Home » Sustainable Business Development »

All Members Meeting & Potluck

COME JOIN THE PARTY AT OUR BIGGEST EVENT ALL YEAR!

Friday, January 9th 6pm-8:30pm @ Depot Market Square (NEW LOCATION!)

If you thought last year's party was a blast, 2009's All Member's Meeting will knock your socks off! Not only are we hosting our regular potluck extravaganza (scroll to the end for assignments), we will hear 5 minutes of inspiration from each of 7 national leaders in sustainable agriculture, living buildings, responsible investing, community business, green jobs and local living economies! (The national board for BALLE is having an annual retreat in Bellingham at the same time – so we’ll have access to a bounty of folks who each are regular keynoters speaking around the world.) This crew of insightful leaders will briefly share their thoughts about the leading edge of this movement. And all night long - before and after the main program there will be plenty of time for catching up with friends, grabbing a pint, and celebrating our luck at being Whatcom locals!

>>>FEATURING<<<

All BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) Board Members will be in attendance, and the following will share some inspiration with us:

David Korten is the author of the international bestsellers When Corporations Rule the World; The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, Globalizing Civil Society, Getting to the 21st Century: Voluntary Action and the Global Agenda, and the new The Great Turning. He holds MBA and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford Business School and has been a Harvard Business School professor, US Air Force captain, Ford Foundation project specialist in Manila, and Asia regional advisor to the US Agency for International Development. He co-founded and is board chair of the Positive Futures Network, which publishes YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, and is founder and president of the People-Centered Development Forum.

Paul Saginaw co-founded Zingerman's Delicatessen in March of 1982 in an historic building near the Ann Arbor Farmers' Market, with a staff of two, a small selection of great-tasting specialty foods, a host of traditional Jewish dishes, and a relatively short sandwich menu. Today Zingerman's Community of Businesses is an Ann Arbor institution, and according to Inc. Magazine, “the coolest small company in America”.

Don Shaffer is president and CEO, RSF Social Finance, an organization that provides socially responsible investors, donors, and social enterprises innovative investing, lending, and philanthropic services to promote sustainability. Most recently, he served as BALLE's executive director. Don also was a co-founder of Comet Skateboards – a small American manufacturer that is demonstrating a better way to do business. In addition, for the past year Don was the interim executive director of Investors’ Circle, an organization that facilitates the flow of private capital (over $111 million since 1992) from angel investors, professional venture capitalists, and foundations to companies that are addressing social and environmental issues.

Judy Wicks founded the White Dog Café on the first floor of her Philadelphia home in 1983. As the restaurant grew, so did her notion that the strength of her business relied upon the quality and sustainability of its locally grown ingredients. Envisioning how strengthening relationships among independent, community-rooted enterprises could inspire profound social change, she founded the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia in 2001, and co-founded the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies that same year. Judy is also founder/president of White Dog Community Enterprises, a non-profit dedicated to building a local food system and living economy in the Philadelphia region.

Doug Hammond, BALLE’s executive director, was a founding board member of BALLE and founder and chair of the Western Massachusetts BALLE network, Pioneer Valley Local First. He also founded, and until recently, was CEO of Relief Resources, a mission-driven sustainable business that provides staffing support and management services to human service organizations, childcare centers, and social change enterprises in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Doug is also a co-founder and was executive director of Community Staffing Resources, a nonprofit health and human services staffing enterprise, and co-founder of Joyous Workplace, a consulting firm that assists organizations to improve employee retention and organizational performance. In his generally overcommitted life outside of work, Doug has spent the last 25 years passionately engaged in the evolution of corporate social responsibility.

Sandy Wiggins is Principal of Consilience, LLC, a national green development consultancy, and Chairman of e3bank, a triple bottom line full service bank with a mission to facilitate the transition to a green economy. He is also a Director of Silpa, Inc., an international green building technical consultancy with offices in Philadelphia, Bangalore, and Dubai. Sandy is Immediate Past Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council, a Director and Founding Chair of the Green Building Certification Institute, and served on the LEED for Neighborhood Development Core Committee and the LEED 2009 Executive Committee. He was Co-Founder and Founding Chair of Philadelphia’s Delaware Valley Green Building Council. He is also an adjunct professor in Philadelphia University’s Master of Science in Sustainable Design program.

Baye Adofo-Wilson, Esq is a national leader in the ‘green collar jobs’ movement, an urban planner and the Executive Director of Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District (LPCCD) in Newark, New Jersey. LPCCD is transforming a low-income neighborhood from blighted lots into an urban eco-village and one of the nation’s best practices in sustainable urban development. The project includes 300 LEED United States Green Building Council certified units, music festivals, historic restoration projects and the Museum of African American Music, a Smithsonian Affiliate.

>>>AND MORE FUN!<<<

• recap and revelations by Executive Director, Michelle Long
• the most delicious and gigantic potluck dinner imaginable (read on for details)
• and YOU, the best business owners and community leaders in town!

>>>POTLUCK DETAILS<<<

YES, gorging ourselves with a delicious spread of local food is on the schedule again this year! Please bring a dish to share, last names A-L: side or dessert; M-Z: main dish. For those with restricted diets, reporting your ingredients is always appreciated (we’ll provide note cards and markers if you forget to ‘dish’ the ‘scoop’ on your contribution)! A cash bar with beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages will also be on hand.