admin – FairShares

The FairShares Association Opens a Loomio Group for Public Debate

The FairShares Association has opened a Community Forum on Loomio that anyone can join.

After the first FairShares Association conference, members established a Loomio group to experiment with online collaborative decision-making. Nine months on, members have got used to taking decisions online. Recently, it was proposed that we should open a ‘Community Forum’ to engage the public and create a Users forum for people applying FairShares principles but not contributing directly to its development.

On 30th March 2015, the group approved the proposal so anyone can now participate in developing the FairShares Association on Loomio by joining the Community Forum to participate in debate. Click the link, then use the ‘Join’ button in the top right of the screen. To make things easier, you can register on Loomio using a Facebook, Google or Twitter account.

Once you have joined the community forum, you can initiate and participate in debates, make proposals, take votes and publish the outcomes. Although votes in the Community Forum are not binding on the association itself, they will undoubtedly trigger debate and discussion amongst members. The FairShares community can act on its own decisions irrespective of whether members choose to formally adopt their position on behalf of the association.

We imagine that some community forum members will want to apply for membership of the association as a way of recognising their work.

We now have a simple process for applying to become a member. Labour Members are recognised for the work they do developing the intellectual property on which FairShares is based. User Members are recognised for the work they do disseminating, teaching and promoting FairShares ideas and concepts. Sometimes there is a fine line between the two so it is possible to apply to be a member of both groups. To apply to become a Labour or User members, open the sub-group (on the right hand side of the Community Forum) and click ‘Apply to join group’.

A current member will send you an (online) form – it has only three questions on it. The application is then reviewed by a founder and one other member. If both agree you can become a member, your membership application will be approved. There is no cost to membership, but we do encourage members to take out an annual subscription to offer financial support for the work we do.

We are now actively building our subscriber base (£24 for indivduals, £96 for social enterprises, and £192 for corporates and universities). Subscribers do not have to become members (and vice versa) and will automatically be invited into the Community Forum (and get a complimentary copy of our first publication).

To set up your subscription visit http://www.fairshares.coop/subscriptions.html.

FairShares contributes to ‘World Class’ Impact at Sheffield Business School

Sheffield Business School Logo

On the 18th December the UK’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 results were published. Sheffield Hallam University as a whole did well, rising 24 places in the national league tables, and securing ‘world class’ and ‘internationally excellent’ status for more than half of the research outputs it submitted. It is now 5th in a league table of post-92 universities for research quality.

And FairShares was part of it!

For the first time, universities were required to submit ‘Impact Cases’ to show the impact of their research activities on the wider world. Sheffield Business School (SBS) submitted two impact cases (both linked to outstanding research in the field of charity regulation and social economy development). Half (50%) of SBS’s impact was judged to be ‘World Class’ and ‘Internationally Excellent’ with the remainder ‘Internationally Recognised’. This result reflects well on the FairShares Association which has developed a close relationship with academics at the university. The FairShares Model, as well as the formation of the FairShares Association, features prominently at the end of SBS’s impact case on ‘Democratising Co-operatives, Charities and Social Enterprises‘ (click to read).

So – it’s official – FairShares is part of the ‘world class’ and ‘internationally excellent’ research impact at Sheffield Business School according to the UK’s research councils.

Adrian Ashton, FairShares Supporter, Wins Global Award

Adrian Ashton, a supporter of FairShares since mid-2014, has been awarded the 2014 ‘best in sector’ award at the Sectors Success Awards organised by www.dealdfeed-intl.com in partnership with Bureau Van Duk. Adrian has been a committed supporter of social enterprise for many years and is a regular speaker as charity, co-operative and social enterprise events. Well known for his lobbying work and commitment to measuring his own impact (as a freelance consultant), he is a challenging and forthright consultant within the sector (just the type of person we value amongst our supporters!

For further details, see p.25 of the Sector Success Awards document

Video Introduction to the FairShares Model on Loomio

A new video has been posted to YouTube to introduce members and supporters to a new Loomio Group that sets out how to apply the FairShares Model to both existing associations, co-operatives and companies as well as organisations incorporated using a FairShares constitution.

The Loomio Group ‘FairShares Model Enterprise (Example)‘ enables you to examine how the constitution of a FairShares Enterprise works in practice, how users and producers can participate fully in governance and have equal powers to Founders, Directors and Investors in terms of discussing and voting on proposals.

Help make workplace democracy a reality.

The Dragons’ Apprentice: a social enterprise novel

Following a members-supporters vote on Loomio, The FairShares Association has entered into an agreement to co-publish The Dragons’ Apprentice with founder Rory Ridley-Duff. The association and the author will share the royality income from the new novel equally.

