Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Sue and Steve
http://communitybuilders.coop

Nina - friend of Ash, interest in alternative economic models

Ellie -member of Harvest Square Coop, feels less and less like a co-op

Sarah - Labor Studies student at UMass, involved in IWW. Now looking at services for disabled people set up in coop model and not agency model. Shelter for people with autism. People learn while there, and then stay a member, or leave when they find permanent housing.

Sirin (?) - woman

Heather - worked in farming collective last growing season

Kieran???

Chris - starting bike and mechanic services collective

Adrienne - "Wobbly of very very bad standing"

(Whose

Consumer coop
- includes to some extent housing co-ops
- when statewide vote ended rent control in cambridge, converted some to limited equity co-op
Producer coops - large ones like

what used to be termed the means of

"democratic workplace"
benefit society at large and the workers in particular
socially useful - not marketer driven

worker co-op -- business labor based, not capital based
owned by workers who participate, not by investors. Cannot
introduces one person one vote, not shares

there are shades and nuances in all of this

Collectives - 4 or 5 people
many can operate very well as businesses
- restaurants
- Boston Broadway bicycle school started as one

distinction is not that great. Collective will automatically not have board of directors

Our construction cooperative has many elements of collective, have face-to-face democracy

this is where there is disagreement, many argue
that at a certain scale different forms work better
elect from
starts to lose its coop characteristics if it's not one person one vote

100s of worker-owned businesses

U.S. movement largely in West Coast, Bay Area to Washington
East Coast, Boston to Washington corridor
separate conferences and meetings, different styles

now forming U.S. federation of worker co-ops. Not a member org yet,

Each state has own laws for worker co-ops. Mass is a bit behind. Most have used farmer co-op as model.

Worker co-ops often need some help in getting their properties of

Chroma in Vermont does
and Trillium Asset Management!

Finances and government
started 29 years ago. Didn't start soon enough on finances and earning an income. Need to be able to talk to each other about your business plan, articles of organization, bylaws. Like marriage: be aware up front.

Model we pass out to organizers (coop can be a partnership, LLC, etc.)

Perennial question for co-ops: grow larger bringing in more members, or help other people start co-ops.

Printing presses may need large outlays of capital.
construction company - we don't buy a tool until we need it. Have a lot ater 30 years.

Matters because lender can end up with a seat at the table.

Coop Fund of New England CFNE.org

Decision-making

Unmediated face-to-face can be very efficient. Know immediately what people are interested in things. Larger the group, harder this is.

Coupled with this decision-making on a smaller scale:
Consensus decision-making

Use a stratified meeting format

In day-to-day construction work, job-site meetings are about suppliers, costs for that.

Weekly meetings plan out upcoming resources

Try to meet quarterly, not always,

Meet annually

Stratified. Kind of know what level things should be brought up at.

Participation and Accountability

Most of the time a decision is agreed to everything already-- all agreed to the decision. Sense of ownership.

Even small groups you can feel disconnected, excluded from the way everyone else does it.

can also make decisions

in small groups it shows up fast-- 3 months later no one has done anything on it

Money

Many groups allow the marketplace to be a hidden partner.

Designer gets more than demolition guy

Some say, highest-paid person only gets 3-4 times what the lowest is paid.

Me: for agaric, A hard limit on 3X spread in hourly rate? preferably all one rate.

woman:
At CBC we all get paid one hourly wage. Someone may want to charge the company less because they don't feel they are skilled enough.

No employees, all partners: we work with subcontractors.

9 partners. Newest members e

back to the guy:
lot of issues about equal wages. "if i wasn't part of this group i could go over there and make X money"

first question is always "what your wage is" because we've been trained as workers - and I say, we should talk about what a co-op is first.

We took the approach that everyone is working hard, side-by-side
some may have more skill at a given task
but there's enough range in there that people can pick what they're doing

when you're higher-paid, you have to look at whose coming up behind you.

Saves a lot of time. Now money isn't part of the decision-making.

We are paid a wage

in many cases the wage is irrelevant, because we also do profit sharing on an annual basis. On a good year it can double your year, often.

