Our developer, Timo ten Feld, researched the Sustainable Economies Law Center’s efforts, accomplishments, and vision and had this to say about how he came up with SELC’s new look: The SELC logo is an ”organically grown, vibrant little logo made with a little bit of help from Aotearoa’s beautiful South Island [New Zealand].”

Taking the cover of Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy as the departure point, the logo represents the different areas that SELC works in.

The overlaid Möbius band represents the over-riding goal of creating the space for sustainable communities.” Through the collaborative efforts between Timo and the SELC staff, we believe the new logo conveys the color, vibrancy, and unity we want to see in our neighborhoods and communities.

The logo launch also coincides with the final push of our Spring Matching Grant Campaign! One of SELC’s generous funders will match all our donor contributions if we can raise $10,000. If all of our online supporters & friends give just $5 today, SELC can reach our goal instantly and be able to devote more time to the work that builds just and resilient local economies! 

Help us reach our goal! Please consider donating $10, $25, or $50 dollars today to support the movement for vibrant and resilient communities!

11:30am – 12:30pm PDT / 2:30pm – 3:30pm EDT

It’s time for a new kind of energy. Community renewable energy is clean, small-scale, and owned or sponsored by communities. That’s why it creates democratic, resilient energy grids with distributed economic benefits. Join SELC’s expert panelists for a conversation about the legal barriers, policy opportunities, and steps to creating this new energy future.

Presenters:

Local Rules – John Farrell, Senior Researcher, Institute for Local Self Reliance

Legal Landscape – Linda Barrera, Environmental Attorney, Solar Advocate

Linda Barrera will describe the legal landscape — barriers and opportunities — for community renewable energy projects, and the interplay of federal, state, and local policy spaces.

Linda is a passionate advocate for solar power.  She has navigated the realm of environmental law and policy and utilities regulations through her past work as an attorney for the California Public Utilities Commission.  She has installed solar power systems in Nicaragua and Northern California.  Linda currently works as an attorney with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and volunteers with the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC).

Application – Heather Bailey, Executive Director of Energy Strategy & Electric Utility Development, City of Boulder, CO

Heather will tell the story of Boulder and why the City is considering municipalization; how municipalization can promote community renewable energy; and the challenges, successes and lessons learned.

Ms. Bailey was hired to help manage Boulder’s Energy Future project by providing direction in the creation of both short- and long-term energy strategies by leading the city’s municipalization exploration project. She has over 30 years of utility operations, finance, accounting, and auditing experience as a regulator, utility executive, and consultant for transmission, financial, regulatory, and strategic issues in the utility industry.

SELC’s City Policies Webinar Series

Community Renewable Energy is the first webinar in the new SELC series for planners, policymakers, and sharing economy change makers. Each installment targets a different segment of the sharing economy, highlighting model city policies and initiatives that help create more sustainable, collaborative, just and democratic communities. Upcoming webinars will address Transportation, Housing, Food & Ag, Governance & Democracy, and Community Enterprise, so stay tuned!

Join us! Register to attend!

This webinar is designed for municipal employees, entrepreneurs, and advocates, including:

• Sustainability directors
• Planners
• Community economic development officers
• Clean energy project managers
• City council members and staff
• Non-profits
• Community energy entrepreneurs
• Engaged citizens

Everyone is welcome to attend, and encouraged to leave a donation to support SELC‘s work when registering. Thank you for all that you do.

Cooperatives aren’t some utopian, hair-brained, hippie scheme. They support an incredibly diverse range of people from all over our communities, from families (did you see the baby above?) to young entrepreneurs to faith-based communities to immigrants.

Cooperatives – whether consumer, producer, worker, or housing – are turning into the viable, mainstream answer to today’s global financial crisis. Wealth is created everyday in our community, but somehow the wealth we generate flows up, up, and away. Cooperatives keep that wealth in our communities helping to build resilient, local economies.

Worker cooperatives pay themselves a wage just like any other business. When the business makes a profit, that money is given back to the worker-owners of the business, instead of going to some unknown stockholder with Swiss bank accounts. Consumer cooperatives give their members discounts, at-cost rates, or a percentage of the co-ops’ profits. This is usually based on the amount the members patronized the co-op, like REI.

