2019-02-13 Toronto Workers Co-op: ON Co-op Assoc Call

Date: Wed Feb 13, 2019 @ 12 pm
Location: appear.in/offline
Participants:

• Patrick Connolly (patcon)
• Dawn Walker (dcwalk)
• Peter Cameron (pcameron)
• Ben Lau (benhylau)

Agenda

1. Intros
2. Questions

Notes

Legend:
Action Item

• intros

  • Thanks for resources already!
  • patcon. organizing with civic tech torontog
  • dcwalk. alt internet infra. community wifi. ethnography. information studies. workshops to learn about tech and build them for local communties.
  • peter. re: platform coops? YES
  • ben. engineer but more excited about community network work and open source. Toronto Mesh.
  • peter. working on co-ops since 93. worker coop = planet bean. started. investor, but no longer member-owner. lots more calls lately.

• questions

  • dcwalk: main one = profit vs non-profit.
    • reached out to fourth pig
  • pcameron: general lack of knowledge in ontario
  • types:
    • shared corp
    • non-profit corp
    • coop corp
      • with-share
      • non-share
        • can become not-for-profit cooperative (with NPO status?)
  • normally would recommend doing with-share for a worker coop
  • “non-profit status” different from “non-profit corp”
  • coop “about providing service to members”.
  • put a few bylaws and then CRA decides
  • NPO term is confusing, and hopefully moving to something more positive (“public benefit”, etc.)
  • dcwalk: share capital vs non?
    • pcameron: beauty of IT co-op is that it has very little capital needs
    • fundraising methods
      • with-share methods:
        • “membership share” (<– this is buy-in) = one member, one vote
          • member dollars
        • “preference share” = no votes or extra votes, but dividends (prime + 1-2%)
          • can sell to non-members, if members don’t have capital
          • re: fourth pig. can set the buy-in, and do preference shares for external.
          • ben: no speculative component? yes, “par value”. plus some form of dividend as incentive.
      • non-share methods:
        • member loans (interest capped at prime + 2%), donations. but easiest and clearest is shares.
        • membership fee + member loan (regulated interest). can’t offer interest, as that’s capital.
        • taking bank loans to fund is okay
  • dcwalk: how to change from for-profit with-shares to non-profit? difficult?
    • pcameron: not lawyer, but would assume yes. share capital would need to be bought back with full support. and would need to redo finances to complete different model. extra capital would prob need to be taxed.
    • dcwalk: interested in how to use surplus (and understanding that as distinct from profit).
    • pcameron. is fourth pig not for profit? or a nonprofit coop. they MUST pay taxes, right?
    • pcamercon. can indicate how many shares you might potentially share. (can’t be unlimited)
  • patcon: working with gov as co-op?
    • many Conservative leaders are rural, and understand co-operatives (dairy, etc.)
      • potentially really aligned as private
      • private sector doesn’t like co-ops, as competition
    • we are self-help organizations guided by economic democracies
    • co-ops diffuse surplus back to the workers and communities
    • private sector are often not allies
    • government is often not allies, but some administrations may be more supportive and some people more receptive
  • dcwalk:
    • “no one’s looking”
    • fairly loose, despite how it might look
    • consensus model is totally fine
    • Talk to Urbane Cyclist. (Reba is prez of a federation)
  • patcon:
    • other co-ops experimenting with the growth and budding off process of a young co-op
    • event by the US Worker Co-op Federation (lots going on in US co-op scene due to current climate)
      • Co-op Hour
    • membership “tiers” and progression?
      • how to transition from contributor to member (open source inspirations)
      • e.g. (coffee co-op) work 600 hours to be considered to be a member
      • start SMALL!

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