustainable economy.

Time banking coming soon, help needed!

Here's a message from the Share Tompkins listserve about a unique opportunity to help with a sustainable initiative:


Hi all,

As some of you know, a small group has been quietly working on bringing time banking to our region.  For those that don't know, time banking offers a way to give and receive goods and services without having to pay cash. Exchanges of favors are made via membership in the system and everyone's hour is valued at the same rate, regardless of the service provided. This enables the exchanges to be tax free. The scope of services that people employ through these systems is truly staggering, and the connections made between community members who otherwise might never cross paths is inspiring. Time banking is simply and elegantly social justice and community building at its best!

Our group has done much of the heavy lifting, including identifying and implementing software (see hourworld.com for more, and look for the links to several good media pieces that have recently come out about this topic). We need to expand our number of volunteers at this time to get ourselves ready for prime time! Our goal is to offer memberships in the spring. For now, we are looking for people with a bit of time and passion for this endeavor. If this sounds like you, kindly reach out to me via email.

The words of the old CSN&Y song haunt me. We can change the world, rearrange the world. It's dying....to get better.

Thanks.

Leslie Strebel
les@lightlink.com

Tomorrow: Fracking Rally and Occupy Bikes!

Tomorrow (Friday) Frack Off is holding an anti-fracking rally at 4pm at Free Speech Rock. Come out and show your support (and sign the petitions if you haven't) demanding that Ithaca College bans fracking on its lands, and that NYS officially bans fracking. If you don't know much about fracking (hydraulic fracturing), go to Frack Off's screening of "Gasland" in Textor 101 at 7pm tonight, and then check out Shaleshock's website for tons of information.

After the rally, join the critical mass bike ride around downtown Ithaca in solidarity of the Occupy Wall St. movement. Celebrate Halloween (optional of course) by dressing up as scary Wall St. bankers and corporate CEOs, zombies and vampires, or beautiful revolutionaries and occupiers! We will ride to some of the haunts of Ithaca's 1% and through the neighborhoods of the 99% and do some outreach while we ride. Then descend on the Commons for Friday night festivities!

Let's show the strength of this movement by creating a community movement on two wheels! If anyone is interested in riding down from IC, contact Margaret Keating at mkeatin1@ithaca.edu. We will assemble after the fracking rally at 5pm and head down to the Bank of America ATM on Seneca St.

Dan Smolen: "Tailoring the Green Suit: Establishing a Bright Green Career in a Dull Gray Economy"

Ithaca College Career Services is hosting Dan Smolen (class of '83), who will be presenting on "Tailoring the Green Suit: Establishing a Bright Green Career in a Dull Gray Economy." The presentation will include a career development strategy overview and question & answer session, followed by a reception. 

Where: Klingenstein Lounge, Campus Center
When: Thursday, November 3, 7 - 8:30pm

From Dan's website:

As a nationally recognized executive recruiter, serial entrepreneur, direct and interactive marketing specialist, environmental and public policy activist, past chairman of a large regional political organization, and author of Tailoring the Green Suit: Empowering Yourself for an Executive Career in the New Green Economy, Smolen brings a unique perspective to green business executive employment.

Sponsored by Career Services, TREES Institute (Teaching and Research in Environmental Ethics and Sustainability), Sustainability@Ithaca, Roy H. Park School of Communications, School of Business.

Revitalizing Our Regional Economy from the Inside Out

Local First Ithaca is pleased to present an evening with Michael Shuman.

As the federal government runs out of plausible stimulus solutions to the nation’s persistent unemployment crisis, a new set of options is beginning to emerge at the local level across America. The real solutions, argues economist and author Michael Shuman, already exist in our local communities.

Shuman is the author of three books: Going Local (1998), The Small-Mart Revolution (2006), and Local Dollars, Local Sense (2012). He shows that the key to creating jobs is to abandon ineffective traditional economic-development policies that emphasize the attraction and retention of nonlocal business and to support local businesses through sensible policies promoting local investing, purchasing, entrepreneurship, and partnerships.


Tuesday, Oct. 25, 7-9pm
Community School of Music and Arts
330 E. State St., 3rd floor
This event is free and open to the public.