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THIS MONTH IN EDA               sustaineda.org

EDA Annual Report
Memberships
Fundraising Campaign
Thoughts on Ukraine and the spirit of democracy
Strategic Partnerships
State Legislative roundup
Loomio platform to be phased out
Notes from the Town Hall meeting
Wisdom of the Governing Circle
Join our focus group
Interested in Podcasts?
Marketing Director
Worth Noting
Coming in May newsletter
EDA Annual Report

We're pleased to announce that the 2021 Annual Report has been published.

Many readers tell us how much they enjoy the annual report because it provides financial and cultural insights about EDA that aren’t normally emphasized in this newsletter. That’s because the time and labor that go into producing each Annual Report enables us to take a deeper dive into the content, look and feel of the document.

In this third edition of the report, you can track EDA’s financial development as well as our organizational evolution.  Read the 2021 Annual Report on the EDA website.
Memberships

EDA’s annual membership campaign took place from March 7 - 28. You would have received reminders to either renew your existing membership if you are up for renewal, or an invitation to join us if you are not already a member.

For the first time, EDA is using an automated process to make things easier for us. If you have encountered any problems with the renewal or registration process, please contact Membership Coordinator Marguerite Kolb.
Fundraising Campaign

May 5th is the kickoff for our next fundraising campaign. We’ll be raising funds to hire a Director of Development.

In a Zoom presentation called Placing Our Trust in Earth, James Quilligan will focus on the deteriorating economic conditions that have resulted from recent world events.

By examining two case studies from history — in Ancient Egypt and the New Deal of the United States — he will illustrate what happens when water dries up and the price of bread soars. Are we prepared for this kind of shock today? What have we learned from the economic successes and failures of our ancestors?

Don't miss this event!  More information will be coming soon.
Thoughts on Ukraine and
the spirit of democracy


EDA takes inspiration from Prout, an economic philosophy developed by the Indian teacher PR Sarkar from 1959 until his passing in 1990.

Like Prout, we focus on the socio-economic regions that are characterized by the geographic, ecological, cultural and economic similarities of the people living within each area. EDA agrees that these regional areas need to become more democratically organized and decentralized.
Because we seldom practice social cooperation, however, we rarely celebrate the cohesion of our regional populace. As we witness the brave self-determination of the Ukrainian people who are resisting a malevolent army that is pulverizing their country, we’re reminded of Sarkar’s strong views on defending the sovereign rights of people to their territorial lands.

“All the people in these units should feel that they are brothers and sisters. Any human being who wants to break the solidarity of society must be opposed. You will have to fight against such elements. Whenever you fight against inhuman forces, all socio-economic units will fight as one. In this fight, you must fight for all the suppressed and oppressed people of the world." (Sarkar, Prout in a Nutshell, 1987).

The resilience of the Ukrainian people reminds us that democratic decision-making is a gift that we have inherited from earlier generations who have sacrificed their lives to preserve the ancient ideals of freedom, equality and solidarity. By the same token, democracy is a precious gift that we must pass on to future generations. But this is possible only if we stand up now to the authoritarian actions that are taking place across the world.

We know that it’s difficult to help the Ukrainian people directly. But you can still support the rights of all people to self-organization by holding tyrants and oligarchs accountable, whether it’s in Russia or here at home.

Over the past five years, EDA has made many public presentations, through seminars and fundraisers, that decried the rise of autocracies. In addition, this newsletter has regularly asked our members to safeguard free and fair elections to strengthen and sustain the institutions of democracy, both in EDA and in the world.

Suppression of the individual freedom to vote must not be tolerated in any cooperative organization or elected government. We urge you to actively support the voting rights of citizens that are under assault now by political officials in many of the states of this country.

We must also insist that our elected representatives prevent any possibility of insurgents seeking to overthrow the democratic government of our nation, as happened in the attempted coup last year on January 6.

This is no time to be complacent and take democracy for granted. The lesson of Ukraine is that international military clout and domestic law and order must be used, not to fuel despotism, but to safeguard the world’s democracies and ensure the peaceful succession of governmental power for future generations.

Slava Ukraini! Long live the Spirit of Democracy!
During the past three months, EDA has embarked on a strategy to develop relationships with advocacy groups across the United States. We’ve undertaken a process for building trust and cooperation with organizations in various regions of the country.

