The Tech Co-op Network is a new network of twenty (and counting) U.S.-based worker coops that provide media, communications, and computer technology goods and services, including website and graphic design, web development, web & email hosting, IT consulting, computer sales & repair, social media, communications strategy, and mobile application development. Many Network members work primarily with cooperative, progressive, nonprofit, and social change organizations.

The Network hopes "to catalyze collaboration and mutual support among [its] members, while educating, encouraging, and supporting would-be cooperators and the general public."

The creation of this Network is the latest step in a decade of worker coops' emergence and steady, organic growth in the tech industry. The community began forming in 2004 around an email list, and in 2009 a group of list members created A Technology Freelancer's Guide To Starting a Worker Cooperative. Between 2011 and 2013, the email list nearly doubled in membership, tech worker coops were discussed at conference sessions all over the US, the Freelancer's Guide was downloaded hundreds of times, and lots of folks were inquiring about starting their own tech worker coops. After the Great Recession and coincident with the International Year of Coops, there was more interest in tech worker coops than ever before.

The Tech Co-op Network represents one possible growth and expansion strategy for the worker cooperative movement: making visible and strengthening the vertical and horizontal connections among worker coops within one industry, with a blend of integration, federation, and friendly co-opetition.

From Tom Chamberlin:

"WORKER OWNED: In Their Own Words, is a 30 minute documentary about the Linnton Plywood Association. LPA was a worker owned cooperative formed in 1952 to manufacture plywood. With a down payment of $1000 each, about 180 men, committed to purchase a share in LPA for $5000. The remaining $4000 for each members share was to be paid over time from their earnings as workers in the new operation. All workers were paid the same hourly rate for whatever job they did. Each member had one vote and the board of directors of the organization was comprised of the membership elected by the members.  Based on hours put in they shared equally what was left after bills were paid, reserves of logs secured and new equipment purchased. Members made good livings for over 40 years.  WORKER OWNED: In Their Own Words is edited from 16 hours of interviews, recorded during the fall of 2007. Eight former, long time, worker/owners of LPA shared their stories. Still photos shot by Mike Valteau, a worker owner, in the 1980s and '90s, helps us see the people and know the place."

The movies streams online for $1.50.

From the Brooklyn Ink:

OWS Screenprinters from The Brooklyn Ink on Vimeo.

During Occupy Wall Street, protesters spent thousands of dollars printing pamphlets and posters to spread their message. Watching money flow into the corporate companies whose principles they protested, a small group of participants planned to start their own printing cooperative founded on the principles of equal responsibility, ownership and pay.

Two and a half years later, two workers’ cooperatives that developed out of the movement are finding new ways to keep their businesses –and principles—going now that they’re no longer taking to the streets to occupy public spaces such as Zuccotti Park. They’re occupying their time with their businesses, while still helping to promote the movement and its message. And both cooperatives are surviving the tough economic climate with an age-old practice: printing.

Think Outside the Boss: How to Create a Worker-Owned Business is a manual prepared by the Sustainable Economies Law Center. Previously.

Following the success of this summer's Eastern conference, the bi-annual 2013 Western Workers Co-op Conference is hot on its heels.  The September 2nd through 4th event will be held at the worker-owned Breitenbush Hotsprings in Detroit, Oregon.

Workshops and Presenters

28 Questions for Coop Founders
Are you starting a new coop or coop conversion? Have you met with a lawyer yet? Wait, because there are at least 28 questions you should ask yourselves first! Many legal & financial professionals are unfamiliar with worker cooperatives. Spend time on these questions before you incorporate to save money and spare yourself headaches.

• Are you worried about taxes?
• Do you want a Board of Directors?
• How will you distribute patronage?
• Will members be employees or contractors?
• Do you want to use the word “cooperative” in your name?

