Cleveland, OH
I'm in Cleveland, Ohio for the Association of Co-operative Educators conference, which is directly related to my job at the Canadian Co-operative Association, It is a fascinating conference and the participants are a good mix of academics and co-op practitioners.
A highlight of yesterday's session was a tour of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, part of a larger initiative aimed at developing worker co-ops in low-income communities. The laundry opened last October - it now has 15 employees, several of whom have completed the six-month probationary period to become worker/owners of the company. This is a wonderful example of how the co-operative model can be used to create jobs and keep money in the community.
While I'm here for work, we've also managed to combine pleasure with our business. Jim is with me, and as we were on our way here, I happened to post a Facebook status update that I was on the way to Cleveland. I immediately heard from two gaming friends -- Erin O'Malley and Leo Tischer -- both of whom suggested we get together to game while we were here. Together with Erin's friend Charles, they came to our hotel on Tuesday night and we had a great game of Union Pacific in the lobby of the Marriott. Leo also taught us a card game called Splits, which was lots of fun.
And last night, we went off to Progressive Field (named after an insurance company - nothing to do with politics) to see the Indians play the Yankees. The previous evening, the Indians pulled off a surprising win as a result of an excellent performance by a rookie pitcher named Tomlin. Alas, they were back to their losing form last night, and the Yankees won the game 8-0. I got the sense that there were as many Yankee fans in the stadium as Indians fans, and all eyes were on A-Rod, who was going for his 600th career home run., He didn't do in -- in fact, the were no homers in the game, despite the high score., But it is always fun to go to a game, and it was our first visit to Progressive Field, which is one of the better stadiums we'd been to.
A highlight of yesterday's session was a tour of the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, part of a larger initiative aimed at developing worker co-ops in low-income communities. The laundry opened last October - it now has 15 employees, several of whom have completed the six-month probationary period to become worker/owners of the company. This is a wonderful example of how the co-operative model can be used to create jobs and keep money in the community.
While I'm here for work, we've also managed to combine pleasure with our business. Jim is with me, and as we were on our way here, I happened to post a Facebook status update that I was on the way to Cleveland. I immediately heard from two gaming friends -- Erin O'Malley and Leo Tischer -- both of whom suggested we get together to game while we were here. Together with Erin's friend Charles, they came to our hotel on Tuesday night and we had a great game of Union Pacific in the lobby of the Marriott. Leo also taught us a card game called Splits, which was lots of fun.
And last night, we went off to Progressive Field (named after an insurance company - nothing to do with politics) to see the Indians play the Yankees. The previous evening, the Indians pulled off a surprising win as a result of an excellent performance by a rookie pitcher named Tomlin. Alas, they were back to their losing form last night, and the Yankees won the game 8-0. I got the sense that there were as many Yankee fans in the stadium as Indians fans, and all eyes were on A-Rod, who was going for his 600th career home run., He didn't do in -- in fact, the were no homers in the game, despite the high score., But it is always fun to go to a game, and it was our first visit to Progressive Field, which is one of the better stadiums we'd been to.