While it’s a little soon to provide details, we’d like to explain what we’ve been doing. These are the basic steps that we’re testing now and plan to use again each year:


  • In January, we reach out to potential partnering organizations. After initial contact, we get to know the needs of the agency and identify our common ground and mutual interests.

  • Through subsequent conversations during February, we explain to them what we have to offer and how they might benefit. This stage involves showing them materials and samples of our work.

  • In March, we discuss legislation for food, water or energy that has been newly introduced in their own statehouses and which they might be interested in supporting. The referrals for these bills come to us through EDA’s State Legislation team, which has identified and selected them through its research, starting with the opening of the legislative season in early January (see State Legislative Roundup below).

  • Through April and May, we discuss working on projects with these potential partners. This will involve ‘event marketing’ and/or advocacy training. Then, we close on a formal agreement for an event in late spring or summer when their legislative session is still active.

The plan is evolving. We’ll keep you updated you on our progress in future newsletters.
State Legislative roundup

EDA’s bill pickers have been busy! We’re carefully selecting the most equitable and sustainable bills for food, water and energy that have been introduced this year in state legislatures across the United States.

The result of this first harvest can be found in EDA’s Legislative Tracker. Take a look and see what’s happening in your state.

Some of these cutting-edge bills are now driving our discussions with possible partners. This is what EDA has been working towards for the past five years — regional networks for advocacy training.

Stay informed! Check out our bill tracker periodically because we’ll be adding more new bills to it in the next few months.
Loomio platform to be phased out

Since 2018, EDA has been using an internal communication platform called Loomio. This tool has helped members to stay in touch with our events, read information about elections and articles of interest, while giving them the ability to engage directly with our various Action Teams.  

Loomio served us well in the beginning, but now it’s time for us to move to a more robust, user-friendly communication tool.
Over the next few months, we intend to migrate key data from Loomio to a new platform called Basecamp. We'll be developing a transition strategy for this in April and May and will provide you with more information about it in June. This will include details on the features, advantages and benefits of Basecamp, and of course, how to use this exciting communication tool!
Notes from the Town Hall meeting

The At-Large Trustees held a Town Hall meeting on March 28th. If you missed the meeting, here's a brief summary. 

EDA’s HISTORY

  • Founded in 2017

  • 2017:  Held our first conference in Asheville, NC where we discussed carrying capacity, environment and community stability. Three of our four Actions teams were created (Advocacy, Research, Education).

  • 2018: At our Philadelphia conference we drafted our Cooperative Charter and it was signed by 25 members

  • 2019:  Formed EDAF, our charitable foundation. We also held our first advocacy training course in Asheville NC, followed by another training at our 3rd Annual Conference in Oakland CA

  • 2020 – 2022: Held two virtual conferences, issued Annual Reports and created a fourth Action team (State Legislation). Formed our EDA Integrative Management Planning and Coordinating Team (IMPACT).  In October 2022, we launched our new website.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  • Produced eight research reports which are available on the website

  • Conducted three in-person advocacy training programs
 
  • Delivered five online educational seminars consisting of eight weeks each for a total of 40 sessions
 
  • Prioritized our State Legislation focus for 2022

  • Hosted three successful fundraisers 

  • Engaged in three social media campaigns and with more to come
 
  • Held a total of five Annual Conferences

WHAT WE NEED IS ENGAGEMENT

  • More engagement is needed from members for all our teams:  Research, State Legislation, Advocacy, Education

  • Need a Marketing Director and team members with both marketing and communications experience

  • Membership, Finance and Audit teams would like more members

FUTURE PLANS – THE NEXT 5 YEARS AND MORE

  • Create a cloud-based application for carrying capacity data to be used in the equitable and sustainable management of food, water and energy in regional areas of the United States

  • Cultivate significant partnerships across 5 US regions to conduct carrying capacity research and support local groups with education/advocacy on active legislation

  • Develop online education tools and programs

  • Prepare basic online advocacy training and coaching programs

  • Offer updated online seminars

  • Promote EDA in public, environmental and economic communities to secure funding for future expansion

  • Create live awareness events to increase our visibility in different regions

  • Additional funding needed to hire staff and manage daily operations

  • Engage with more local partners on priority legislative issues

  • Standardize and codify our research methods and continue to research carrying capacity

  • Develop orientation material for new members

  • Continue with succession planning and training

EDA AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Here’s where you can find EDA on social media:


Facebook:  @EconomicDemocracyAdvocates
Instagram:  Sustain_eda
Twitter:  @sustain_eda

TUTORIALS


To learn more about how these platforms work and how to set up an account, click on the names below to see YouTube tutorial videos. Each video is approximately16 minutes.


