Economic Democracy: Building Co-operative PowerNFCACoops
This presentation from the Neighboring Food Co-op Association’s track of workshops “Co-operatives in the Food System” at the 44th Annual NOFA Summer Conference covers stories from the book "Building Co-operative Power" of the history and concept of worker co-operation including past and present examples of worker co-operatives, co-op collaboration in and across sectors, conversions, education and development in the Connecticut River Valley.
Presenters:
- Suzette Snow-Cobb: Sourcing Coordinator for the Neighboring Food Co-op Association stakeholder director for VAWC.
- Adam Trott: Works at the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives (VAWC) and Shared Capital Cooperative.
Co-op Conversion for Business Success: Why Go Co-op?NFCACoops
Erbin Crowell, Executive Director, Neighboring Food Co-op Association and Adam Trott, Staff, Valley Alliance of Worker Co-ops; Worker/Member, Collective Copies share examples of co-op conversion for business success. Co-ops are a great model for business succession, retaining jobs, and rooting businesses in communities. Why go co-op? How do co-ops strengthen our regional food system and economy? Learn about the process of conversion, and hear from representatives from a variety of businesses that have converted to the co-operative model.
How to Start or Convert to a Co-op BusinessNFCACoops
This presentation was part the Co-op Track at the 2019 NOFA Summer Conference. Looking to start a business or for a business succession plan that retains jobs and builds economic sustainability? Co-ops root business in communities, strengthen buy-in, and build resilient and sustainable economy and food systems. Learn how co-ops work, the startup process, benefits of conversion, financing, and history. Presenters will shares stories of the process of converting businesses to the co-op model, starting worker co-ops, food co-ops and producer co-ops.
Presenters:
-Larisa Demos, Worker/member-owner Green Mountain Spinnery, Board of Directors, Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives.
-Suzette Snow-Cobb, Has been involved with co-ops since the '80s, works for the Neighboring Food Co-op Association.
Creating shared value bridging the gap between business and societyTony Usidamen
A presentation by Tony Usidamen, Managing Partner, Uburu at the CSR West Africa 2014 Conference held at Four Points By Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria from the 8th to 9th of October 2014.
Co-ops in the Food System: Conversions, Start-ups and Supply ChainsNFCACoops
This presentation covers worker and food co-ops in the Northeast and internationally that foster economically and environmentally sustainable food systems. The presentation covers the process for cooperative business development, the advantages of the co-operative model, and steps for
launching a new co-op or converting an existing business.
Economic Democracy: Building Co-operative PowerNFCACoops
This presentation from the Neighboring Food Co-op Association’s track of workshops “Co-operatives in the Food System” at the 44th Annual NOFA Summer Conference covers stories from the book "Building Co-operative Power" of the history and concept of worker co-operation including past and present examples of worker co-operatives, co-op collaboration in and across sectors, conversions, education and development in the Connecticut River Valley.
Presenters:
- Suzette Snow-Cobb: Sourcing Coordinator for the Neighboring Food Co-op Association stakeholder director for VAWC.
- Adam Trott: Works at the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives (VAWC) and Shared Capital Cooperative.
Co-op Conversion for Business Success: Why Go Co-op?NFCACoops
Erbin Crowell, Executive Director, Neighboring Food Co-op Association and Adam Trott, Staff, Valley Alliance of Worker Co-ops; Worker/Member, Collective Copies share examples of co-op conversion for business success. Co-ops are a great model for business succession, retaining jobs, and rooting businesses in communities. Why go co-op? How do co-ops strengthen our regional food system and economy? Learn about the process of conversion, and hear from representatives from a variety of businesses that have converted to the co-operative model.
