Cooperative Professionals Guild

November 2022 Newsletter

Look for the Member News and Community Announcements section we’ve added towards the end of this Newsletter.

November 18th Late Autumn Equinox Coffee Chat

The CPG Membership Circle invites you to join us on November 18 at 10am PT/1pm ET to celebrate the turning of the seasons together in virtual space. Bring your drink of choice and pause with us to reflect on what we’ve accomplished and what lies ahead. Registration is available on the CPG website at this link.

November 17th Webinar: Converting bankrupt businesses to a cooperative structure with attorney Iain Macdonald.

Thursday November 17, 2022 at 10am PT/1pm ET, bankruptcy attorney Iain Macdonald will discuss conversions as a means for individuals organized as a cooperative to purchase assets from a company in Subchapter 5 of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and keep the business viable. A link to register will be available at the CPG events webpage prior to the event.

December 8th Webinar: The state of the USDA with USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Services administrator Dr. Karama Neal

Thursday Dec. 8, 10am PT/1pm ET, Dr. Karama Neal, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Business Cooperative Service, will speak on the following:

Implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act;
USDA strategic plan;
Rural Development (RD) priorities;
Cooperatives in the various Food Systems Transformation work, including meat;
Key topics discussed at the four Interagency Working Group on Cooperative Development meetings in July/August 2022.

Webinar CLE and recordings

Currently, CPG offers California CLE credit for qualifying webinars. Most CPG webinars can count as CLE credits in most US states. If you’d like to help us offer CLE credit in other states, please email Sarah Kaplan at the Webinar Committee: sarah@cuttingedgecounsel.com.

Recordings of our past webinars are available in our members-only recordings library.

Updates on CPG incorporation

The CPG Stewardship Circle, composed of an opt-in group of CPG Members who serve on the organization’s governance circles, continues to build out our corporate structure. CPG is now incorporated as a Delaware corporation, our Bylaws are being finalized, and our application for 501(c)(3) status as an educational and charitable nonprofit has also been drafted and is being finalized. We have begun the process of winding down our fiscal sponsorship with SELC as we build out CPG as a nonprofit organization.

2023 CPG Membership Renewals

CPG’s membership is renewed on an annual basis at the beginning of each year. Members who joined late in 2022 will have their dues prorated for either 2022 or 2023. We look forward to circulating 2023 membership renewal information in a few weeks. Thank you for joining us to grow the strength, capacity, and diversity of co-op legal and accounting services as Members of CPG.

Member news and community listings

Food Coop documentary: Get tickets here for the Nov. 13-15 online viewing of FOOD COOP, a new French documentary about Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Coop, which will be accompanied by a discussion hosted by Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) on November 14 at 5 pm PT / 6 pm MT / 7 pm CT / 8 pm ET.
Webinar: Mark your calendars for the webinar Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is hosting on “Land Return / Return to Land” on November 16th. More information will be available soon at this link.
Comments requested by SBA: Your opportunity to comment on USDA’s Small Business Administration (SBA) business loan programs for co-ops ends in December; send in your thoughts here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/10/26/2022-23167/affiliation-and-lending-criteria-for-the-sba-business-loan-programs#open-comment.
Ohio Co-op Conference: The Ohio Cooperative Law Conference invites you to their 3rd Biennial Co-op Law Conference, which will be held on January 24th and 25th in Columbus, Ohio. The theme this year is “Cooperative for the Modern Era”. More information and registration can be found at this link.

Thanks for your participation in the Guild!

Have questions?

Please contact us at guildquestion@professionals.coop

Want to get involved?

Join one of our governance circles:

The Cooperative Professionals Guild is a growing network of co-op professionals created by us, for us. We’re currently volunteer-run. If you’re interested in being part of growing and shaping this group, you’re welcome to listen in on, or join, one of our governance circles:

● Webinar Circle: Email Sarah Kaplan at sarah@cuttingedgecounsel.com.

● Membership Circle: Email Pacyinz Lyfoung at pacyinz@gmail.com.

● Finance Circle: Email Alexandra Devendra at alexandra@aligned.law.

● 2023 CPG Conference Circle: Fill out this form forms.gle/ezPhbxPvRCh1Gf6r8

Members of these circles may also join the Stewardship Circle (formerly the Steering Committee), which is shepherding CPG’s incorporation process and development.

Contribute to the CPG Newsletter and Blog:

We always welcome co-op related content suggestions and contributions to our newsletter. Short posts may be included in the newsletter that link to fuller information or articles on an external website or CPG blog.

Please send specific news you’d like to share in our next month’s newsletter to Paola Eisner at paola@cooplawgroup.com.

If you have content or design ideas for the newsletter or interest in being a guest contributor, please email Pacyinz Lyfoung at pacyinz@gmail.com.

We welcome content related to cooperatives, including:

- Events, job postings, opinion pieces, and international news;

- Materials related to governance models;

- Submissions dedicated to the intersection of co-op issues and race, LGBTQIA, different physical abilities, neurodivergence, sustainability, and other equity, inclusion issues;

- Creative submissions, including poetry, photography and other arts to share; and

- Recognition of your or other cooperative professionals’ achievements.

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