From adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com Wed Jun 17 23:13:20 2009 From: adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com (Adam Trott) Date: Wed Jun 17 23:20:50 2009 Subject: [vawcnews] Next VAWC meeting 6/23, 6:30pm at 6 High Street in Florence Message-ID: <326845.77153.qm@web36903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello people! We'll have our next VAWC meeting one week from today at my house. We'll have a some food at 6pm, meeting goes from 6:30 to 8:30. Call 413 586 4679 for directions to 6 High Street. By the way, did I miss the minutes from the last meeting? Let me know if there's anything else from last meeting. Agenda so far: 1) 20 to 30 minutes- structure From the last meeting I believe we have a tabled discussion around the Structure Committee Proposal. We will vote on Section 1, Membership Criteria at the upcoming meeting. The proposal is pasted below. 2) 5 to 10 minutes- 4th(!) anniversary party Adam wonders if its time to start talking about our annual anniversary party, which is usually in September. Email me with other agenda items. Adam VAWC Structure Committee Proposal Adam Trott, Charles Uchu-Stader (Notes), Michael Johnson, Kim Pinkham, with Brian from Fall of the West, Jay and Josh from Bratt Tech 1. Membership critera:(This section to be voted on for next meeting) 1. ?Members? would consist of worker cooperatives as defined by CICOPA & USFWC. This would include ?provisional status? businesses that have not yet incorporated as worker coops, or small businesses that have only two members at present but who intend to grow using the worker coop model. Provisional status would be reviewed ?probably yearly?. 2. ?Allies? would consist of other types of democratic workplaces, support organizations, non-profits, etc. 3. ?Individuals? ? any interested person who does not represent an Ally organization but wishes to be a member of VAWC. 4. ?Inactive Members? (Perhaps a different, more descriptive name?) would be those worker cooperatives who, for whatever reason, do not participate in VAWC or pay dues, but who VAWC would support in its marketing and educational activities to forward the worker coop model and coop businesses in general. 2. Dues- Member dues are a clear message of connection and support. Dues are required to be active members or allies. a. Member Dues 1. All coops may not be able to have a representative attend VAWC meetings, and dues are a way to ?check the box? on membership 2. The group liked the idea of continuing the practice of having VAWC dues be half of the USFWC dues, since worker coops who are members of USFWC get to waive half their dues as members of VAWC. 3. We would not require that a VAWC member be a member of USFWC Members who have paid dues would not be required (but would be strongly encouraged) to attend meetings. b.Ally and Individual dues 1. $75 for Allies and $25 for Individuals. Concerns were that Ally/Individual membership would be too expensive for cash-strapped non-profits, Ed. Departments, and students, but we didn?t want to exclude them. 2. We have a volunteer/labor exchange option for those who may not have cash resources for dues at the rate of $17 an hour. c. A note about student coops: the group determined that since student worker coops don?t own capital, they don?t fit the technical definition under CICOPA. They would be considered Allies instead. This also addresses the transient nature of their members, since they would be turning over pretty often. 3.Decision making processing a. We make decisions as one member one vote to reach consensus. If two members or more bring an agenda item to the meeting to three consecutive meetings we fall back to 2/3 majority. b.Quorum: Most topics could be discussed in regular meetings regardless of the number of members present. Structural, spending and overall mission decisions would need to have 67% quorum of member coops. Note, multiple people from one coop only contribute one member toward quorum. The group thought decisions would need the presence of 50% of members to be representative. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.valleyworker.org/pipermail/vawcnews/attachments/20090617/bb4f2754/attachment.htm From adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com Thu Jun 18 13:46:34 2009 From: adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com (Adam Trott) Date: Thu Jun 18 13:49:04 2009 Subject: [vawcnews] Oops, VAWC meeting 6/24, 6:30pm at 6 High Street in Florence In-Reply-To: <326845.77153.qm@web36903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <326845.77153.qm@web36903.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <326297.33579.qm@web36908.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Oops, Wednesday June 24th, not the 23rd. Adam ________________________________ From: Adam Trott To: vawc valley alliance of worker cooperatives ; vawcnews@lists.valleyworker.org Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 11:13:20 PM Subject: [vawcnews] Next VAWC meeting 6/23, 6:30pm at 6 High Street in Florence Hello people! We'll have our next VAWC meeting one week from today at my house. We'll have a some food at 6pm, meeting goes from 6:30 to 8:30. Call 413 586 4679 for directions to 6 High Street. By the way, did I miss the minutes from the last meeting? Let me know if there's anything else from last meeting. Agenda so far: 1)? 