How to Start or Convert to a Co-op BusinessNFCACoops
This presentation was part the Co-op Track at the 2019 NOFA Summer Conference. Looking to start a business or for a business succession plan that retains jobs and builds economic sustainability? Co-ops root business in communities, strengthen buy-in, and build resilient and sustainable economy and food systems. Learn how co-ops work, the startup process, benefits of conversion, financing, and history. Presenters will shares stories of the process of converting businesses to the co-op model, starting worker co-ops, food co-ops and producer co-ops.
Presenters:
-Larisa Demos, Worker/member-owner Green Mountain Spinnery, Board of Directors, Valley Alliance of Worker Co-operatives.
-Suzette Snow-Cobb, Has been involved with co-ops since the '80s, works for the Neighboring Food Co-op Association.
Creating shared value bridging the gap between business and societyTony Usidamen
A presentation by Tony Usidamen, Managing Partner, Uburu at the CSR West Africa 2014 Conference held at Four Points By Sheraton, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria from the 8th to 9th of October 2014.
Co-ops in the Food System: Conversions, Start-ups and Supply ChainsNFCACoops
This presentation covers worker and food co-ops in the Northeast and internationally that foster economically and environmentally sustainable food systems. The presentation covers the process for cooperative business development, the advantages of the co-operative model, and steps for
launching a new co-op or converting an existing business.
Start a Worker Co-op or Convert an Existing Business, NOFA SC, 8.8.13NFCACoops
Erbin Crowell, Executive Director of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association & Adam Trott, Staff Developer for the Valley Alliance of Worker Co-ops share the basics of the co-operative model, its relevance to local economies, and the process for business development. This presentation focuses on worker co-ops in the food system, multi-stakeholder models, which include producers and consumers, and shares guidance for people exploring a co-operative business start-up or conversion.
Webinar: Poverty Alleviation and Systems Change with Worker CooperativesEPIPNational
A time-tested approach to community economic development internationally, worker cooperative businesses are making inroads in the United States with regional initiatives in New York City, Madison, the Bay Area, and rural areas in the South. In this webinar, we aim to introduce worker-cooperative development as an innovative approach to poverty alleviation in U.S. communities through its focus on community wealth-building through worker-ownership and democratic decision-making. We'll explore case studies to explore how funders and citizens can learn from what has been done and take advantage of new opportunities to support real change.
This presentation on Cross-Sector Collaboration for a Co-operative Economy was presented at the National Co-op Conference in Minneapolis, October 2011.
Manufacturing challenges.
This presentation discusses:
- Manufacturing challenges
- What AME is doing to address those challenges
- What the manufacturing community can do to assist in a revitalization of manufacturing
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish Caching
Srem Group 10 28 10
1. NW Co-op Development Center
Seattle Renewable Energy Meet-up Group
Oct. 28th
, 2010
Eric Bowman, Cooperative Development Specialist
eric@nwcdc.coop
Teresa Young, Organizational Development Specialist
teresa@nwcdc.coop
1063 S Capitol Way # 211
Olympia, WA 98501
360.943.4241
3. NWCDC
The Center
a 501(c)3 nonprofit which provides development services
for new and existing co-ops
Our mission
to foster community economic development through the
co-op business model
We’re
a team of co-op developers with skills specific to start-up
and organizational business development
4. Co-op Role
U.S. Facts:
– 3,000 farmer co-ops market 30% of farmers’ products
– 6,400 housing co-ops provide 1.5m homes
– 10,000 credit unions provide services to 84m
members
– 1,000 rural electrics operate ½ the nation’s
distribution
– 47,000 co-ops serve 43% of the population
Top 100 co-ops’ 2009 revenues = $176 Billion!
10. Unique Characteristics of Co-ops
• Owned/controlled by members, not outside investors
• Exist solely to serve members
• Return surplus to members based on use, not
investment
• Pay taxes on income kept for investment/reserves;
surplus revenue returned to members who pay taxes
• Economy of scale = valued added
15. Bulk buying Solar
One Block Off the Grid (not a co-op):
• Lower costs
• Less confusion
• Trusted contractors
“Solar power meets consumer power:
Group discounts help you buy home solar power”
16. Co-op Owned Infrastructure
Baywind Energy Co-op
• 1,300 members
• 2.5 MW farm
Westmill Wind Farm
• 2,000 members
• 6.5 MW farm
Characteristics:
• One member = 1 vote
• Shares and loans sold to community
• U.K.