In this discussion-based workshop, we’ll introduce the concept of “choice of entity” and explore some of the decisions founders will have to make.
Led by Alison Booth Gribas

Being An Ally Without Being A Knight In Shining Armor
A workshop for men regarding how to take responsibility for countering sexism and supporting full cooperative participation by all members. Topics of discussion will include when to step up and back as well as how to be an authentic ally rather than acting out traditional male narratives of rescuer/hero/spokesman.
Facilitated By Tim Huet

Being Loan Ready
Get the inside scope from a veteran loan officer about what financial institutions look for when assessing a loan application/business plan.  This workshop will have most immediate relevance for established cooperatives looking to fund growth.  But for start-up entrepreneurs, it is also beneficial to understand what benchmarks financial institutions have in mind for refinancing/expansion (while regulated financial institutions like banks and credit unions rarely can finance pure start-ups, one proven development course is to gather start-up equity from many small sources with an eye towards refinancing and obtaining expansion capital once the business has established a track record).
Led by Randell Leach

Building a Cooperative Economy
Amy Johnson will share findings from the joint US Federation of Worker Cooperatives/Canadian Worker Cooperative Federation study regarding what successful worker cooperative movements from around the globe are doing to building institutional supports for worker cooperative growth.  Amy will share news of initiatives underway in the U.S. and lead group discussion regarding needs and hopeful developments out West.
Led by Amy Johnson
 
CECOSESOLA: How a small co-op grew big, helped transform a nation, and stayed true to its roots
CECOSESOLA began in 1967 as a small funeral co-op for low-income residents in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Since then, it has grown into an "integrated organism of cooperatives" with more than fifty integrated co-ops that provide housing, food, and health care to their members, while embracing consensus and influencing national cooperative policies. In 2012, the Olympia Food Co-op sent two staff members to Venezuela to live and work at CECOSESOLA, and then welcomed five CECOSESOLA members to Olympia, WA. to do the same. Come learn about the inspiring story of CECOSESOLA, the worker exchange with OFC, and how the experience has changed OFC's role in their community. To find out more, check out:

• http://www.ofccecosesola.blogspot.com/
• http://cecosesola.org/
• http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/1793

Presented by Alejandra “Ale” Abreu and Emily Van Kley

Creating Cooperative Culture at Equal Exchange and Mondragon
Some of the most mature and successful coops profiled in SHIFT CHANGE, the documentary about worker cooperatives, discuss concerns about preserving their cooperative culture. What does it mean to have a strong cooperative culture? Does your coop have one? Do you hope to contribute to a more self-organized, democratic society at large? We will screen brief selections from SHIFT CHANGE to illustrate how two of the featured coops—Mondragon and Equal Exchange—approach cooperative culture.  For more about the film and on-line preview, check out these links: http://shiftchange.org/video-clips/, Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/shiftchangemovie), and Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shift_Change). Join us as we define, discuss, and explore this topic.
Led by Melissa Young and Alison Booth Gribas

DAWN Presents: The Coop Index
Meet the Coop Index, a powerful tool to assess your coop’s strengths and weaknesses. The Coop Index is an open source tool developed by St. Mary’s University in Canada. Using 172 questions, the Index measures coop members’ perceptions about everything from cooperative values to fiscal viability. In this workshop, certified Peer Advisors from the Democracy at Work Network will show you how we use the Coop Index to evaluate established coops in areas like worker satisfaction, accountability and sustainable practices. We will present sample questions, charts and graphs, and invite you to interpret them. Then, we’ll discuss how DAWN PAs can help you use the results to move your coop forward!
Led by Kathy McCrate and Alison Booth Gribas

Designers + Developers + Clients = !!!
The collaborative process can be challenging -- join us for a presentation on successful projects and a discussion on lessons learned. Design Action Collective members will present case studies of successful collaborations between designers, developers and clients highlighting best practices for creating websites for co-ops. Participants of this workshop are invited to come with questions to ask and challenges to share in a discussion so we can help each other come away with new insights on effective collaboration.
Led by Ria and Daniel Owens

Growth: The Benefits and Challenges of Scaling Up
An examination of whether/when growth in size might be beneficial and how to grow such as to maximize benefits while addressing/limiting organizational costs. Discussion will be lead by presentations from Alvarado Street Bakery, Cheese Board/Arizmendi, Olympia Food Cooperative, and Rainbow Grocery.
Presented by Joe Tuck, Jayne Rossman, and Martha Wold.

