. . . After some quick hellos, going up the elevator, and finding the suite with the common kitchen and living room, and doors for private bedrooms. Checking Whova, a dinner thread was started, however, the leader of the pack texted he was at the nearby Himalayan restaurant, so we all followed, picking up early arrivals on the way. The food tasted delicious and we were too enthusiastic in the ordering, so we dutifully packed many boxes in case anyone got hungry back at the hostel. Yeah, fridges in the common suites! We retired early to rest or work, except for one extremely dedicated member who stayed up all night to fix all the last-minute logistics (more on that later!).
The next morning, the early breakfast set-up crew prepared the food catered from ChiFresh Kitchen, a persons-with-lived experiences worker cooperative which was contracted for the duration of the conference for all meals. It was all nutritious, with a section for vegans.
A tall gentleman in a brightly beaded shirt hovered at the door with his colleague: our land acknowledgement guest! A warm welcome, a good breakfast and a nice seat, while waving hellos and making introductions to other CPG members. Ronnie Preston shared a historical perspective of Native American land ownership and gifted us with a song usually opening gatherings between tribes. CPG returned the gifts with a contribution of 10% of the conference registration fees. We were off to a blessed start!
Over two days, we learned new legal tools and refined old ones with our expert presenters. Deborah Groban Olson introduced again the basics of ESOPs, while highlighting options to include democratic features. Kim Arnone and Sarah Kaplan revisited the rules for multistate securities. Gowri Krishna and Maru Bautista shared their experiences with expanding opportunities via franchising cooperative businesses. Linda Phillips refreshed us on the basics of multi stakeholder cooperative governance. Adam Prescott and Matthew Brash emphasized the importance of tracking cash availability and bankruptcy tools to preserve cooperative businesses. Bruce Mayer and Elizabeth van de Wide reviewed federal and tax rules for cooperatives. Jerome Hughes previewed his upcoming scholarly article on affordable housing cooperatives, with Renee Hatcher and Hugh Jeffers as respondents respectively providing legal and financing commentaries.
Thomas Becket led an interactive discussion on what a uniform cooperative statute might look like, with small group breakouts. Brett Heeger and Deborah Groban Olson introduced the new legal tool of Employee Ownership Trusts, which is another alternative mechanism for some type of employee-benefiting conversion of an existing business. Eric Britton highlighted specific clauses of the NLRA that lawyers need to keep in mind when working with union cooperatives. After viewing a video prepared by Janelle Orsi on the challenges of working as progressive attorneys and also sharing her path towards leaving the legal professional and continuing her work as a non-attorney, Ricardo Nunez and Erika Sato helped scope conversation topics to be carried over to the social hour at Beermiscuous, a local worker cooperative brewery and bar.
Kimberly Britt, Co-Founder of ChiFresh Kitchen, and Camille Kerr discussed their collaboration to start and develop this new worker cooperative, which boomed during the difficult time of the pandemic, and now owns its own building with space for the business and housing. Renee Hatcher and Jenna Pollack shared how the Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem (CCEWBE) came to be and how it works to convene, communicate and coordinate among Chicago cooperative stakeholders, thanks to a 3-year, $15 million grant from the City of Chicago. The conference concluded with a presentation by Teia Evans, on the work that NCBA is doing with tribes and in Puerto Rico, via COVID recovery federal grants.
The conference also provided space for CPG organizational business activities. We elected the new Steering Circle (Board) members: Therese Tuttle, Cheryl Markham, Alexandra Devendra, Paola Eisner, Kathy Gregg, Sam Green, West Foster and Pacyinz Lyfoung.
The Conference alsoprovided space for the SELC Fellows to meet after a 3-year hiatus during the pandemic, with SELC continuing to be a key partner for CPG, sponsoring SELC Fellows to be members and to attend the conference.
Although this was an educational conference, CPG is about community, which includes social activities and acknowledgement of our outstanding volunteer members. We crowned Lindsey Taylor and Kathy Gregg as the queen bees of this conference, whose dedication excelled all expectations and without whom this event would not have proceeded so perfectly. We were glad to be able to chat together during breaks and lunch. We had great fun going on a mini trip to Beermiscuous where the winning picture of the photography contest was taken (and the winner was: Brett Heeger, free registration for next year’s conference!).
Those who stayed at the Hostel could also gather in the community room in the evening, where they played pool, chess and ping pong.
This event would not have been possible without the support of sponsors, whom we thank whole-heartedly: Berstein Shur; Cooperative Development Foundation; Saint Mary’s University-International Centre for Co-operative Management; Local Enterprise Assistance Fund; Shared Capital Cooperative; Start.coop; Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC); and Worx Printing Cooperative, a union co-op.
Overall, it was a fabulous conference! We look forward to next year’s: stay tuned, it will be another gathering to remember!
-Pacyinz Lyfoung, Member of many circles