17. Community Solar
• Community ownership:
– Might be a co-op, might not
– Co-op pools project participants
– Facilitated/managed by for profit developer
– “condo” model
– Joint venture
18. What is a Worker Cooperative?
•Worker Owned
•Worker Controlled
19. Worker-Owned
• Investment buy-in
• Worker-owner receives a portion of the
revenue after expenses
• Conventional businesses refer to this as profit
• Co-ops call it surplus
21. Worker-Controlled
• Democratic decision
– one worker-member = one vote
• Worker-Control takes many forms depending
on the size and type of business
• Each business creates the structure best
suited to their needs
22. Democratic Workplaces
• Cooperatives: “one member, one vote”
• Collectives: democratic but not owned by
• LLCs: shared ownership, protected debt
• Democratic ESOPs: usually own stock and
share profits
23. Types of Worker Co-ops
• Service: housekeepers, taxis..
• Retail: grocery, bakeries, bookstores…
• Health Care: nursing, Clinics, bodywork..
• Skilled trades: printing, plumbing…
• Manufacturing & engineering: fabrication...
• Technology: web hosting...
• Education: Charter schools…
• Media and the arts: designers, galleries…
24. Questions to ask yourselves
• What kind of business do you have in mind?
• What are your goals?
• Does the Co-op model fit those goals?
• How many people are currently involved and
who else do you hope to involve?
• Do you have the skills to do a feasibility study
or business plan?
• What assistance are you going to need?
25. More Questions
• What kind of organizational/management
structure?
• Do you have capitalization lined up?
26. Thank You!
Eric Bowman & Teresa Young
eric@nwcdc.coop | teresa@nwcdc.coop
Northwest Cooperative Development Center
1063 Capitol Way S # 211
Olympia, WA 98501
360.943.4241 | www.nwcdc.coop
Fostering community economic development through the
cooperative business model
Editor's Notes
<Remember: slooooooowwww and be natural>
I appreciate the opportunity to be here…
Very timely event!
<Go slow>
<…slowly…>
Intro self and sectors
<ehm, breath>
Co-ops are dynamic and relevant in today’s economy
What does this mean: the equity owners of a co-op are the same people who:
- democratically govern the business thru 1-member = 1-vote
- are the beneficiaries of the services provided
<are you going slowly enough>
Co-ops are defined by ownership
In this collection of cooperative business’s logo’s, I see groups of people who had a need:
- they could not meet individually
and
- which was unfulfilled by the traditional investor-owned private sector
<S.L.O.W.>
Because co-op businesses are:
- comprised of the community
- they are representative of the community
- and they are a part of the community
Co-ops:
- Keep profits, ownership and control local
- Are less vulnerable to take-over and closure by outside decision-makers; often stay long after others leave
- Are trusted business partners; people like to deal with the producer
Co-ops have an innate edge on investor-owned corporations and they have an opportunity to sell it!
Building blocks of economic cooperation
Authority:
- basic authority and responsibility imposed by law, in other words the incorporating statute
- Bylaws and policy provide guidance and clarify authority
Ultimate authority from 2 places:
Comes from members and this overall system
The co-op is theirs and without their desire
to create and perpetuate co-op, the board wouldn’t exist
Members place their needs, trust and Board of their choosing.
To close on the general info…
Madrona: 20 members, pool the local WVO, one 5 gallon carboy at a time for a local fuel production gig
Madrona: 20 members, pool the local WVO, one 5 gallon carboy at a time for a local fuel production gig
Madrona: 20 members, pool the local WVO, one 5 gallon carboy at a time for a local fuel production gig