Category: Talk of the Towns

Live & local call-in on civic issues. Happens on the third Friday of every month from 10 – 11 AM.

Talk of the Towns 8/8/14

Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Employee owned Cooperatives retain local businesses and jobs

Key Discussion Points:
Background on Cooperatives from Rob and Mark
Orient listeners to variety of cooperatives (producers, consumers, employee-ownership)
There are various forms of ownership for businesses… what is different about cooperative ownership and operation? Examples at different scales?
What are key advantages of cooperative ownership… for employee/owners, for the communities in which cooperatives live?
What are some of the challenges to setting up and operating cooperatives, including financing, decision-making?
There is a long history of cooperatives… why aren’t there more of them?
What is the role of the Cooperative Development Institute and your program (Business Ownership Solutions
Introduce the story of Island Employee Cooperative and the role of various partners
Background, status of and vision for Island Employee Cooperative — Alan
Background on the three individual businesses and the employees who came together to explore the ownership option(Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy and The Galley) and their place in the communities of Stonington and Deer Isle.
Trace the path from when workers heard the owners wanted to retire, to creating Maine’s largest worker owned cooperative… what were some of the excitements and challenges?
What is the status now, what sorts of decisions have owner/employees made about the day to day operation of the businesses? What changes have been made and what do you envision for the future?
Who are the various organizations that made it all work?
What have been some of the community response/reactions?
What have you learned about owning and operating your businesses?
Looking ahead
What are some factors that tend to make employee owned cooperatives work?
How can individuals and groups support the creation of cooperatives of all sorts?
Where can listeners learn more?
What are your hopes for cooperatives and local communities in Maine?

Guests:
Rob Brown, Director, Business Ownership Solutions, Cooperative Development Institute
Alan White, President Island Employee Cooperative, Deer Isle
Mark Sprackland, Executive Director, Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative by phone: 603 642 6911)
Jonah Fertig, one of the founders of Local Sprouts, employee cooperative Portland restaurant and entertainment space, by phone 967 4735

Talk of the Towns 7/25/14

Guest host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Conversation with William Irvine, painter, and Carl Little, writer

Key Discussion Points:
Bill grew up in the village of Troon, where it could be said he looked west, the sun setting over the Isle of Arran, and now he lives in Brooklin Maine, where it could be said that he looks east, with the sun rising over Tinker Island, in Blue Hill Bay. Bill tells a little about growing up in Scotland, eventually attending the Glasgow School of Art, and the world he encountered upon graduation.
Those of us who love the sea can be very thankful that Bill didn’t end up painting farms in Skowhegan… how did he come to Maine, and eventually to the Blue Hill area.
The sea seems to both inspire Bill and ground him: waves, boats, fishermen…
Some of Bill’s paintings set a place for us at the table… how does he decide what to serve up?
Small white houses, whether in Scotland, Cornwall or Maine… who lives in those houses?
Some background on the connection Carl made when reviewing Bill’s solo show at the University of Maine Museum of art in 2000—an approach to landscape that he shares with Marsden Hartley, John Marin and others.
Pick two or three paintings of Bill’s from your new book, and introduce them to listeners… what do we see, what do you see, what makes this painting one you would like in your home?
What was it like for Carl to research and write this book? Tell us about the publisher, Karin Marshall Wilkes and the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth.
Sometimes the world of art and artists seems removed from everyday life, though in paintings like Bills, everyday life is at the very core of his art. How do we help “everyman-everywoman” enjoy art, as producer and “consumer”?

Guests:

William Irvine, Painter, Brooklin, Maine
Carl Little, writer, Somesville Maine, author of
William Irvine: A Painter’s Journey, published by Marshall Wilkes, Ellsworth Maine

See also: : http://www.courthousegallery.com/_artists/irvine_william/_pdf/irvine_2014.pdf.

Talk of the Towns 7/25/14

Guest host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Employee owned Cooperatives retain local businesses and jobs

Key Discussion Points:
Background on Cooperatives from Rob and Mark
Orient listeners to variety of cooperatives (producers, consumers, employee-ownership)
There are various forms of ownership for businesses… what is different about cooperative ownership and operation? Examples at different scales?
What are key advantages of cooperative ownership… for employee/owners, for the communities in which cooperatives live?
What are some of the challenges to setting up and operating cooperatives, including financing, decision-making?
There is a long history of cooperatives… why aren’t there more of them?
What is the role of the Cooperative Development Institute and your program (Business Ownership Solutions
Introduce the story of Island Employee Cooperative and the role of various partners
Background, status of and vision for Island Employee Cooperative — Alan
Background on the three individual businesses and the employees who came together to explore the ownership option(Burnt Cove Market, V&S Variety and Pharmacy and The Galley) and their place in the communities of Stonington and Deer Isle.
Trace the path from when workers heard the owners wanted to retire, to creating Maine’s largest worker owned cooperative… what were some of the excitements and challenges?
What is the status now, what sorts of decisions have owner/employees made about the day to day operation of the businesses? What changes have been made and what do you envision for the future?
Who are the various organizations that made it all work?
What have been some of the community response/reactions?
What have you learned about owning and operating your businesses?
Looking ahead
What are some factors that tend to make employee owned cooperatives work?
How can individuals and groups support the creation of cooperatives of all sorts?
Where can listeners learn more?
What are your hopes for cooperatives and local communities in Maine?