In 1992 we lost money. Had to draw from the fund.

At one point the fund was getting too big, so we divided it up retroactively.

Bringing new members in

do both parties feel comfortable?

If it's working, we add in a profit-share quarterly. A quarter at a time, adding up to full amount. (This is unusual.) After a year or two, ask to either sign a partnership agreement or move on and go elsewhere. Become full member with voting rights.

Worker co-ops struggle with too many employees. Guideline, maybe, that at least 50% of workers should be owners or you aren't a worker co-op.

Legacy problem

People who have been there a long time, they have the ways they like things done. It becomes an issue. Over the 30 years, we've had times with a lot of newer members who said-- you have a great thing going here, but I'm going to do my own thing-- get married on West Coast, start a band...

We've dropped back down to nine people, seven of whom way back from the beginning.

We're getting older. We're in our 50s. I'm of the opinion

To help other people get started.

Me: Sounds exactly like what we want to do,
tax-wise this could apply to anything

There weren't LLCs or LLPs when we started

If you happen to won your own home in , you can register your home as a homestead, one-page form

When people leave the co-op, do they take equity or assets? Two internal accounts, one unindividuated and the other individuated -- they take their share of the latter. This helps with the cash flow.

Does that apply to someone on probation, first two years? Over the year

Profit share isn't determined until the end of the year.

They are basically subcontractors-- own tools, own vehicles. Relationship develops, become part of the company.

Accountability? Representative system, is there a process, recourse if representatives

Committees to review

Whole point in construction industry is beating down everyone's rates, which is why we built in equal cost

We have not been sued. We have sued-- a company tried to take our name, they'd paid a lot to a name consulting that never opened

We cho

Community Builders Cooperative, LLC
we changed from

liability
workers comp for our subcontractors (not ourselves)
disability insurance for our partners
we like to try to get the cash out to our partners, the individuals

pay as individuals for health, but with a group plan

We are essentially self-employed, which gives a

We're filed under K-1s, partnerships, schedule E-- which has all sorts of deductions for business expenses.

Pay attention to this stuff and pick the track that gives you the best tax advantages.

Have bookkeeping rotate?
Pretty easy with Quickbooks

Chain of stuff to do on a project- demo, cleanup

We all do sales and marketing, but not much of us like to do it, but there are lots of referrals, we've been so long

How do you deal with real big issues? Put the roof on the top of the house, not the side.

We stop and regroup. And met a lot.

Mistakes, lack of skill. That's just money. Go back and redo it.

Problem of an abusive partner-- "this is how I did it at my former company"

All meetings are paid time, and there's something good to eat.

Do you find that one person takes on an organizational role.

Every group needs at least one financially savvy person. That can become, or person can feel they are, Transparency is really important and rotating the position.

I argue that hierarchical decisions take longer because you have to go back and revisit things, and explain the decision again...

25-30, need a facilitator

[Indian/Pakistani maybe, very outgoing, ran a business as open communication as possible
Critical to have conversations efficiently enough that people don't stop being invested in the organization, and not so quickly that people stop being invested in the organization. Do you know what I mean?

there are things like roberts rules of order for consensus decisionmaking
key to know when is the right time, the fair time to try to make a decision

"we're at teh point of talking about changi

Looking into starting my own business, and I think I have the sole proprietorship thing down
the tax and business administration thing scares the heck out of me
places to help

File of anything-- sign name and e-mail. ICA group in Brookline very good
Ownership Associates They like to say they are the only
and www.USWorker.coop
www.East.usworker.coop

My question: Payment for "non-billable" time?

Communitybuildiers.coop

How do you deal with

We look at everything we do as part of representing community builders

today we are not paid for our time

organizing the business, someone will have to sit through and read that, we alot them a certain amount of time

always in advance

expect to put in a lot of time at the beginning. not so much now

How many hours do you work, and how much is administrative?

My work is all out on jobs.

Administrative work billable to a job

I work very part-time. Most of what I do is overhead, administrative.

Did set of minimum number of hours in the bylaws. But waive for health reasons.