Columinate

Leadership Learning Circles help leaders and teams seeking alignment or needing a reset. Discover ways to support your teams and leaders to be more responsive, authentic, and vulnerable. Together we will explore what matters most and elevate leadership skills in a trusting environment. Register today! https://lnkd.in/gASqiDth

Everyone is telling you that your co-op needs to be more inclusive. You’ve learned A LOT about diversity, but are you still struggling to create that culture of “everyone welcome”? Have the experts or even the critics instilled in you the confidence or the know-how for taking the next step on your inclusion and belonging journey? What if you could learn more about creating a culture of inclusion and belonging from both DEI practitioners AND your peers in the food co-op landscape? Enter: The Inclusion Inspiration Lab for Food Co-op Operations This Inclusion Inspiration Lab will offer an energizing and stimulating environment for learning about specific and relevant topics. It will begin on January 29, 2025 and continue through September 2025. We will meet a total of 6 times throughout the year on the 4th Wednesday of the months of March, April, June, August and September. Learn more and register: https://lnkd.in/gJ28FWTG

Our Cooperative Board Leadership Development (CBLD) team is looking ahead to another great year of supporting your organization’s success through our award-winning CBLD program! Now in its 21st year, CBLD provides an annual program of board support that includes monthly consulting, facilitated board retreats, a wealth of online webinars and other board trainings, and a library of resources to support your board in governing well. Your CBLD enrollment includes exclusive access to a core set of CBLD courses via our new online learning platform, CBLD Academy. We are now accepting enrollment for the 2025 program year and offer three options to meet your organization's needs and budget: Regular CBLD, which is our standard program, available for an annual fee of $8,450. Basic CBLD, which is available to smaller co-ops and organizations (under $3.5 million in sales/annual revenue), for an annual fee of $5,600. CBLD Complete, which provides maximum flexibility to support your board through either additional consulting hours or a second board retreat, for an annual fee of $10,250. Learn more and register by visiting our webpage: https://co-op.link/5vo

Columinate Announces Vernon Oakes as Interim Manager We at Columinate are very pleased to announce the appointment of Vernon Oakes as our new Interim Manager. Oakes, who was recently inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame, is an experienced cooperative leader with a passion for community empowerment, will guide Columinate as it continues to build upon its three decades of serving cooperatives and community enterprises. “With three decades of experience in consulting, primarily within the food co-op sector but also in housing, rural electric cooperatives, and other sectors, Columinate is uniquely positioned to provide essential support to co-ops of all types. I look forward to working with this talented team as we continue to help cooperatives thrive and grow,” said Vernon Oakes, Interim Manager of Columinate. Oakes will oversee day-to-day operations at Columinate, work closely with staff to streamline accounting and management systems, and ensure that the organization continues to serve as a leader in the cooperative consulting space. His leadership comes at an exciting time for Columinate, as the cooperative sector is seeing increased interest and growth and the demand for consulting services continues to rise. Welcome, Vernon!

Our in person Co-op Cafe event is just ONE WEEK AWAY! November 9th in Keene, NH. Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/gy3qypBb

This 6-week remote training program is just ONE WEEK AWAY! Grow your sales Understand financial metrics Confidently make planning decisions Compete, no matter where you are or who you serve Who It's For: Department managers & buyers, newly hired or promoted managers, general managers, merchandising departments Last chance to get some team training in this year! This round of the Boot Camp works around the holiday schedule to make sure attendees can still focus on the stores. Learn more and reserve your spot: https://lnkd.in/exredQp4

Cultivating Skills to Nurture Trust: a 3-part workshop series begins October 30th. This learning circle supports leaders in finding more balanced ways of leading, discovering blind spots to lead in ways that grow trust. Blind spots limit the capacity for learning, listening and leading. Most leaders are often either overly humble or overly confident and haven’t had the opportunity to discover their blind spots. If you don’t know what you don’t know, what is your plan to find out? Through small group exercises, writing, and homework between sessions we will cultivate leadership skills and practices anchored in trust. Limited to 12 leaders, so register today! https://lnkd.in/gBX2h_zV

One more Co-op Cafe is coming up and we invite you to join us! November 9th in Keene, NH Here’s what people are saying about this season’s Cafe, Power in Cooperatives: Fruitful Conversations to Seed Transformation: "Thank you, everybody, for your perspective. I learned that we need more communication between staff and board, as well, and as a staff member, and as a board member, I'll try to make sure that that can happen. So everybody's educated in the process of how the work and works in the co-op world." "This has been pretty invigorating for me! I started thinking about this topic of power about 40 - 45 years ago and I would say there's progress in understanding and recognizing both the good sides and the bad sides of what power is, how it works, and how we use it for for the good of our co-ops." Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/gy3qypBb

Our next Co-op Cafe is just 3 weeks away! Join us on November 9th for an engaging, interactive full-day experience focusing on how power operates within a model built to be principled, democratic and equitable, and how we as individuals and groups might approach power within our co-ops. Power in Cooperatives: Fruitful Conversations to Seed Transformation is a guided journey to dig deep into the idea of what power means to you as a cooperator—with other cooperators from your region. Learn more and register: https://lnkd.in/gy3qypBb

Last chance to get some team training in this year! This round of our 6-week remote training works around the holiday schedule to make sure attendees can still focus on the stores. Register today for an accessible and affordable pathway to development and training needed to help your smaller stores meet the needs of your communities. https://lnkd.in/exredQp4