Scheduled for Thursday June 19th, 2025
Following long held IASC conference tradition, the fourth day of the conference, Thursday June 19th, will be devoted to “local” excursions. The Conference Local Organizing Committee is working on developing a set of interesting excursions for conference participants to choose from. The below is a list of some of the topics we are working on, but
Visit this page later in the year and our progress on these excursions will be updated.
In-conference Excursion 1
A Visit to UMass’ Gloucester Marine Station and the oldest working fishery in the United States - understanding New England Fisheries Commons
The University of Massachusetts Amherst Gloucester Marine Station connects students and faculty to the North Shore’s marine and coastal systems, to coastal communities, and to the public and private partners who live and work in the region. Located in the southern Gulf of Maine, the station offers a hands-on, immersive marine and coastal research, learning, and engagement experience with far-reaching applications throughout Massachusetts, New England, and beyond.
Faculty affiliated with the Gloucester Marine Station’s work across four integrated programs centered on the overarching challenges of environmental change: North Shore Blue Economy, Sustainable Seafood, Coastal Resilience, and Marine Ecology.
In this excursion, conference participants will drive 2.5 hours to Gloucester, visit the marine station (or another location, depending on participant numbers) to see the Gloucester Marine Station, and hear about polycentric fishing governance in what is the oldest working fishery in the United States. The participants will then be treated to a ride on a Schooner Adventure. Gloucester was the town shown in the book and subsequent film “The Perfect Storm.”
In-conference Excursion 2
Urban Commoning in Springfield MA with a focus on Worker Cooperative Governance
In-conference Excursion 3
Co-housing and Sociocracy governance training
Amherst Massachusetts is fortunate to have a number of co-housing instances in and around the town. Cherry Hill co-housing is one example, that also is home to international trainers of Sociocracy methods for Dynamic Self-Governance.
The Sociocracy approach to self-governance combines consent decision-making, a decentralized system of authority and intentional processes to improve our decisions and processes over time into a governance system that supports effective and efficient processes while increasing connection, listening and co-creation among members. Sociocracy is used in businesses, intentional communities such as cohousing, nonprofits, worker cooperatives, grassroots groups and in education.
In September 2023, IASC ran a 4-session online “Practitioner workshop” on Sociocracy, taught by Ted Rau that was a success. Ted is an excellent teacher with tremendous knowledge and expertise. In this excursion, participants will be taken to the Cherry Hill cohousing and will spend the day learning Sociocratic self-governance practices. A summary of Sociocracy’s basic concepts and principles is available at: https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/.
More to Come
We have several other excursions we are also working on, including:
- A possible afternoon visiting a local Ecovillage and discussing connections between “The Commons” and “The Earth Regeneration Movement”
- A possible trip to further western Massachusetts to learn about commoning efforts such as a local currency and to visit a wonderful art museum called Mass MOCA
- A possible trip to some quaint New England towns of Ashfield and Shelburne Falls to visit a commoning effort around both theater and farming, and for an afternoon walking to see a “bridge of flowers” and possibly and optionally, play a game of New England’s “candlestick bowling”.
- And a couple of other ideas still brewing!
