Sessions

Session	Track
Ask An Expert Noemi Giszpenc, Tim Huet, Thomas Beckett, Chris Mackin, Edward De Barbieri, Newell Lessell Bring all of your questions and conundrums to the experts for their opinions and advice.	Sustaining Your Cooperative
Being Your Boss's Boss Aaron Dawson A look at how worker coops grapple with the challenge of having worker run boards. Specifically, what are some challenges of a. having workers who most likely have little experience running...	Sustaining Your Cooperative
Building a Cooperative "Ecosystem" in North America: Lessons from Around the World Hazel Corcoran, David Smathers Moore In some countries, the worker cooperative movement has built a web of interconnected co-op organizations and activities that create an environment that supports worker co-op formation and success...	Cooperative Connections
Building Multigenerational Cooperatives: Succession Planning and Turnover John Abrams The South Mountain approach – "We think about our work as the cathedral builders thought about theirs. We try to think for generations, as we try to design and build for generations." (John Abrams...	Sustaining Your Cooperative
Business Law for Cooperatives Thomas Beckett Introduction to business law for cooperatives. This will cover the basics of business law and risk management tailored to cooperatives, including choice of business entity, contracts &...	Basics
Co-ops Seeding Co-ops: Finding and Sprouting Opportunities for New Enterprises Noemi Giszpenc Worker cooperatives are among the most entrepreneurial when it comes to helping new cooperatives start. How amazing would it be if every cooperative stepped up to the challenge of starting a new...	Growing Our Movement
Contemporary History of U.S. Worker Cooperative Organizing Joe Marraffino Heard about Rochdale and Mondragon, but want to know more about the what happened recently here in the U.S.? Get a crash course on the waves of U.S. cooperative organizing in the 1970s, 1980s,...	Basics
Cross Sector Co-operation: You Know You Want To, But Why? Erbin Crowell Co-operation among co-ops is a basic principle of our movement. Yet we rarely seem to get it right when it comes to working together across sectors. Why is this? How could it be different?...	Cooperative Connections
Daylong Intensive on Cooperative Development - at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (register separately) A brief schedule is below. For more background and information on the Daylong Development Intensive, go to:...
Demystifying the Lending Process Maggie Cohn, Gerardo Espinoza, Christina Jennings This panel will discuss how worker coops can secure loans to finance their start-up and growth. We’ll share lessons learned by the Coop Fund of New England, one of America’s oldest sources for...	Basics
Effective Meetings Presenter(s) To Be Announced	Worker Cooperatives Are...People!
Effective Meetings: Make Them Happen Melissa Hoover Like the sands of time through the hourglass, do you feel your life force slipping away in meetings? Throw away the hourglass! (Also, they have clocks now - get one of those.) This session aims to...	Worker Cooperatives Are...People!
Experiments in Coop Academies Omar Freilla, Carlos Perez de Alejo, Noemi Giszpenc This workshop will examine recent experiments in creating education programs geared towards start-up worker cooperatives. Three such programs will be highlighted, taking place in the Bronx (Green...	Basics
Fair Trade, Foreign Policy, and Global Solidarity- International Development in the IYC Rob Everts, David Branigan, Jesse Last In this International Year of Cooperatives, we recognize that not only do inspiring cooperatives call Boston home, but so do a number of inspiring efforts to develop cooperatives in developing...	Cooperative Connections
Fully Human Resources: A Human-Centered Approach to HR Esteban Kelly, Tyrone Boucher, Jenny Glazer Inclusive, encouraging, and worker-centered policies should be the backbone of any cooperative personnel framework. In democratic workplaces, “Human Resources” are centered around the...	Worker Cooperatives Are...People!
Got Schwag? Branding Visuals for Worker Coops Sabiha Basrai Does your co-op know how to schwag? Ok, we're really talking about all the promotional materials that your co-op puts out to the world. We'll talk about how to develop a consistent brand and...	Do It Yourself
How To Read a Balance Sheet: Worker Cooperative Financial Reporting Dirk Prindle The Balance Sheet holds the key to understanding your cooperative’s financial health, and it is a valuable tool for everything from cash management to strategizing about growth to deciding how...	Basics
Immigrant-Led Worker Cooperatives, part 1 Carlos Perez de Alejo, Minsun Ji, David Smathers Moore A “lay-of-the-land” overview of different approaches being pursued, including different ways of organizing and developing the capacities needed to get a cooperative off the ground, different...	Do It Yourself
Immigrant-Led Worker Cooperatives, part 2 Elizabeth Arredondo, Luz Maria Arias, Carlos Gaspar, Carolina Herrera A historic series of presentations by and dialogue among worker-owners from four immigrant-led cooperatives from across the US: Opportunity Threads, a cut-and-sew cooperative in North Carolina;...	Do It Yourself
Movie Night: Worker Coop Shorts Film Festival

FYI

Sessions