September 8 - 14, 2013
Mondragon Seminar and
Tour
2013 Mondragon Seminar Brochure
Mondragon
Scholarship Application
Important: Scholarship
Application must be received no later than June 14, 2013.
Mondragon Report
2012
Carl Davidson's
Blog from Mondragon 2010
Georgia Kelly's
Huffington Post Article on Mondragon
Click here for Georgia Kelly video on
Mondragon
Click here to Register.
Or, call
707-939-2973
Praxis Peace Institute is organizing its fifth 5-day workshop/seminar with
the Mondragon Cooperatives in the Basque country of Spain. The purpose of the
seminar is to learn about worker owned businesses from the leading consortium
of cooperatives in the world.
The Mondragon Cooperatives were founded in 1955 and now encompass 120
businesses and employ about 86,000 worker-owners. Mondragon is a highly
successful cooperative model with nearly 60 years of proven success. They have
established research centers, bank and credit unions, a university with several
campuses, youth cooperatives, and small to large businesses. In June 2007, the
Educational Director of the Mondragon Cooperatives, Mikel Lezamiz, spoke at the
Praxis Peace Institute conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Due to the interest
generated at that conference, we decided to collaborate with Mondragon in
offering an in-depth educational opportunity for those who want more
information on how to create cooperatives in their businesses and
communities.
Who Should
Participate:
Green business leaders, educators,
community leaders, journalists, environmentalists, business leaders, and all
those who have an opportunity to make use of the Mondragon model in projects
based in their communities or businesses. This program is a unique opportunity
to learn cooperative models of business organization and to see first hand how
they work over a long period of time. The seminar will include 5 days of
presentations and tours of Mondragon businesses. Praxis Peace Institute will
also host a day of discussion and brainstorming about how these ideas can be
useful in our communities back home and how we can find support for cooperative
business ventures.
Presentations
include
The history, culture, and ethics of the Mondragon Cooperatives, Mondragon's corporate
management and training models, the cooperative incubation center and how it
functions in creating and developing new products and services, Research and
Developmet at Mondragon (the largest R & D center in Europe with 14
separate centers), the role of Caja Laboral, the Mondragon Cooperatives' bank
and credit union, Mondragon's projects in developing countries, and Democracy
at Mondragon - how the cooperatives are organized. We will learn about
the Social systems and Social Councils at
Mondragon, and we will have plenty of time for questions in all sessions. At
the end of the week, we will discuss how to transfer the Mondragon model to our
communities. We also spend time with students and faculty at
Mondragon
University and learn about their TeamAcademy degree
programs.
Visits include
Fagor, a large industrial worker co-op; SAIOLAN, an incubation center for new
products and services; Mondragon University, the education center where the
cooperative movement began. We will also learn about the TeamAcademy graduate
program (cooperative business) and meet with students and directors of this
program. Visits also include a youth cooperative formed and operated by
university students; Eroski, the largest supermarket chain in Spain; and
Baketik, the Basque Peace Center that teaches the ethics and conflict
resolution. We will spend a day at Mondragon University's new campus in Onati
(a beautiful medieval town near Mondragon) and meet with students there.
Excursions
Visit and enjoy tapas at the Basque Culinary Center in the beautiful coastal
city of San Sebastian (the newest Mondragon Univeristy campus), a visit to the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (designed by Frank Gehry and build by a Mondragón
construction co-op), a trip to the Aranzazu Monastery and Baketik Peace Center
in the mountains above Mondragon, a visit to Vitoria, the parliamentary seat of
the Basque region, and/or
Guernica.
Accommodations All
participants will stay at the Hotel Mondragon for 6 nights. Hotel and daily
breakfast and lunch (main meal) will be included in the seminar prices.
Wireless Internet access is available in all hotel and meeting rooms.
Scholarships - Two scholarships
will be awarded through the Massena Fellowship Program at Praxis Peace
Institute. An Application form and criteria is available on this website by
clicking on the appropriate link at the top of this page. If you have further
questions, please contact us directly. 707-939-2973 or georgia@praxispeace.org
Included in Conference
Price: Seminar fee, six nights accommodations at our
hotel, daily full breakfast and main meal, all excursions, transfers to and
from Bilbao Airport (to our hotel in Mondragon, if you coordinate arrival and
departure times), and travel arrangements through our agent. Airfare not
included. Upon registration (with a $500 deposit), you will receive our travel
agent's contact information. They are scheduling our arrivals and departures as
close as possible so that most of us will be able to take our bus to the hotel
from the airport.
Registration - A
$500 deposit reserves your space. We are limited to 24 people, so we encourage
early registraion. Balances can be paid in increments, but total amount will be
due by July 26, 2013.
Shared Accommodations - $2,750
Single Accommodations - $3,200
Click here to Register!
Mondragon Cooperative Headquarters
Praxis members of the 2010 seminar with Mikel Lezamiz (on left).
The grounds at Otalora, the Mondragon Education Center
Otalora Educational Center
A Street in Mondragon
