CISA will hold a ten-workshop series on Reducing Risk & Increasing Profitability with Sound Decision Making starting in January. This series will provide farmers and business owners with sound business decision-making practices to reduce their financial risk. These workshops will provide tools for and examples of building decision making into the cycles of farm life to improve long-term profitability and sustainability. Examples in the workshops will be farm related, but the skills and methodology will be relevant to all businesses. Participation in the whole series is encouraged, and to be eligible for free one-on-one consultative support, you must attend three workshops and be a cohort meeting participant.
Dinner will be served at each session. The cost to attend the series is $90 for Local Hero members, or $18 for each individual workshop. The non-member fee is $110 for the series, or $20 for each individual workshop. Register online at buylocalfood.org or contact Devon Whitney-Deal at devon@buylocalfood.org or (413) 665-7100. If cost is a barrier to your participation please feel free to contact Devon to discuss options as we want everyone to be able to get the training they need to effectively operate their business.
Cohort Peer to Peer Meeting #1:
These meetings will give participants the opportunity to network with one another and also provide additional time to discuss and consider your own individual farm needs as it relates to the workshop topics. Each session will have a CISA staff facilitator and a farmer Expert (Missy Bahret–Old Friends Farm, Pete Solis– Hampshire College Farm, and Gary Gemme– Harvest Farm of Whately). The topics for the meeting will be determined based on participant interest and determined as the class date gets closer.