You might not know it, but if you’re a member of a Credit Union, you’re a member of a cooperative! Credit Unions are member-owned financial co-ops! You can vote for your Credit Union’s Board of Directors and tell them how you want the Credit Union to treat the community it serves.

The people featured above have decided they want to bring their wealth back to their communities. Will you do the same? Find out more at co-oplaw.org!

Sheall e’us stad e. Shìn na coin a bha’n an luidhe làthair ris na daoinibh an cosan.’us charaich na daoine uile. Thug e an ath sheirm oirre. Dh’éirich na daoine air an uilnibh ‘us dh’éirich na coin ‘n an suidhe. Thionndaidh am fear ris an dorus, ‘us ghabh e eagal. Tharruing e an dorus ‘n a dhéigh. Ghlaodh iadsan uile gu léir, “Is miosa ‘dh’fhàg na fhuair, is miosa ‘dh’fhàg na fhuair.” Dh’fhalbh e ‘n a ruith. Thàinig e gu lochan uisge, a bha an sin, ‘us thilg e an fhìdeag anns an lochan. Dhealaich mise riu. There are numerous way to make the content media rich.

• create and update their profiles
• send private messages to one another, establish friends, and monitor activity
• join groups, participate in forum topic discussions

It’s a social networking system, with features similar to Facebook, LinkedIn or Ning.

Introduction to BuddyPress

This is a concise general overview and a good place to start. The videos after this one are more technical and suited for administrators, editors, and contributors.

BuddyPress 1.5 (1 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (2 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (3 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (4 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (5 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (6 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (7 of 8)

BuddyPress 1.5 (8 of 8)

Any member can access public groups. Private or hidden (invitation only) group(s) would require special access logins. Within groups, users can share info on topic areas that interest them.

Besides an activity stream, members can also list and send invites to groups they are in:

1.  Ideal for more in-depth discussions
2.  Excellent for sharing the conversation with the entire network.

Rolls of Group Members

The three roles that are assigned members in groups in decreasing level of responsibility are:

1. Admin – highest level of group access.  Full access to managing all aspects of the group.
2. Moderator – has increased responsibility within the group forum.
3. Member – Able to write/edit/delete own forum posts and replies

Here is a summary of their differences based on User Capability:

Navigating within a Group

Within a group, the Groups menu has five options:

1. Home – displays the group’s home page where you’ll see all the group’s activity. You can also post a quick update to the group.
2. Forum – displays the group’s forum page where you can post new topics, read and engage in discussion threads.
3. Members – lists all the current group members
4. Send Invites – this link is only visible if you are a member of a group. This is used to send invites to join the group to your friends.
5. Admin – this link is only visible to group administrator and group moderators. It contains all the options for managing the group.

Using the Group Home page

The Group Home page is just like any other activity stream page:

• Lists all activity from within the group
• Allows you to post a quick status update directly onto the Groups activity stream
• Allows you to Reply and/or Favorite activities within the Groups activity stream
• However, it also includes a RSS feed so you can subscribe to the Group’s activity using a feed reader such as Google Reader.

Working with a Group Forum

Group forums are made up of:

• Forum Topics – the proposed subject of a discussion
• Discussion threads – the conversations (replies) that result from the topic
• You normally create a New Topic if it is a totally new conversation — otherwise you reply to your own or other group members topics.

To publish a New Topic in a Group forum:

1. Click on the forum menu item
2. Give your topic a title
3. Add the information you want to discuss or share in the content field
4. Add tags
5. Click “Post Topic”
6. Note: Sometimes this ability to post ones own topic might be disabled.

The eResources Forums Directory

Forums in eResources are attached to groups. Group forums are made up of:

• Forum Topics – the proposed subject of a discussion
• Discussion threads – the conversations (replies) that result from the topic
• The Forum Directory lists all forum topics, by all Groups, created within the community, sorted by the most recently active.

Forum topics can easily be searched or filtered (by Last Active, Most Replies and Un-replied).

An important aspect to understand about the Forum Directory is that when you add a new Topic on the Forum Directory you must select which Group you want the topic posted in.

Writing a New Topic using the Forum Directory is as simple as:

• Click on New Topic
• Add your Title
• Add your content
• Insert your tags
• Select which Group Forum you want to post in (only displays Groups that you belong to)
• Click “Post Topic”

Alternatively you can search Forum Topics or click on Forum Topic tags to locate forum topics and reply to them.