Inclusive Strategic Planning - On a Budget!
Strategic plans needn't be dusty documents drummed up by Boards of Directors or high-cost behemoths produced by outside consultants. Done right, a strategic planning process inspires new ideas, questions assumptions, builds consensus, and provides a shared foundation for making difficult decisions (like creating budgets!). In this workshop, we'll briefly review what a strategic plan is, and what its purpose should be. Then we'll discuss tools and tactics that you can use to plan a strategic process that is low cost, inclusive, and results in a useful final product. Examples of strategic plans and suggestions for further reading will be provided.
Led by Jayne Rossman

Infiltration: How the Values of Oppressive Systems Tend to Arise in Co-ops (and what we can do about it)
In this workshop, we'll use visual metaphor to map what it looks like when the values of systems like
white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, homo and transphobia, ableism, etc influence and affect the operations, practices, and policies of worker co-ops. We'll share key questions to ask, indicators to look out for, and tactics for interrupting these effects to build workplaces that are based in values of justice and collective liberation.
Facilitated by Kiran Nigam

Making Finances Fun Again
Financial matters in coops aren't usually the first thing people want to talk about, until there's a crisis. Learn how to implement fun, engaging activities around financial literacy, budgeting, and bookkeeping/accounting. Come prepared to share your own struggles with finances in your coops and develop interactive, empowering ways to make finances fun.
Led by Stephen Switzer

Meeting Process and Facilitation
Why is clear meeting process key to a democratically run collective or cooperative? What helps you and others participate more fully in meetings? What makes it hard for you and others to partipate fully in meetings? What is the role of the facilitator? How can the facilitator help a group have more efficient, effective and highly participatory meetings? What are some common pittfalls that facilitators can learn to avoid? We will explore these questions and others through a combination of brainstorms, discussion, and group exercises. Kirsten will present from her experience at various collectives and give you lots of handouts as well!
Led by Kirsten Marshall

Personnel Policy, Accountability, and Evaluations
Using the example of two differently sized and structured cooperatives, Emily Conner and Madeleine Van Engel will share their experience with personnel policy, accountability, and evaluations. They will cite specific examples of refined methods for evaluating, as well as personnel policies and structures for accountability. Discussion will be based around challenges and advantages of each system.
Led by Madeleine Van Engel and Emily Conner

Popular Education & Training Techniques
Lecturing about a topic is one of the least effective ways of engaging adults to learn. Come prepared to learn how to make your trainings more interactive and effective, and to practice the basics of popular education. We'll share resources and, as time allows, discuss your future workshop plans.
Led by Stephen Switzer

Talking to Each Other When Stuff Comes Up: Direct Communication Practice
Everyone working in the coop sector has the need and the capacity to be able to recognize the needs and feelings of coworkers and customers. Direct communication supports empathy between people and emphasizes connection. We all strive toward the ideals of empowerment, equity and collaboration. However, we aren't all well-versed in practicing those ideals. Good communication, in all of its myriad forms, is one crucial element to maintaining the integrity of a visionary and idealistic culture where things get done well. When we are able to listen openly, communicate needs and make requests that can be met, we can help build trust in our cooperative environments and create smoother workflow. Perhaps we were not all acculturated in ways where this kind of communication comes naturally, so let’s practice! Practicing direct communication helps prepare us to do it in a skillful and caring way, whether for small issues or large ones. This will be a highly interactive, verbal, practice-based workshop.
Facilitated by Padrice Stewart

The Way We Do the Things We Do: Healthy People Build Healthy Workplaces
How do we sustain our vision for change and not get lost in the day-to-day grind? How do we prevent burnout and a frenetic pace of work when there is so much to get done? How can we build real care and support into our workplaces? Using a radical mental health framework, we will explore ways to integrate the values of promoting mental and physical health and wellness and preventing burnout into our work building the solidarity economy. We'll talk about why and how co-ops are uniquely structured to do this, and share tools, activities, and ideas to take home to your co-ops so that your work can set you up to thrive! Come with questions and ideas and leave with new strategies! This is an interactive, two-part workshop. As much as possible, we ask that participants attend both parts of the workshop. Note: This is a two-part, in-depth workshop.
Led by Kiran Nigam

Keynote Speaker and Anti-Oppression Workshop Facilitator:
Kiran Nigam's work as a core organizer for the 2010 US Social Forum inspired her to deeply examine how we do the work we do. She has transformed into a cheerleader for slowing down, so that our work building a better world for tomorrow helps us thrive today. Kiran is an educator, facilitator, and founding member of AORTA, the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance. She is committed to building movements for social justice and a world that centers health, wellness, and care for all people.

