Category: News and updates

Our ED Christa talked with Julie Scharper about raising chickens and how it isn’t as easy, or as cheap, as people think. Read this informative and eye opening article here: Baltimore Banner

Check out this article in the Baltimore Banner about Red Emma’s and their new permanent home! We are so happy for them!

With only one in-person event in the books for 2022, we realized we haven’t had a happy hour event in a long time! So we are happy to say that on November 2nd, BRED will be hosting a Co-op Happy Hour! If you’re a co-op member or plan to be in the future, join us at Red Emma’s new location from 5-7 PM. If you’ve never been to one of our happy hours, it is a great chance to casually get food, eat, drink, and talk with BRED staff and other members of Baltimore’s cooperative community. We hope to see you on the 2nd.

Masks are required unless actively eating or drinking

This weekend Cajou Creamery celebrated the one year anniversary of opening their scoop ship! We have loved seeing how having a physical location allowed Cajou to expand and also become a permanent Baltimore City. We hope you got to attend and if you didn’t please make plans to, because their cashew ice cream is out of this world!

CBS Anniversary Interview

This looks like an amazing opportunity!

The Worker Ownership State Advocacy Fellowship (WOSA) is a program of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives that equips and supports worker-owners as advocates and spokespeople for worker co-op initiatives, particularly in their home state. In our second year of the fellowship, we are pleased to be able to expand the cohort as well as increase stipends for participation.

For more information and to apply click here ——> Apply

SAVE THE DATE for May 7th, 2022!

The Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED) will be hosting our fourth Worker Cooperative Jumpstart on May 7, 2022! After a hiatus, we are excited to bring back this jam-packed day of workshops focused on establishing and running worker cooperatives. Whether you’ve been a worker-owner for years, are thinking about starting a co-op, or just want to learn more this event is for you!

New and developed cooperatively-minded workers will be able to learn the basics of cooperative structure and economics, get ideas on how to start or structure your own cooperative, and be able to Q&A with experienced worker-owners! There’s something for everyone – past Worker Cooperative Jumpstarts have included panels with long-term worker-owners, in-depth information on how to make your business “breakeven,” and a nuanced look at what happens with worker-owner governance.

Our new highlighted workshop will be Cooperative Conversions – Are you and your coworkers interested in buying the business where you currently work and converting it into a cooperative? This is for you! Organizations and individuals are welcome!

REGISTER here

Date: May 7, 2022 Time: 10am-4pm Location: 2640 St. Paul street, Baltimore

Light Breakfast + Lunch will be provided

Please let us know by April 24th if you need the following:

*Interpretation and what kind (Spanish, sign language, etc)

*childcare

Article by Robert R. Raymond

In an exploitative system like the restaurant industry, restaurant co-ops offer economic justice and peace of mind. Members of Red Emma’s and other worker-owned co-ops talk with Truthout about how the co-op business structure is changing the game for workers.

“Being an owner of a business is a great feeling because I feel like it’s mine, that I have my name attached to something and I can impact something that’s bigger than myself — it’s empowering,” Malik Cole, a worker-owner at Red Emma’s, a cooperative restaurant, bookstore and community events space in Baltimore, Maryland, told Truthout. “It’s not just one person that’s running everything — it’s all the worker-owners coming together.”

Click Red Emma’s talks to Truthout to read more.

Job Description: Project Officer

BRED helps worker co-ops in the greater Baltimore area get the capital they need to start and grow. Our non-extractive lending process prioritizes inclusion and equity, rather than locking communities out of the funding they need to start owning their economy. Combining the financing we offer, with technical assistance and cooperative mentoring, we can support worker-owned businesses and give them a chance to thrive. BRED has mobilized over $4 million of patient capital in the past five years to local cooperatives. 

We are a member of Seed Commons, which is a national network of locally-rooted, non-extractive loan funds that brings the power of big finance under community control. By taking guidance from the grassroots and sharing capital and resources to support local cooperative businesses, we are building the infrastructure necessary for a truly just, democratic and sustainable new economy.

Our loan portfolio is growing and we are looking to add 1-2 new team members beginning in 2022, we are open to applicants available for both part time and full time work, for part time employees we have a preference that the applicant be a current member of a cooperative.

Project Officers are responsible for executing approved technical assistance plans, regularly reporting on status of your assigned projects to the Staff Collective, assisting with BRED events & educational programming. Project Officers will participate in:

Loan preparation & technical assistance for co-ops, which includes:

• Preparing sustainable loan and investment plans in collaboration with our cooperatives and senior Project Officers, to be presented to our national credit committee at Seed Commons (https://seedcommons.org) for feedback and approval.

• Executing approved technical assistant plans for projects assigned to you. 

• Attending weekly Staff Collective meetings.

• Coaching current and potential loan recipients on business planning, financial forecasting, and cooperative governance.

• Connecting cooperatives and potential cooperatives to various opportunities for growth.

• Being a public facing representative for BRED in a number of business and organizing environments. 

• Reporting regularly to the Staff Collective on the progress of your projects. 

• Meeting monthly with all projects that have received loans.

• Actively participating on the BRED Slack. 

Assisting with events & educational programming, which includes:

• Working with the Senior Project Officers to plan and execute events. Recommend events that would meet needs expressed by co-ops you work with.

• Regularly staffing and attending events. 

• Creating and attending cooperative roundtable gatherings for active area cooperators.

• Building relationships with local partners to strengthen the co-op ecosystem in Maryland. 

Participate in The Seed Commons Peer Network, which includes:

• Active participation in ongoing Peer Network phone calls.

• Active participation in semi-annual Peer Network trainings.

• Active participation on the Peer Network Slack.

Strongly Desired Skills

• Interest in workplace democracy and cooperative structures and/or business development experience 

• Comfort with financial projections and reports 

• Ability to communicate with diverse groups at various levels of business development 

• Experience with collaborative governance and decision making

Salary: $55,000 – $60,000/year for full-time, or pro-rated accordingly for part-time, plus vacation and sick pay and an additional healthcare stipend.

Please send a resume/CV and cover letter to: jobs@baltimoreroundtable.org by close of business on Monday January 24th, 2022.

Here it is! We recorded the Co-op 101 webinar from 5/20, so in case you missed it you can watch it when you are able. Click this link: Recording: Co-op 101

Are you co-op curious? Come join Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy for Co-op 101, a fun filled hour full of conversations about legal structures and capital! We will be discussing the pro’s and con’s of cooperatives, different types of co-ops and their flexible forms of doing business, and how you can put what you have learned to work. If you have ever wondered what a cooperative is, how it’s possible for workers to own a business, or if you have an idea for a cooperative and don’t know where to start, this is for you.

These events are always free and this is the first of two free virtual educational webinars that we will be doing for the month of May. We will begin at 2pm and should finish at 3pm on May 20th. Make sure to take notes on all the wonderful topics and use the chat to ask any questions. A recording will be available via YouTube for you to watch and share.

click here to register for Co-op 101. We can’t wait to see you there!