If you’re having trouble setting up notifications on your Facebook account, you can review the social media article from
EDA’s February newsletter.


Our monthly review of the ways in which our
members take part in the management of EDA

In the early days of EDA, we discussed ways of developing democratic principles for the organization. We asked, what’s the best way to assimilate different viewpoints under one roof? After much discussion with our members, we added a second clause to Abraham Lincoln’s famous dictum: “a house divided against itself cannot stand…unless its built on a firm foundation.”

Construction of the governing framework for EDA started shortly after EDA’s first annual conference on Memorial Day weekend, 2017, in Asheville, NC. Through bi-weekly Zoom meetings during the next year, 60 members contributed their suggestions to a draft document.

With this input, the text was revised repeatedly and finally approved at our second annual gathering of members, the Convention for a Cooperative Charter, held at Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia, June 14-17, 2017. It was published in July of that year.

Because it was written by EDA members to supplement our 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 responsibilities with the State of California and the Internal Revenue Service, the Charter is considered a binding document under the law.

It has proven to be a durable instrument which the EDA Board and all of our departments draw upon regularly to inform and guide their decisions. But the Charter could not anticipate all of the needs of our growing organization. So amendments have been proposed and ratified by EDA members.

We’re aware of several cooperative groups in the US that have modeled their own organizational structure on ours. We’re delighted that the vision of democratic unity is spreading — all due to the input of our members in strengthening and expanding EDA’s own democratic practices.
Join our focus group

IMPACT is conducting focus groups to define the profile and demographics of the type of people who are interested in EDA’s message and activities.  Understanding your audience is key to developing messages that will engage the public in EDA.

We've started with members of the IMPACT team. But we would like to extend  an invitation to all members of EDA to join this discussion, which is held on Thursdays from 5 -6 pm PT (8-9 pm ET).

These sessions are facilitated by Brent Terry and Jerry Phillips and may run through April, and possibly into May.

To join this fascinating inquiry, please contact James Quilligan.
He will send you a Zoom link.
Marketing Director

EDA is searching for a Marketing Director. This person will be leading our organization's marketing efforts in generating long-term value for EDA from members, partnering organizations, markets and the public.

The Director of Marketing is responsible for providing guidance to our marketing department. This includes evaluating and developing marketing strategies, planning and coordinating marketing efforts, communicating the marketing plans to those involved within the organization and building awareness and positioning for EDA's brands.

If you’re interested in this position, please contact Managing Director James Quilligan.


The recent record heat, threat of drought and onslaught of summer have us thinking about the water in Colorado. As many Coloradans will tell you, we have a problem with our water resources. But what exactly is the problem? How did it start? How bad is it? And — the question of the century — how can we address it?

The Colorado River is a lifeline in the desert, its water sustaining tens of millions of people in seven states, as well as endangered fish and wildlife. But demand for the river's water now exceeds its supply, leaving the river so over-tapped that it no longer flows to the sea. (This is a video from the article above.)

A controversy has erupted over who feeds the world. It is generally accepted that small-scale farmers, fisherfolk and pastoralists feed the vast majority of the people on earth. This has been recognized by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and many other international agencies.

But now the FAO published
a report claiming that small farmers are feeding only a third of the worlds population. A group of NGOs recently sent a letter to FAO questioning this conclusion, pointing to the numerous omissions and false assumptions contained in the report. The NGOs maintain that small food producers still feed the world.

From glue alternatives inspired by geckos' feet to factories that produce a net benefit to the environment, Interface's VP and chief sustainability officer Erin Meezan explains how we can look to nature to learn how to make businesses more sustainable.

Water is an essential part of every form of life on Earth. But by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may be facing freshwater shortages, and ecosystems around the world may suffer even more. What can we do to save water for future generations to drink and grow food? Quite a lot! And it all starts with the food on our plates.
Join one of our groups!
Coming in May EDA News

Placing Our Trust in Earth
Restoring democracy
Future projects
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