West Midlands businesses to network at co-operative lunch

Guest speakers Kevin Rye (left) and Len Wardle (right)

A wide range of West Midlands business people, interested in finding out more about the co-operative enterprise model, are being invited to a networking lunch at the attractive banqueting suite of Birmingham Council House on Friday, March 23.

High profile guest speakers will include Len Wardle, Chair of the Co-operative Group, the UK’s largest consumer co-operative society, which is owned not by shareholders but by over six million members.

The Co-operative Group is the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer, alongside The Co-operative Bank, Insurance, Funeralcare, Pharmacy, Motors, E-Electrical, Legal Services and Clothing. It was the first supermarket to supply Fairtrade products in 1992.

Mr Wardle will be talking about the 2012 UN International Year of Co-operatives, and what the year means for the co-operative economy in the UK – which is now worth £33 billion per annum and has outperformed the British economy as a whole, growing by 21 percent, since the start of the credit crunch in 2008.

The second speaker is Kevin Rye, Network Development Manager at Supporters’ Direct, which promotes sustainable sports clubs based on supporters’ involvement and community ownership, and helps fans to form their own trusts.

Since 2000 Supporters’ Direct has aided in the creation of more than 160 Supporters’ Trusts, including AFC Telford United and Telford Tigers Ice Hockey Club in the West Midlands.

Among the guests will be the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Anita Ward. Exhibitors include Midlands Co-operative Society, The Future Melting Pot, Birmingham Co-operative Housing Services, The Co-operative Group Central and Eastern Region, Co-operative Energy, Co-operatives West Midlands, Midcounties Co-operative Society, The Co-operative Enterprise Hub, Co-operative Futures and Supporters’ Direct.

The networking event is organised by Co-operatives West Midlands, the representative body of co-operative enterprise in the region and supported by Midlands Co-operative Society, Midcounties Co-operative Society, The Heart of England Co-operative Society and The Co-operative Enterprise Hub. The Co-operative Enterprise Hub financially supports people to start up a co-operative with business advice – visit www.co-operative.coop/enterprisehub.

Anyone interested in attending this free event, which is by invitation only (limited places left), should contact Jenny de Villiers at jdevilliers@btinternet.com or on 0777 370 5552. For more information about the co-operative business model, and how to start a co-operative, log on to www.cooperatives-wm.coop

 

Gimson made his bed – but who’ll lie in it next?

A bed said to have been designed by and for Ernest Gimson

A bed said to have been designed by and for Ernest Gimson – one of the leading practitioners of the Cotswolds-based Arts and Crafts revival – will be sold at auction in Cirencester next month as part of a larger collection of Arts and Crafts antiques.

The single bed, made in walnut , was acquired by the vendor from the family of Norman Jewson – an apprentice to Gimson – and is considered to be a fascinating piece of Cotswolds Arts and Crafts history.

Handmade in around 1914, the chip-carved bed frame bears all the hallmarks of Gimson’s designs, and members of the Jewson family insisted that the bed had been designed by Gimson and made at his Daneway workshop for his own use.

It later became the property of Norman Jewson – a member of the famous timber merchant family – who died in the bed in 1975.

Antiques auctioneer Philip Allwood, of Moore Allen & Innocent, which is selling the bed, said: “It has excellent provenance, and while a wooden bed frame of that period might be worth £30 to £50, and an Arts and Crafts bed might achieve £500 to £800 at auction, a bed designed by Gimson himself – and one owned by the craftsman and his apprentice – could fetch anything between £1,000 to £1,500.”

An offaly good way to learn about meat

Androulla Derbyshire of Culinary Capers and Andy Ayris of Andrew's Butchers

Meat-lovers will be facing the chop at a course on how to cook pork at a Marlborough butchers this month.

And to prove it’s no flash in the pan, carnivores are also being offered lessons in cooking lamb, beef, game and offal, and rabbit and chicken.

Auction features thousands of toys from the 70s and 80s

Three of the twelve action figures from the original Palitoy Star Wars series

Not long ago, in a galaxy not too far away, a movie pitched as a western in space spawned a multi-billion dollar franchise whose action figures and vehicles dominated birthday and Christmas wish lists for a generation.