20 to 30 minutes- structure From the last meeting I believe we have a tabled discussion around the Structure Committee Proposal. We will vote on Section 1, Membership Criteria at the upcoming meeting. The proposal is pasted below. 2)? 5 to 10 minutes- 4th(!) anniversary party Adam wonders if its time to start talking about our annual anniversary party, which is usually in September. Email me with other agenda items. Adam VAWC Structure Committee Proposal Adam Trott, Charles Uchu-Stader (Notes), Michael Johnson, Kim Pinkham, with Brian from Fall of the West, Jay and Josh from Bratt Tech 1. Membership critera:(This section to be voted on for next meeting) 1. ?Members? would consist of worker cooperatives as defined by CICOPA & USFWC. This would include ?provisional status? businesses that have not yet incorporated as worker coops, or small businesses that have only two members at present but who intend to grow using the worker coop model. Provisional status would be reviewed ?probably yearly?. 2. ?Allies? would consist of other types of democratic workplaces, support organizations, non-profits, etc. 3. ?Individuals? ? any interested person who does not represent an Ally organization but wishes to be a member of VAWC. 4. ?Inactive Members? (Perhaps a different, more descriptive name?) would be those worker cooperatives who, for whatever reason, do not participate in VAWC or pay dues, but who VAWC would support in its marketing and educational activities to forward the worker coop model and coop businesses in general. 2. Dues- Member dues are a clear message of connection and support. Dues are required to be active members or allies. a. Member Dues 1. All coops may not be able to have a representative attend VAWC meetings, and dues are a way to ?check the box? on membership 2. The group liked the idea of continuing the practice of having VAWC dues be half of the USFWC dues, since worker coops who are members of USFWC get to waive half their dues as members of VAWC. 3. We would not require that a VAWC member be a member of USFWC Members who have paid dues would not be required (but would be strongly encouraged) to attend meetings. b.Ally and Individual dues 1. $75 for Allies and $25 for Individuals. Concerns were that Ally/Individual membership would be too expensive for cash-strapped non-profits, Ed. Departments, and students, but we didn?t want to exclude them. 2. We have a volunteer/labor exchange option for those who may not have cash resources for dues at the rate of $17 an hour. ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? c. A note about student coops: the group determined that since student worker coops don?t own capital, they don?t fit the technical definition under CICOPA. They would be considered Allies instead. This also addresses the transient nature of their members, since they would be turning over pretty often. ??? ??? 3.Decision making processing a. We make decisions as one member one vote to reach consensus. If two members or more bring an agenda item to the meeting to three consecutive meetings we fall back to 2/3 majority. ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? b.Quorum: Most topics could be discussed in regular meetings regardless of the number of members present. Structural, spending and overall mission decisions would need to have 67% quorum of member coops. Note, multiple people from one coop only contribute one member toward quorum. The group thought decisions would need the presence of 50% of members to be representative. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.valleyworker.org/pipermail/vawcnews/attachments/20090618/104b611d/attachment.html From adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com Tue Jun 23 19:18:02 2009 From: adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com (Adam Trott) Date: Tue Jun 23 19:18:49 2009 Subject: [vawcnews] VAWC meeting tomorrow, Wed, June 24th at 6:30 Message-ID: <279009.31673.qm@web36907.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello people! We'll have our next VAWC meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, at my house. We'll have a some food at 6pm, meeting goes from 6:30 to 8:30. Call 413 585-1553 or 586 4679 after 5 for directions to 6 High Street. Agenda so far: 1) 30 to 45 minutes- Structure- group discussion From the last meetingwe have a tabled discussion around the Structure Committee Proposal. We will vote on Section 1, Membership Criteria at the upcoming meeting. The (updated from last email) proposal is pasted below. 2) 5 to 10 minutes- 4th(!) anniversary party- Adam Adam wonders if its time to start talking about our annual anniversary party, which is usually in September. 3) 5 to 10 minutes- Cooperative Capital Fund (CCF) opening- Adam and Erbin CCF will be opening our fund in October or December. It's meant to focus on start ups and expansions where the loan will serve as 'equity like capital'. We would like to reach out to prospective borrowers and spread the word. There is also an opportunity for co-ops to be investors for the life of the fund for as low as $1,000. 4) 10 to 20 minutes- Staff Pilot Project Report back- Erbin and Adam We have a budget proposal for the group- of the @$9,000 for the project we would like to earmark $1,000 for a pilot ad campaign, $1,000 for a project completion bonus/unexpected costs pool, and split up the rest to allocate monthly $547 checks to Erbin upon reporting for the previous month. This is described in more detail in the upcoming Staffer Report. Erbin will report back about his work this month. 