Are you interested in starting on the cooperative path, converting your existing business, curious about how they function, or you are already a cooperative member looking to expand your knowledge and share your experiences? Then our Spring Cooperative Jumpstart is for YOU!
Please join IMPACT for its Spring 2019 Worker Cooperative Jumpstart series! Our very own Ro McIntyre will be speaking on the panel this Thursday!
There will be 3-night sessions from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on May 30th, June 13th and June 27th at IMPACT’s office: 8807 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20910
These workshops are free and open to anyone who is interested in starting on the cooperative path, converting your existing business, curious about how they function, or you are already a cooperative member looking to expand your knowledge and share your experiences.
You may register for one or all of the workshops in the series with the following links:
On the 28th we are partnering with Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffee House to bring you Game Night in addition to their weekly Tuesday Build Your Own Burger Night. So come on out to eat some delicious Beyond Meat burgers that you can customize however you’d like and play some fun games!
************************************************************************Our featured game will be Co-opoly. Co-opoly is a game of skill and solidarity, where everyone wins – or everyone loses! As featured in The Guardian and on PBS.
All players are on the same team and work together to start a cooperative business or organization and compete against the Point Bank
Learn and practice skills needed to run a cooperative
Make tough choices and put your teamwork to the test
Designed for families and friends who want to play together instead of competing against each other, and groups thinking about starting a cooperative or improving skills as collaborators.
Co-opoly is for 3 – 6 Players, Ages 10 and up, and it takes sixty minutes to play. Co-opoly is also ethically produced – it is colorfully printed completely by other worker co-ops, entirely in the USA, and on recycled and sustainable materials. ************************************************************************
This Wednesday, May 15th, Kate Khatib will be moderating an event called “Structures of Resilience”. This is the first event in a three part breakfast series on Building Community Wealth that Impact Hub Baltimore and SOCAP 365 are partnering together to host. The series will explore how impact investors, philanthropists, conscious corporations, entrepreneurs and community leaders can drive movements for economic opportunity and equity.
The focus of this first conversation is on investing in coops and worker owner models. Speakers will be Olivia Rebanal (Capital Impact Partners), Greg Brodsky (Start.coop), and Joseph Cureton (Core Staffing Cooperative). We will explore opportunities and barriers for investing in cooperative models, and will hear both the investor and business perspective.
Event begins at 7:30am at Impact Hub Baltimore (10 E. North Ave) and includes breakfast. You can find the series overview and the link to register below.
Series Overview: Impact Hub Baltimore and SOCAP 365 are partnering to create a three-part series on Building Community Wealth. The series will explore how impact investors, conscious corporations, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and community leaders can support movements for economic opportunity and equity. Start your day off with impact! Join us for engaging breakfast conversations where we’ll highlight the cross-sector leaders doing the work in Baltimore and the region followed by small group discussions. The series is designed to build bridges between transformative solutions and the capital resources they need to grow and scale.
Session One Date May 15 Time: 7:30-9:30 am Structures of Resilience DESCRIPTION New ownership models, such as cooperatives and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), are being developed as a means of reducing the racial wealth gap and providing entry points to employment. In order for these models to effectively scale, they need mission-aligned sources of capital. What additional elements might be added to the models to attract more businesses and finance, appeal to mission-driven entrepreneurs, and increase growth and impact? We’ll explore structures that have found investment and financing and what makes those structures unique. Join us for a conversation with cross-sector leaders pushing the edges of models for resilient and regenerative economies. Following the presentation we’ll have time for Q&A and small group discussions.
Agenda: 7:30-8:00 am Sign in and Breakfast 8:00-8:45 am Program 8:45-9:15 am Small Group Discussion 9:15 am Have a great rest of the day!
The Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED) is thrilled to announce that Baltimore has joined other leading cities in committing public support for worker cooperative development. With the award of a $47,000 Community Catalyst Grant, the City of Baltimore is enabling BRED to launch a new initiative designed to pilot the creation of a worker cooperative conversion pipeline.
Too many jobs are at risk of
disappearing from Baltmore’s communities because too many small and medium-sized
business owners lack a good plan for what happens when they retire or step back
from their companies. With the proper support and training, the workers at these
businesses can be ideal candidates to take over and preserve their own jobs,
running them as worker cooperatives in which both decision-making and profits
are shared democratically across the enterprise. One
national 2018 study identified significant opportunities for cooperative
conversions that could preserve thousands of jobs in the mid-Atlantic region
across five economic sectors.
Our goal is to prototype and develop a functional pipeline connecting
retiring business owners to the technical, financial, and educational resources
necessary for successful transitions to worker ownership. with a focus on
preserving jobs and building democratic workplaces in historically disinvested
communities. By converting independently-owned,
small and medium-scale businesses that are deeply rooted in Baltimore’s economy
and neighborhoods into worker cooperatives, we can democratize
wealth and retain it in the communities that need it.
The Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy (BRED) is a coalition of Maryland-based worker cooperatives, advocates, and technical assistance providers committed to building a robust cooperative ecosystem. BRED supports democratically-controlled enterprises with loans and technical assistance, prioritizing coop development that directs educational and financial resources to the communities of color that have been excluded from the current economic system. To date, BRED has made over $650,000 in patient capital available to Baltimore City worker-cooperatives. BRED is one of the founding members of Seed Commons (formerly The Financial Cooperative), an emerging national network of non-extractive loan funds building a shared financial platform to move capital into the democratic economy.
In recent years, cities including New York; Madison, WI; Newark, NJ; and Berkeley, CA have begun to integrate worker cooperative support into their economic development priorities. For Kate Khatib, Executive Director of BRED and National Director of Seed Commons, “Over the past decade, Baltimore has built a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem of cooperative businesses and technical support entirely from the grassroots. It is exciting to now see the city government recognizing this accomplishment and helping provide the tools needed to take this work to the next level.”
BRED’s new worker cooperative
conversion pilot, which will launch later in 2019, will work hand in hand with
city agencies to identify opportunities and gaps in existing business support
infrastructure for democratic enterprises. “BDC is proud to partner with
BRED on a worker ownership training program,” said William H. Cole, president
and CEO of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC). “Employee ownership conversions have the
potential to play an integral part in retaining and preserving jobs needed in
Baltimore’s communities.”
Does your cooperative business fit into the category of cooperative corporation, benefit corporation, LLC, or partnership? Do you need help figuring out what laws and regulations can affect your business formalization process? Well, we have a great workshop happening on February 7th at 6:30PM! Bred, in collaboration with BCAN & Gilmore Khandhar, LLC, is hosting a free interactive workshop called Finding the Perfect Fit: Maryland Worker Coops & Choosing Your Legal Entity. This is open to people belonging to Maryland based worker-owned cooperatives and we will discuss the basic legal considerations when choosing a formal business structure.
Please follow the link below for more information and to register. See you soon!
Our very own BRED member, Bernardo Vigil, will be giving a talk called Democracy in the Workplace: Bernardo Vigil Presents a Case Study On Barcelona Worker Co-ops. This event will take place at Red Emma’s on January 17th, 2019. Bernardo will be talking about his research into workplace democracy in Barcelona, Spain. Bernardo spent time in Barcelona researching how worker co-ops use different strategies to build meaningful pathways toward self-management, participation, and cooperative leadership development.
This event will be hosted by Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy starting at 7pm along with a co-0p happy hour. Attending the co-op happy hour is a great opportunity to have a drink, get to know the team, ask questions about BRED’s loan process, or just chat about ideas and steps to becoming a co-op, all over a drink.
Follow the link below for more information and to let us know you’re coming!
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