Guests:
Rob Brown, Director, Business Ownership Solutions, Cooperative Development Institute
Alan White, President Island Employee Cooperative, Deer Isle
Mark Sprackland, Executive Director, Independent Retailers Shared Services Cooperative by phone: 603 642 6911)
Jonah Fertig, one of the founders of Local Sprouts, employee cooperative Portland restaurant and entertainment space, by phone 967 4735

Talk of the Towns 7/11/14

Guest host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Sharing the Landscape: People and Wildlife

Key Discussion Points:

Jim tells a a bit about his career and connection to Maine…and what factors led to his interest in the increasingly fractious interactions between people and wildlife, leading him to write Nature Wars

Jim explains some of the roots of the modern-day problem of people encroaching on wildlife and wildlife encroaching on people

Landscape—cutting colonial era forests to forests re-growing since the Civil War- present day eastern forest, land conservation
Where people lived and worked– rural to urban and suburban, outdoors- indoors
How we have “managed” wildlife—abundance, slaughter, scarcity, protection, benign neglect, over abundance
How people relate to wildlife—hunting source of food, threats to agriculture, slaughter for fashion, hunting for sport, romantic portrayals in literature and film, observing nature from indoors, wildlife as pets
The current commercialization of wildlife – feeding birds and other wildlife

Jim tells the story of how fictional “East Burbia” approaches its deer situation

Reporters are charged with finding the story, laying out all the dimensions… where do you see this story leading us… what are our responsibilities in relation to wildlife?

Are there any bright spots that give you hope for a shared landscape?

Guests by name and affiliation:

Jim Sterba, foreign correspondent and national reporter for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, author of Nature Wars, published by Crown Publishers, 2012, and Frankie’s Place: A Love Story
See also www.JIMSTERBA.com

Talk of the Towns 6/27/14

Guest host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Community Support for Local Libraries

Key Discussion Points:
What are some of the roles that “your” libraries play in the life of your communities?
With yours as example, what difference does a local public library mean for its patrons?
How do community members let you know of the importance of their local library?
How are your libraries structured and supported? What is your annual operating budget and what kinds of expenditures are supported? What are your sources of income, including endowment?
Do you have any sort of strategic plan, and what elements are included?
Each of your library boards are preparing for capital campaigns, in the case of the Moore Library, primarily to build endowment, and at the Jesup, for building improvements and expansion. In each case, what thinking went into the decision to mount these campaigns now?
Both libraries are a century or more old… has the notion of raising significant funds changed over that time? What strategies are you using to reach out to those who have capacity? How will you include those who value their library but have less capacity to give?

Guests:
Keith Goldfarb, Treasurer, Henry D. Moore Parish House and Library, Steuben, Maine
Lavon Bartel, Endowment Campaign, Moore Library, Steuben
Jill Weber, Vice President of Board of Directors, Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor

Talk of the Towns 6/13/14

Guest host: Natalie Springuel, University of Maine Sea Grant
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: A Consumer’s Guide to Sea Vegetables

Key Discussion Points:
a) What are sea vegetables?
b) How do you harvest and prepare seaweed?
c) Sea vegetables and the Maine local sustainable food movement.

Guests:
Sarah Redmond, University of Maine Sea Grant and Cooperative Extension
Liz Solet, Maine Coast Sea Vegetables in Franklin
Hillary Krapf, health and movement educator, and the creator of The Maine Seaweed Festival

Talk of the Towns 5/23/14

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Issue: Community concerns and opportunities

Program Topic: Islands and Energy: Connecting Maine and Samso Island in Denmark

Key Discussion Points:

1. What is the basic approach (human ecology) by which COA frames its education… with others contributing how approach has played out in their own experience with courses and students at College of the Atlantic
2. What has fueled recent/growing interest by students in alternative energy and sustainable business? Do you see obvious and not so obvious connections between the challenge to reduce carbon inputs into the atmosphere and the desire to invent and experiment? How does COA foster exploration of those connections and applications?
3. What led to the connection between the work of the Samso Energy Academy, in Denmark and College of the Atlantic and the Island Institute? (part of the broader collaboration between COA and Island Institute)
4. Describe Samso Island, its geography, economy and energy profile, and the short version of the story that led them to become “carbon neutral”. What most surprises North American visitors to Samso, as they learn about how they have organized themselves and the results they are achieving?
5. The partnership has led you to offer a course called Islands: Energy, Economy and Community, focused on developing initiatives in the renewable energy and finance sectors on MDI and Maine Islands, and involving both COA students and members of island communities. Tell more about how the course was conceived and the short and longer term outcomes you envision.

Guests:
Darron Collins, President, College of the Atlantic
Jay Friedlander, Sharpe-McNally Chair of Green and Socially Responsible Business, College of the Atlantic
Anna Demeo, Director of Energy Operations and Management, College of the Atlantic
Heather Deese, Island Institute
Suzanne MacDonald, Island Institute

Talk of the Towns 4/25/14

Producer/Host: Ron Beard
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Program Topic: Island Readers and Writers inspires passion for reading and learning

Key Discussion Points:
Jan Coates describes the origins and evolution of Island Readers and Writers
IRW has many examples of engaging young minds… share examples and what elements make them successful
What has been the involvement of teachers and parents in IRW programs… how have you gained their trust?
How do you choose your books and authors? What do authors gain from their participation—what difference does it make to a child to meet and discuss writing and reading with an author
Kim Ridley gives a thumbnail description of The Secret Pool, and how it is being received, awards…
What has it been like for you and your colleague Rebecca Ray to take The Secret Pool into schools for IRW?
What have you learned about yourself as a writer through participation?)
Jenifer Judd McGee describes what inspired her to get involved?
What are your children’s experiences?
How have you seen IRW make a difference in their lives and the lives of other children?
How is Island Readers and Writers structured and supported?
Website and contact info: http://islandreadersandwriters.org/

Guests :
Jan Coates, Executive Director, Island Readers and Writers
Jenifer Judd McGee, Board Member, Island Readers and Writers
Kim Ridley, Author, The Secret Pool