In 2010, Kiran was inducted into the NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation) Cooperative Hall of Fame for her contribution and commitment to cooperative education and training. Kiran has worked as the Director of Education and Training for NASCO. She has served on the Boards of NASCO, the US Solidarity Economy Network, and Common Fire.

In her community work around care, Kiran acts as a support person for survivors of trauma and sexual violence, mediates conflicts, feeds people nourishing foods and herbs, and volunteers with the Icarus Project, a peer-based mental health support network. She loves cuddling with her cat and biking, and dreams of someday biking through the streets of Oakland, with her cat.

Via GRITtv

"Cooperatives in the United States have existed more or less under the radar. Taking many forms: worker cooperatives, housing cooperatives, food cooperatives, are a reflection of what people can do when they band together. While not a cure all for our economically hard times, cooperatives may offer us a step in regaining some power, not only  in the workplace but also in the rest of our lives. For the month of July, GRITtv will spotlight a few cooperatives that are growing an alternative economy. This week we bring you Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young of the documentary Shift Change which explores existing cooperatives in the U.S. It might make you want to start one of your own."

Shift Change previously.

A report from a graduate student workshop at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. 

"This report was prepared for Advance Memphis by a class of graduate students at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Advance Memphis is a faith-based workforce development and training center in Memphis, Tennessee, interested in worker cooperatives as an innovative local economic development strategy.
Worker co-ops are businesses that are collectively owned and democratically managed by their employees. Based on the experience of several worker cooperatives in the U.S. and abroad—including the most successful of all, the Mondragon Corporation in Spain—this report analyzes key factors and challenges to consider in planning an effective cooperative development strategy including:

• identifying a viable business idea for a cooperative with multiple bottom lines;
• raising start-up capital and approaching potential funders;
• providing training to ensure worker-owners have the necessary job AND management skills;
• creating and sustaining a democratic workplace that can maximize the benefits of co-ops;
• forming a cooperative development agency and prioritizing which capacities to develop first;
• building a winning coalition of partners and local leaders for the promotion of co-ops; and
• ensuring the necessary patience to see the project through.

We hope that this report and the following considerations will be useful to both Advance Memphis and other cooperative
entrepreneurs in the U.S"

From CUNY CED:

"The City University of New York School of Law’s Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic has launched a new partnership with the Mondragon Cooperatives, the largest worker-owned cooperative in the world.

Under the new partnership, the CED Clinic, in collaboration with Pennsylvania-based Regional Housing Legal Services, will help launch the Pittsburgh Clean & Green Laundry, an eco-friendly laundry based on Mondragon’s cooperative model. Pittsburgh Clean & Green aims to re-employ 100 primarily minority laundry workers, who were laid off when their Sodexho Corporation laundry closed. They will work in a new state-of-the-art facility in Pittsburgh’s Central District.

CUNY’s CED Clinic will provide legal support for a new model of unionized worker cooperatives—called “union coops”—recently launched by Mondragon, the United Steelworkers union (USW), and the Ohio Employment Ownership Center (OEOC).

“Union coops can create well-paying, democratically run workplaces in communities hard hit by the economic recession,” explains Carmen Huertas-Noble, associate professor and director of the CED Clinic. “The union component of the model provides front line worker-owners with the security of a collective bargaining agreement and leverages the organizational expertise and economic power of the labor movement.”

By partnering with Mondragon USA, the CED Clinic aims to become a national leader in the integration of cooperative and labor law and to help union coops like Pittsburgh Clean & Green Laundry get off the ground.

Via the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, by Karen Miltner

As a young college graduate with your whole career ahead of you, the world is your oyster.

Luke Stodola decided his world would revolve around food that was organic, locally grown and cooperatively produced.