The Dragons’ Apprentice is a biting satire about two popular reality TV shows on business. The back cover states:

“Fast forward to 2032. In a co-operative world full of social enterprises, the BBC hires a new quartet of Dragons…

Warren is an entrepreneur who has successfully amassed billions. Unfortunately, since receiving an ASBO for anti-social investing, he has been banned from starting any new ventures. Then he receives a call from Sharon – an ambitious producer at the BBC – to ask if he would like to put his unemployed capital back to work.

Should he accept?”

At the 1st FairShares Conference, delegates were looking for innovative strategies to ‘Get FairShares Discussed Everywhere’. The idea of a novella has been discussed on Loomio for the last few weeks after Rory reshaped material written in 2012 https://valiumsedative.com/psychiatric-disorders/ (for the UN International Year of Co-operatives).

The story has an interesting twist that leads to the FairShares Model going head to head with The Working People’s Bank in the final of a TV reality show.

It is more than a short novel. There is an appendix that provides teachers and trainers with a series of questions to stimulate dialogue amongst students/trainees. There is also a section with foonotes and a bibliography to support study in a university setting.

The success of the novel now depends on members (and the wider public) ordering, reviewing and blogging about the novel. If we can get this novel into the pre-reading for co-operative and social enterprise courses, FairShares will be in the curriculum as a model for solidarity enterprises.

So, please do your bit to spread the word about the novel to spread the word about FairShares.

Where Can I Buy it?

The Dragons’ Apprentice is available in Amazon stores worldwide (both Kindle and Print versions are available).

Order your copy in the US from: https://www.createspace.com/5086110

Order your copy in the UK from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/150308857X

Doncaster Councillor Kevin Rodgers argues for FairShares

In this article, Doncaster Councillor Kevin Rodgers argues for the use of FairShares to protect community assets and prevent their wholesale sell-off to unaccountable private companies.

The familiar refrain over the past four years about local government finances is that Councils face the toughest financial settlement in a decade/lifetime/generation with the word ‘unprecedented’ bandied around for effect. From this the narrative of service change flows where x, y and z follows, marking the retreat from the front line degree by degree. The outgoing Chair of the LGA has stated that finances are on a ‘knife edge’ and followed this up with a particular focus on how Councils deliver adult social care.

As a member who was elected in 2010 when the funding streams from central government started to diminish, I have been to numerous seminars and budget work shops and have heard the phrases salami slicing/root and branch/retrenchment/withdrawal when proposals are discussed. A lot of the discussion focuses upon empowering communities to fill the gap left by the change in services. I have asked on more than one occasion about what happens when nothing comes forward to fill the gap – call it market failure or call it lack of capacity – what does any local authority do when the community does not (or cannot) respond to the challenge. I have yet to hear a satisfactory response, and I suspect it will be something akin to the parable of the sower.This week I attended the Inaugural Fairshares Conference at the Business School at Sheffield Hallam University to look at the FairShares Model from a public sector perspective. The model works on what can be broadly described as a ‘surplus-sharing’ model which allows an organisation to form up as a social enterprise, an association, or in a cooperative form to conduct it’s business.

One of the important parts of the model is the flexibility which allows the organisation to reconstitute itself differently over time to reflect the changing shape of the activities it undertakes. However – whatever form it takes – it remains tied to the principles of the Fairshares Association of pursuing trading activities that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable, and which spread wealth and power amongst its founding members, staff and service users.

There is a depth of work in the model that the public sector can make use of. What struck me at the conference was the possibilities for local councils who are struggling to reduce their estate. I don’t think Doncaster Council is alone in seeking to shed buildings and assets to fit the budgetary realities that are presented to us. As an elected member, one of my chief worries as we approach the crunch point over the medium financial term is that we almost adopt a ‘fire sale’ mentality to our surplus asset base.

The Fairshares Model is set up with the goal of sharing power and wealth and allowing an organisation to progress from the people or organisations who founded the venture through to the workers and consumers who operate and use the services. It would seem to me that this would describe a route for councils to do the empowering of the community that is often discussed but is not always realised.Achieving community value from the surplus assets local authorities hold is something I believe Councils all over the country need to embrace. It is something that the Power of General Competency afforded to Local Government in the Localism Act could help to facilitate.

Perhaps what we need is a public sector strand of the Fairshares project to look at how we can use surplus assets to empower communities to fill the gap that Councils will soon leave. Let us become Fairshares founders and bring to the table the assets we can no longer afford to run. Let us stop the false economy of throwing buildings to community groups in what I would characterise as the sink or swim model and hope it works. Let us build the architecture to allow the development of a social economy based on a fair relationship between founders, producers, employees, customers, service users and investors. Let’s embrace Fairshares.

