WADE RATHKE is the founder of ACORN, Chief Organizer at ACORN International, and Author of "Nuts & Bolts", "Citizen Wealth", "Global Grassroots", and "The Battle for the 9th Ward".
Montreal Listening to one great report after another from office directors in ACORN Canada was exciting, whether they were talking about growth or campaign victories. It was hard to believe that this record-breaking performance was being achieved against the obstacles of the pandemic. Internally, the new membership numbers were the best in a dozen years. The dues paid …
Montreal Increasingly, I have to say, all airline travel has become epic in the pandemic. Going to Montreal for the ACORN Canada Year End / Year Begin meeting was another mountain climb, but this note is less about “misery loves company,” and more about how even two years into this global horror, we’re still all confused about …
New Orleans A news item in the Washington Post caught my eye in this holiday season when buying seems mainly what it is all about sometimes. They were reporting on an interesting organizational phenomenon: Buy Nothing groups. The thumbnail sketch they provided was intriguing: What started in 2013 as a hyperlocal network of “circular gift economies” in Bainbridge Island, Wash., has …