The Rochester Institute of Technology grad, along with a few friends, started Small World Food, a worker-owned cooperative, in 2007 by baking whole-grain breads in a restaurant during its off-hours and selling the loaves at farmers markets.

Today, Small World not only has expanded its bakery offerings to include granola and desserts but also offers local organic flours, hot sauce and fermented and pickled vegetable products. This summer it launches the area’s first-ever ice cream community-supported agriculture program.

To make room for more fermented and gluten-free products and to have its own retail location, the collective in the past few weeks dismantled the bakery it built several years ago inside a South Plymouth Avenue rental home (where some of its worker-owners lived) and moved to a much larger venue at 90 Canal St. in the Susan B. Anthony neighborhood. (Brewster Gordon & Co., a wholesale grocery distributor, was the original occupant. Now the building is used for artists’ studios, offices and apartments.) Bakery production and sales are taking a short hiatus while Small World finishes remodeling, though products will still be available at farmers markets and select retail locations (see breakout box). Small World Food’s retail shop is expected to open in early July.

“It’s a game changer,” says Allie Push, who joins Stodola, Ruth Blackwell and Ken Sato as one of the four current worker-owners of Small World. Four interns also help with various aspects of production, logistics and marketing.

To help raise funds for a large walk-in cooler and sink, Small World used the social fundraising site Kickstarter, which requires solicitors to reach their target goal to receive the funding. Small World met its $2,500 goal in three days. By the end of the campaign, 800 pledges had been made for a total of about $5,800. The extra money will be used to buy equipment for more gluten-free products and to get started on a pocket park and brick pathway that will lead to the artisan food purveyor’s hard-to-find retail entrance, located near the back of the building.

Axel Kairies of Rochester makes a point of buying Small World bread every Saturday at the Rochester Public Market. He’s just as enamored with the company’s sauerkraut, kimchi and miso.

“When they first appeared at the market, they just seemed like a bunch of hippies,” says Kairies. “I did not know much about their set-up. They have not only survived but grown, and that is good to see.”

From J.J.Noire

"The economic collapse has effected millions of people in the critical areas of housing and jobs. It's no longer a secret that many are rediscovering the tried and true tradition of democratic worker cooperatives. "Democracy 24/7 : Living & Working Coop" talks to some great people who are members of both worker and housing cooperatives; housing and jobs that are owned and democratically run by the people who live/work there."

WAGES (Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security) incubates and supports green cooperatives. Our mission is to build worker-owned green businesses that create healthy, dignified jobs for low-income women. We launch cooperatives where women develop personal and professional skills, become leaders, and gain economic security.

WAGES has established five sustainable housecleaning cooperative businesses in the Bay Area that double or triple low-income Latina workers’ earnings while protecting the environment, and has provided technical assistance and coaching to numerous organizations across the country undertaking cooperative development. In 2013, WAGES will expand its model by establishing a sixth cooperative in a new industry, bringing the benefits of our triple bottom line social enterprise expertise to Latina women in a new market segment. As we begin the process of expansion, WAGES offers candidates an exciting opportunity to bring their talents, leadership and creativity to a unique effort advancing social justice, green jobs and women’s empowerment.

• Articles and videos about WAGES cooperatives

Co-op Law is a collaborative legal resource library created by the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) and the Green-Collar Communities Clinic (GC3).  The Wiki was created to provide a forum for sharing, organizing, and making sense of information related to the legalities of cooperatives .

• General Info

• Types of Cooperatives

• Choice of Entity

• Governance

• Co-op Bylaws

• Patronage, Accounting, and Tax

• Financing

• Employment Law

• Cooperative Incubation

• Co-ops and Green Jobs

• Resources & Support Organizations

• Co-ops in the U.S.

• Co-ops Internationally

"The Center for Family Life is pleased to announce that proposals for the 2013 New York City Cooperative Development Project are now being accepted. The submission deadline is February 25, 2013. Through the 2013 New York City Cooperative Development Project, the Center of Family Life will provide one year of technical assistance, training, and consultation to six community-based organizations in New York City interested in developing cooperative businesses in their communities. Applicants should have a history of exploring workforce development or entrepreneurship training and must be able to demonstrate a commitment to the model of worker cooperative development and its principles."