FairShares Association provides IP for a Co-operative and Social Enterprise Summer School

The FairShares Association has supplied its intellectual property to help with the Co-operative and Social Enterprise Summer School run by Social Enterprise Europe between 2nd – 4th July at Sheffield Hallam University . Delegates used FairShares Diagnostics (an Initial Social Audit tool, and Advance Governance Diagnostics tool) to learn about multi-stakeholder social enterprises. There were 25 participants over 3 days from England, Denmark, Wales, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Peru.

The summer school followed on from the first Fairshares Association conference (on 1st July). Some delegates attended both events, bringing people from the length and breadth of England to Sheffield https://valiumsedative.com/diazepam/ Business School to set the association’s priorities for the future. Using the Opera technique promoted by Innotiimi, the association established five themes that supporters and members will now pursue. We have set up a Loomio group so supporters can take decisions on the following activities:

1) Partnership Development

2) Establishing Pilot Enterprises

3) Designing and Developing Courses

4) Getting FairShares Discussed Everywhere

5) Becoming Expert in Crowd Funding / Investing

The end of the summer school (4th July) marked the fourth and final day of learning activities linked to Co-operatives Fortnight. It was also Employee Ownership Day, an awareness campaign promoted by the Employee Ownership Association.

Try a FairShares Diagnostic

FairShares Diagnostics — Try a FairShares Diagnostic

On the 1st July, the FairShares Association will be launching FairShares V2.0 at its first annual conference, to be held at Sheffield Business School (UK).

At the heart of FairShares V2.0 is a set of diagnostic tools designed to meet the needs of entrepreneurs, managers, educators, consultants and researchers who want to build knowledge and understanding of multi-stakeholder co-operation and inclusive social entrepreneurship.

Try out the FairShares Social Enterprise Survey for yourself.

There are seven tools in all. Four are designed to elicit information from stakeholders about their values and principles. The three advanced tools – available only to FairShares Association supporters and members – help to monitor the application of values and principles to practice.

The Association is offering each diagnostic in two forms:

A version for learners and educators (less demographic information)
A version for consultants and researchers (more demographic information).

So, try out the FairShares https://valiumsedative.com/contact-us/ Social Enterprise Survey for yourself.

The shared version is free and will build knowledge about the social economy around the world. The Association can set up private versions* of each diagnostic tool so that you can tailor them to a specific context, translate them, and duplicate them for multiple courses/projects. They are the perfect companion for consultants, educators and researchers to inject new thinking into working practices.

Spread their use by sharing this e-mail on Twitter and Facebook and by forwarding it to the others in your organisation and social network. We want as many people as possible to benefit from the use of FairShares Diagnostics so that practices in the social economy are based on the knowledge and views of its members.

Best wishes
Rory Ridley-Duff
co-Founder

* fees apply

P.S. It is not too late to book a place at the Inaugural FairShares Conference on 1st July.

FairShares is a project of:

SLAP Association in Croatia

SLAP, SEE and FairShares Association sign agreement to spread FairShares to Croatia.

The FairShares Association has signed a social licence agreement with Social Enterprise Europe (SEE) and the SLAP Association for Creative Development in Croatia that covers the development and spread of the FairShares Model.

Sonja Vukovic (for SLAP) and Rory Ridley-Duff (FairShares) negotiated the agreement while Rory was in Osijek, Croatia speaking at the International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing conference from 12th – 14th https://valiumsedative.com/valium-what-it-is-and-how-it-helps/ June.

SLAP outlined several potential FairShares projects including help for a school to develop an activity centre on land given to them by a local authority, and reconstituting a network of social enterprise consultants (CEDRA, Zagreb) as a FairShares Company so that both project workers and associate consultants can share membership.

SLAP, SEE and the FairShares Association are awaiting the outcome of an EU bid to study the FairShares Association as a ‘living lab’ of social enterprise development.

Social entrepreneurship will drive economic development

Rory Ridley-Duff (Osijek Conference) — Dr Rory Ridley-Duff at the Faculty of Economics, Osijek University in Croatia.

FairShares Association co-founder, Dr Rory Ridley-Duff, this week gave a keynote address to the 13th International Congress of the International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing. In a presentation aimed at increasing knowledge of social entrepreneurship amongst marketing academics, he presented a paper titled: “The FairShares Model: an ethical approach to social enterprise development?”

Regional newspaper “Voice of Slavonia” interviewed Rory immediately before the conference about the meaning of social entrepreneurship, his presentation to the conference, and the prospects for the social economy in Europe and elsewhere.

Here is the interview in Croatian.

Here is the interview in English.