Caryn Maxim will share her experience of working with the Maya Mam people through Grupo Cajola in Guatemala in this weekly lecture series on Tuesdays, 6pm-6:30pm (Room G126) starting on January 31, 2023 (ending on April 18). With a specific focus every week, this 10- week lecture series will detail the processes, struggles, and rewards of starting up and working with a Fair-Trade textile business in Cajola, Guatemala. She will be touching on<\/p>\n
Please bring your class to the lecture in person or have your students watch the recordings, which will be posted on the website (TBA) afterwards.<\/p>\n
The schedule for the talk is below. You can also listen to the lecture via WebEx by clicking on the link below:<\/p>\n
https:\/\/calendar.google.com\/calendar\/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=MjhvNjdpdWhvbGwwdTcxc2FyaXB1dDVia3BfMjAyMzAxMzFUMjMwMDAwWiBuZG9lcnJAcmFtYXBvLmVkdQ&tmsrc=ndoerr%40ramapo.edu&scp=ALL<\/a><\/p>\n If you have any questions, please contact Neriko Doerr (ndoerr@ramapo.edu<\/span><\/a>). Please spread the word as well. Thank you!<\/p>\n *Sponsored by Humanities and Global Studies, Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, the Presidential Committee on Campus Sustainability, the Women\u2019s Center, and Ramapo Green.<\/em><\/p>\n Week 1: Jan 31 | Setting the stage: Connecting with Grupo Cajola<\/strong> Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 1<\/a>\u00a0 Password for accessing the recording: uCKdnWg2<\/p>\n Week 2: Feb 7 | How did Maya Mam Weavers start? Organizing women\u00a0<\/strong> Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 2<\/a>\u00a0Password for accessing the recording: ZrYpgtt3<\/p>\n Week 3: Feb 14 | Getting Started\/Starting from Zero<\/strong> Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 3<\/a>\u00a0Password for accessing the recording: xJZmP7E3<\/p>\n Week 4 Feb 21 | Cultural context: How a bat became a cat Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 4<\/a>\u00a0Password for accessing the recording: Bm3WuHxh<\/p>\n Week 5 Mar 7 |\u00a0 Learning quality & industrial sewing machines; learning metrics, deadlines Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 5<\/a>\u00a0Password for accessing the recording: HzKap93W<\/p>\n Week 6 Mar 21 | What is fair pay? Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 6\u00a0<\/a>Password for accessing the recording: pRJBsdq6<\/p>\n Week 7 Mar 28 | Intersection of Education with Development Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 7 <\/a>Password for accessing the recording: kYSMvtA5<\/p>\n Week 8 Apr 4 The need to extract myself: transition from owner to customer Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 8 <\/a>Password for accessing the recording: tRn67bcx<\/p>\n Week 9 Apr 11 Challenges of growth Recording of the Caryn Maxim Lecture 9 <\/a>Password for accessing the recording: CgHvGpM3<\/p>\nLecture Schedule<\/h4>\n
\nGuatemala history, Cajola background, formation of Grupo Cajola, how I connected with Grupo Cajola<\/p>\n
\norganizing women (how), Equipo Maiz, monthly meetings, comments when women withdrew “this isn’t fast enough”; impact of poverty on culture, impact of NGO project model, survival, pessimism, lack of self esteem, impact of the war, impact of male domination, money isn’t dominant motivator<\/p>\n
\nilliteracy, initial training, subsequent training in new technical and business skills, learning to come to work every day, learning to meet sales demands, exposure to new things, addressing the isolation, no community models exist; value of training: new skills were not always appreciated, learning when to stop “falseria” , need for training in Mam, their mother tongue, impact of isolation (trip to Antigua, sales event in Solola)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>how do you know what is the culture, how do you know where to break with the culture. culture is work from home, institutionalized by legal cooperative, Decision: work in our workshop: “imposition” versus benefits we gained from being in one place, monthly meetings, pay in cash; how to adapt my knowledge and experience in business to a situation where more than half the women were illiterate, influence of machismo, adapt to the culture, money is not the most important motivator<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>fear of electric machines, trade off between quality and pay, story of Blanca as quality control<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>how to measure work, how to track work in an illiterate environment, how to calculate pay, how to explain to the women how they are paid, what are fair wages<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>entrance of women with secondary education opened the door to learning the skills to manage the work. Sales & marketing, bookkeeping, production, new product development; in addition to technical skills, they needed to learn new ways to interact with each other. Culture does not facilitate “supervision”<\/p>\n
\n<\/b>Sales & Marketing Council key inflection point: begin the transition to owners my challenges (getting it out of my head) and the women’s challenges (accepting responsibility)<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>learning to manage work of other cooperatives, working through the pandemic, challenge of ownership<\/p>\n