5) 10 minutes- Cooperative Development Institute Letter of Support- From Jen Gutshall: I'm writing to ask for a letter of support for CDI's Rural Co-op Development Grant application. There's no commitment of resources involved, just a general letter that expresses support and collaboration. Although time is of the essence on getting the actual letter, I hope we can use this opportunity to begin discuss what projects we'd like to work on together in the coming year. I'll defer to you on the time youd like to set aside on the agenda, but it would be great to open this discussion with at least 10 minutes. Email me with other agenda items. Adam Background: A Structure Committee was formed in the Fall of 2007 to draft and bring a proposal to VAWC for formalization of our membership structure. Committee Meetings and regular VAWC meetings have been utilized to bring ourselves together on the intent of formalizing the membership structure and we are now at a point of moving to make any last edits to the proposed structure and approve it. 1. Membership Criteria (what we will decide about tomorrow) To be a ?Member? of the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives the workplaces must meet the criteria of being a worker co-operative as defined by the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the International Declaration on Worker Cooperatives (CICOPA). Worker Co-operative membership in the USFWC will automatically qualify a workplacefor membership in VAWC, but membership in the USFWC is not required, though encouraged, to be a member of VAWC. Member businesses must be in the region in and around the Pioneer Valley, which we roughly define as the region from Springfield, MA heading north into Southern Vermont. A Member can be approved for membership at any regular meeting of VAWC, by the existing VAWC membership. Members will be assigned a ?Provisional Status? if they have not yet formally organized as a worker co-operative or if they have formed and are only two members. Members assigned Provisional Status will be reviewed by the Membership annually to ensure they are still on track with worker co-operative ownership. Worker Co-operatives in our region that do not participate actively in VAWC or do not pay dues will be considered ?Inactive Members?. VAWC, in its efforts to forward the worker co-op model and co-op business in general, will support Inactive Members in its marketing and educational activities. A Member becomes an Inactive Members once absent 4 of the past 12 meetings regardless of dues. Inactive Members may attend VAWC meetings and are welcome to be involved in the dialog and discussion around decisions by VAWC, but are not given the power to block consensus nor do they have a vote. A 'Member in Good Standing' requires both dues and attendance. 2. VAWC Allies and Friends Allies and Friends may attend VAWC meetings and are welcome to be involved in the dialog and discussion around decisions by VAWC, but are not given the power to block consensus nor do they have a vote. Preference in speaking order is given to worker co-operators when needed. A ?VAWC Ally? consists of other organizations and or businesses that are in support of VAWC's mission. This includes other types of democratic workplaces, support organizations, non-profits, and other organizations as approved by the VAWC Membership. A ?VAWC Friend? is an individual who does not represent a specific organization, but wishes to be involved with VAWC and supports VAWC's mission. 3. Dues Structure The Dues structure needs some work and will be presented for approval at the July 2009 VAWC Meeting. The current proposals on the table would make the VAWC dues set as half of USFWC dues as it has been. The Staff Pilot Project will potentially change this with an option equivalent to 1/8th of 1% of gross sales or gross compensation. Member Dues are a clear message of connection and support of VAWC. Yearly dues are required for businesses to be considered active Members. Dues are also required for Allies and Friends to be considered active- $75 for Allies and $25 for Friends 4. Decision Making Process The Decision Making Process will be presented for approval at the August 2009 VAWC Meeting. We make decisions as one Member one vote to reach consensus. Multiple people attending a meeting from one Member coop, will only have one vote in the meeting. If two members or more bring an agenda item to three consecutive meetings, and a decision has not come to consensus, we fall back to 2/3 majority. Quorum. Most topics could be discussed in regular meetings regardless of the number of members present. Structural, spending and overall mission decisions would need to have 45% quorum of member co-ops. It is our intent to revisit quorum and raise it. Multiple people from one co-op only contribute one Member toward quorum. Group thought decisions, not covered by criteria above, would need the presence of 33% of members to be considered representative. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.valleyworker.org/pipermail/vawcnews/attachments/20090623/3ed54cd3/attachment.html From adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com Thu Jun 25 22:50:04 2009 From: adamtrott2000 at yahoo.com (Adam Trott) Date: Fri Jun 26 10:04:34 2009 Subject: [vawcnews] June 24 VAWC meeting minutes Message-ID: <39827.84044.qm@web36902.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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