The most consistent element of US #workercoop conferences is a SOLID dance party Saturday night...
Notices tagged with workercoop
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Sunday, 20-Oct-2019 04:32:57 CEST Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 -
Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Friday, 11-Oct-2019 18:57:17 CEST Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 The Association of #Vermont #CreditUnions is devoting their podcast this #CoopMonth to highlighting other #coop sectors, and had me on for the first one to talk #WorkerCoops and #EmployeeOwnership: https://soundcloud.com/vtcreditunions/whats-an-employee-owned-co-op
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Sunday, 14-Jul-2019 18:30:47 CEST Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Had a very interesting call with Blake Jones, the founder of #NamasteSolar, a successful and growing #WorkerCoop in #CO, about the Kachuwa Impact Fund he's organizing that is organized as a #coop and aims to invest in co-ops and "impact real estate" where the tenants are co-ops, b-corps, etc.
The most innovating piece of what he's doing is applying the logic of patronage to equity investment returns through the model of "dollar years." Bascially, the idea is that members get credit for... 1/
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Saturday, 25-May-2019 05:16:06 CEST Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Recent survey: 72% of Republicans and 74% of Democrats in the #USA would prefer to work for an #EmployeeOwned company rather than for capitalists or the state. :thonking:
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Sunday, 19-May-2019 04:30:06 CEST Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Pizza #workerCoop slinging pies at a party hosted by a construction worker #coop in #MontpelierVT. Sunny and above 60F, so felt like the real start of summer... 🌄
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Thursday, 09-May-2019 20:46:55 CEST Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 If you're in #Vermont and free tonight, the #Vt Solidarity Investing Club will be meeting from 7-8:30pm at the (recently converted #workercoop) #NuttyStephs shop in #MiddlesexVT.
Also, we're a bit more than a month out from the 17th annual Vermont #EmployeeOwnership Conference in #BTV, which is June 12. We've got a good #WorkerCoops track shaping up; register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2019-vermont-employee-ownership-conference-tickets-59921128709 If the price is out of reach, HMU, as we do have some discounts... :)
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Wednesday, 13-Mar-2019 04:34:36 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Ran a training this afternoon for new #WorkerCoop employees on track to become members, which was followed by a Green Mountain Worker Co-op Alliance pizza party, which was, in turn, followed by a meeting of the Vermont Solidarity Investing Club. All of which took place in the brand-spankin' new workshop of the Timber Homes #Vermont worker co-op.
All in all, it was a good day... :TwinPines:
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2019 02:41:04 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 You're also allowed to sprinkle a bit of #seniority into the mix for good luck, but I've never heard of a #WorkerCoop having an entirely seniority-based formula...
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Mar-2019 02:38:42 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 It's interesting that, in the USA, a #WorkerCoop is allowed to use both hours worked and annual wage/salary income as the metric for labor contribution when calculating patronage allocations.
Hours worked flattens the overall compensation curve, while W-2 income mirrors it.
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Wednesday, 20-Feb-2019 21:52:44 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Depends on the jurisidiction, but in the US there is a different form of tax treatment. For a non-profit, donations are deductible.
For a co-op (with some specific exceptions), it operates on a "not-for-profit basis towards its members" via the patronage mechanism. So, the "surplus" that would be "profit" in a capitalist firm is distributed among members essentially as a rebate pro-rated by use. Thus, in a #workercoop it is treated as ordinary income rather than a dividend.
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Tuesday, 05-Feb-2019 13:48:30 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 @josef Both; I'm the board chair of a start-up co-op, and also the chair of a #coop #investmentclub that doubles as an informal cross-sector organization.
Also, in my dayjob I help with #workercoop conversions.
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Tuesday, 29-Jan-2019 18:44:26 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 @imani That's what I especially geek out on. ;)
There are a variety of approaches, but for the #WorkerCoop structure, the workers need to come up with ~2-5% of the sale price, with the remainder financed through a mixture of a seller note, a loan from a movement lender like the Cooperative Fund of New England or Shared Capital Co-op, non-voting preferred shares purchased by community supporters/social investors, etc.
Deeper dive w/ case studies: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BypebnwZOxymUWJXQjJXWTR1cjg/view?usp=sharing
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Saturday, 26-Jan-2019 20:42:49 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 @Heavysnack It can vary a bit by type of co-op, but generally to become a #coop member one purchases a share that is not connected to the market value of the firm, so it could be token (my credit union is $25) or significant (the highest #WorkerCoop share price in Vermont is $15k).
So, to off-board a member, that share is bought back at face value, and the member is also paid any retained patronage that has been accumulated in their internal capital account.
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Saturday, 26-Jan-2019 20:41:56 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 @Heavysnack It can vary a bit by type of co-op, but generally to become a #coop member one purchases a share that is not connected to the market value of the form, so it could be token (my credit union is $25) or significant (the highest #WorkerCoop share price in Vermont is $15k).
So, to off board a member, that share is bought back at face value, and the member is also paid any retained patronage that has been accumulated in their internal capital account.
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Wednesday, 23-Jan-2019 21:47:41 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 The Co-op Fund of #NewEngland is seeking a new executive director following the retirement of Rebecca Dunn this month.
CFNE is a vital piece of our region's co-op development infrastructure, making friendly loan capital available to co-ops that would struggle to get financing from traditional lenders. It makes #WorkerCoop conversions far more doable, and 🤞 that its next ED will be able to bring it to the next level!
Job deets: https://koyapartners.com/search/cfne-executive-director/
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Tuesday, 18-Dec-2018 03:33:39 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Recorded an interesting conversation tonight w/ Tiffany Lascado, the founder of the #Lei Company #Coop, which is a #WorkerCoop of mostly #Pacifica women raising investment to expand into the school graduation market in #California.
Our chat, in which we discuss the co-op's origins, lei-making, and their hopes for the future can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/wiUwuVjE0Es
If you want to chip in, minimum investment is $250, and can be done here (I'm in for $500): https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/campaigns/mdfxl1gl #coops
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Tuesday, 04-Dec-2018 16:31:18 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 Good quick summary of some of the nuances and challenges of #WorkerCoop conversions financing from Micha Josephy at the #Cooperative Fund of #NewEngland: https://medium.com/fifty-by-fifty/are-cooperatives-really-so-difficult-to-finance-3adec81c70a8
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Saturday, 01-Dec-2018 14:52:58 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 @MoreHuman @socalledunitedstates The org I work for tries to make #WorkerCoop conversions happen here in VT, and I think it's a good strategy, though I share some of the #GEO critiques of Evergreen specifically. We need examples of successful democratic worker-owned firms operating at scale in diverse sectors to inspire others, and buy outs are a streamlined way of getting there and building the body of practical knowledge that can be more widely applied.
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Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Thursday, 22-Nov-2018 15:14:47 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 I'm def more 🏴 than 🌹, but between this, pissing off 🌊 boomers, and deftly instigating MAGA chud self-owns, AOC keeps making me like her more...
https://twitter.com/TheTurbantor/status/1065411047853629440?s=19 -
Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 (mattcropp)'s status on Sunday, 18-Nov-2018 22:34:34 CET Matt Cropp 🌲🌲 @kavbojka @Steve @LeoSammallahti
This is one place where the Italian co-ops shine because they decided to make "paying it forward" a legal requirement via the rule that co-ops have to pay a 3% slice of their surplus into a co-op development fund. That would be game changing in the US: #WorkerCoop conversions would be happening at a radically different scale if CFNE had, say, $300MM or $3B in assets rather than the $30MM it took 40+ years to build up...