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.
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!
Baltimore is becoming recognized more and more for its growing ecosystem of worker-owned cooperatives. We work with many of them and some our supported projects have reached some great milestones in the past couple months.
In April, Earthbound Building was able to buy land! With a land purchase loan from BRED, these builders are able to have a base of operations for their business. Earthbound Building is a black owned business that builds ecological and sustainable homes and farm structures, using materials and techniques that use less resources and lower their impact on the earth. They are birthed from Black Dirt Farm where they were first farmers who later became builders. They are already booked for the year because their work is high quality and reliable.
Another recent accomplishment is Red Emma’s finding a new location. That’s right, after seventeen years of business Red Emma’s is buying a building to permanently call home. They will be moving into the neighborhood of Better Waverly near another Baltimore staple, Pete’s Grille. The move should happen towards the end of this year, and it will bring back the much loved and missed Baltimore Free School. The Free School is a space where classes, workshops, business meetings, and other gatherings can be offered and participated in for free. Red Emma’s has always been a resource to the community, and they can do so much more with this location.
To learn more about these Earthbound Building and Red Emma’s clink the links below.
Red Emma’s
On March 31, 2021 Lawrence Lanahan published an amazing article in Bloomberg Businessweek about the cooperative landscape of Baltimore. We are so happy to be included along with Seed Commons, and a few of the co-ps we work with, in an article that highlights cooperative businesses and some of the work we have done.
WYPR published an article about Joe Squared, written by Emily Sullivan, explaining how this business has stayed afloat amidst this pandemic. Joe Squared is just one of several Baltimore businesses converting to coops. Converting to a cooperative saves the business and all the workers receive the benefits.
One of the personal benefits of the cooperative structure is group decision making. Business hours, infrastructure, and pay, all become decisions made by everyone. This puts the power in the hands of the workers as a whole.
Sullivan writes “In the midst of the pandemic, those decisions include setting the price of drinks and establishing COVID-19 safety protocol. Using a voting system, the worker-owners have decided to operate take-out only in order to limit contact/covid spread and established a $3 service fee on each takeout order to boost the pay for front of the house employees from $3.63 an hour to $12. They decided to spread tips to the entire staff, ending the industry tradition of excluding back of the house employees, who work in the kitchen.” How amazing is that? To read more, follow the link below.