Cooperative Development Institute: Northeast Center for Cooperative Business

The Christian Science Monitor has run an opinion piece by Melissa Hoover, director of the US Federation of Worker Co-ops, and Beadsie Woo, of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, in today's issue.
To jumpstart US job market, turn workers into owners
Many Americans build wealth through their home. Why not through work?

The United Nations today passed a resolution declaring 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. The National Cooperative Business Association, which helped advocate for support of this resolution, has sent links to a copy of the draft resolution and the International Cooperative Alliance's press release.

A group of organic dairy farmers who suddenly lost their contracts with Hood last year have banded together to find a cooperative solution. An agreement among the farmers, private investors, Smiling Hill Farm in Westbrook, Oakhurst Dairy in Portland, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, the Maine Farm Bureau and the Maine Department of Agriculture, has helped launch a new company: MOOMilkCo., short for Maine’s Own Organic Milk Co. CDI worked with this group in winter and spring last year.

Our condolences to John Logue's family and his colleagues at the Ohio Employee Ownership Center. His sudden passing is a great loss to us all.

In their most recent newsletter, the Cooperative Fund of New England announced the launch and first loan of the Cooperative Capital Fund, a new source of patient capital (including equity and equity-like loans) for co-op expansions, conversions and start-ups. There is a whole lot of other interesting news as well about events, co-ops, and Co-op Month.

The Ohio Employee Ownership Center has a new website. Currently featured on the front page is a great 6-minute video about the Evergreen co-operatives, a model of anchor-institution involvement in sustainable, community-owned economic development.

ACE and its partners are looking for a start-up CEO who will help us bring a worker-owned, community-accountable energy-services cooperative to fruition. We are looking for someone with solid business start-up experience, as well as expertise in energy-efficiency and experience working in lower-income communities and communities of color.
We need your help getting the word out!
If you know any good candidates, please share this with them and ask them to apply by December 15, 2009.

The Cooperative Fund of New England (CFNE) has launched the Cooperative Capital Fund (CCF), a new source of patient capital (including equity and equity-like loans) for co-op expansions, conversions and start-ups. They are proud to announce that CCF has reached its minimum level of investment and has begun accepting applications.

From the Center for Family Life newsletter:
The We Can Do It!/Sí Se Puede! Women's Cooperative was recognized at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' 2009 Public Policy Conference, Latinos Leading in a Global Society. Cooperative members traveled to Washington to participate in the conference's closing session, where Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez highlighted the cooperative as an example of innovative Latino entrepreneurs in the green economy.

Sara Horowitz, executive director of the Freelancers Union, has published an opinion piece in The Hill about how health insurance cooperatives and the public plan could fit together. She describes the nonprofit, member-controlled Freelancers Insurance Company as a possible model for a new type of institution in a blended system.