Now, as the six episodes Star Wars return to the big screen in 3D, a collection of thousands of action figures and vehicles spanning four decades will go under the hammer at an auction in the Cotswolds.

Riots survey and inquiry promise young people a voice

Rioters smash a window in Birmingham

Young people in Birmingham are being given the opportunity to air their views about the riots which rocked the city six months ago.

The opinions of around 200 young people will be gathered via questionnaires as part of a Prince’s Trust-funded project called Outreach.

And on April 5, a dozen young people will question high-ranking officials and community leaders – including West Midlands chief constable Chris Sims, Dawn Roberts of the Justice Department and Paul Tilsley, deputy leader of Birmingham City Council – during a Citizens’ Inquiry.

Antiques experts go head-for-head for TV show

Eric Knowles

Cameras will be rolling at Cirencester auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent next week as stars from popular TV show Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is go head-to-head to make the largest profit from antiques they’ve bought at car boot sales and antique fairs.

Eric Knowles and Katherine Higgins of the Antiques Roadshow, Cash in the Attic’s John Cameron, and Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is regular Charlie Ross have each entered four antiques into the sale, which will be held on Friday, February 17, and will be crossing their fingers that their lots make a larger profit than their competitors’.

Not losing your job can be stressful too!

Helen Payne-Kumar and Geoff Miles of See For Miles

Being made redundant, or even the fear of losing one’s job, can lead to stress, anxiety or depression. But what about the colleagues left behind after a company has made cuts to its workforce?

According to psychotherapist and counsellor Geoff Miles, employees who don’t lose their jobs might be as much in need of therapy as those who do.

Co-operating is the key to growing the co-op economy

Jim Pettipher from Co-operative Futures with a draft of the From 2 to 20 report

Co-operatives doing business with other co-operatives is one of three key ways in which the sector’s contribution to the economy can be ambitiously and dramatically increased, a conference in Wiltshire heard this week.

At the annual Future Co-operatives conference on Friday and Saturday, January 28 and 29, delegates charged themselves with identifying ways in which the share of the UK’s GDP created by co-operative businesses – ethical companies owned by their workers or their customers, rather than external investors or shareholders – could be increased from two to 20 percent by the end of the century.

Now, the findings are to be published in a new action plan called From 2 to 20 by Gloucester-based Co-operative Futures, the business development consultancy responsible for helping people set up co-operatives in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and the West Midlands.

Antiques recall the last London Olympics

A programme, ticket and report from the London Olympic Games 1948

With Britain in the starting blocks for the London Olympics 2012, a timely reminder of the last time the city hosted the games is served by a collection of antiques being sold by auction in the Cotswolds.

A programme and a set of three tickets for the events held on August 4, 1948 are to under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent’s Sporting Sale in Cirencester on Friday, February 3.

The vendor, who has had the mementos in his possession since the games 64 years ago, would have been able to watch events including the men’s javelin final, the finals of the women’s shot put and long jump, and the 110m metre hurdles, where American athlete William Porter set a new Olympic record of 13.9 seconds.

Co-op activists to launch ambitious growth campaign

Co-operative activists will be launching an ambitious challenge when they meet for their annual conference in Wroughton, near Swindon, this weekend.

The Future Co-operatives conference will be looking at ways of growing the co-operative economy from two to 20 percent of UK gross domestic product by 2050.

The conference will be held at Alexandra House in Wroughton from Friday, 27 to Sunday, 29 January. It is organised by Co-operative Futures, the business development consultancy responsible for helping people set up co-operatives in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and the West Midlands.

“Last year marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Fenwick Weavers co-operative, one of the earliest societies for which records exist,” said Jim Pettipher, Co-operative Futures director and author of the From 2 to 20 Action Plan.

“The subsequent 250 years of co-operative development, investment and activity have delivered a co-operative economy that is estimated at only two percent of GDP and around 5,000 co operatives in total.

“We want to see the UK co-op sector grow ambitiously and dramatically as a portion of gross domestic product. The conference will be working out how this can be achieved.”