Certifying Organizations and Cooperatives +1
In adding my worker-owned cooperative in as an organization just now I'd like to request that there are options available for orgs to identify as worker-owned or consumer-owned cooperatives.
Further, the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives is a certifying organization that should also be listed. If you need assistance in collaborating with USFWC let me know. There are 300+ worker-owned coop business in the US and growing, it's an exciting movement towards workers holding cooperative power in their workplace...and great breeding grounds for democracy.
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JT: add my vote
PROBLEM: Charles requests options for organizations to identify themselves as worker-owned or consumer-owned cooperatives. He belongs/ works within such a cooperative, and noticed that a certification option for his unique type of for-profit model does not currently exist on wiserearth.
SOLUTION: He points out that the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives is a certifying organization that should be listed. He points out that there are 300+ worker owned coop business in the U.S. and growing, and that it is an exciting movement towards workers holding cooperative power in their workplace, and great breeding grounds for democracy. He generously mentions that he would be willing to provide assistance to NCI with regard to collaborating with USFWC.
JT: It seems to me an excellent suggestion. A minor adjustment would provide worker-owned/ consumer -owned cooperatives the ability to identify / distinguish themselves among other for-profit models. The nature of such organizations seems to fit well on WE, and it seems the WE resource would meet their needs both professionally and personally well: such a small adjustment should probably pull more people/ activity on wiserearth, the cooperatives could develop group presence / activity/ make meaningful connections etc. via their time spent on wiserearth.org
Comments (1 - 9 of 9)
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Responding to a few of the thoughts and questions below:
I would think it's safe to say the majority of worker and consumer coops are for-profit, though there are many that are non-profit.
The general term "cooperative" is broad and sweeping. Worker-owned and consumer-owned are probably the most familiar to people. There are also cooperatively owned communities (housing coops), agricultural coops, cooperative banks, electric cooperatives, and more. The scope of what is covered by "cooperative" is about as broad as non-profit.
For-profit is probably easier to understand that "Commercial Services". Personally I feel that non-profit is not clearly an opposite to for-profit. They are simply tax and organization assignments. The real test is what is the mission and values of an organization and how are they actually realizing goals that emody those values. ... ahhh, but that's off-topic on this thread :)
The USFWC (US fed. of worker coops) is part of a open source project called "Data Commons", so the data about worker coops and consumer coops can be easily made available in electronic format for adding to the directory... as well as I'm happy to put out invitations to those local, regional, and national networks that I'm involved with to become involved here by becoming members. |
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@ Charles: Finally as for using Commercial Service versus For-profit I wonder which is clearer to understand for the average person. Many Non-Profits run 'Commerical Services' - often called fee for service operations - so it could confuse the user. Certainly For-Profit is clearly the opposite of Non-Profit!
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@ Charles: Otherwise, I was most interested in what you said about org types. There is a category already in place called 'Network / Coalition / Collective" but this was designed for strict non-profit entities and no Coops were added in the initial data gathering exercise - so its not really the right place for Coops. Some people think Coops fit under For-Profit since they may dividend out to their members / owners / workers. Others think that Coops are essential a non-profit. And others still that its a hybrid! Even US law treats them differently (corporate code, or distinct code) depending on the state. Its hard to make a good decision. I guess my initial assumption is that we should lump Coops under Non-Profits for now - since they aren't government, and aren't clearly for-profit and I can't see creating a fourth major category just for coops. Would that work? Then the question is whether to have two types of Cooperatives - "Cooperative (Consumer-Owned)" and "Cooperative (Worker-Owned)" as you suggested or just one 'Cooperatives"? How would someone use / benefit from knowing the difference? Can you come up with a use case? It would be most helpful.
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@ Charles: Great suggestions on certifications. Clearly adding the option of some of the larger certifications for Coops e.g. US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and/or National Cooperative Business Association or National Food Coop Networks might make sense given the numbers of organizations involved. Do you know if there are any international certifications - since we are global in scope it would be good to be able to tag organizations around the world with well respected and recognized certifications?
Finally, if one of these certifications or all ended up getting wide support from the community, would you help populate the database by adding Coops and getting the certifications in and selling the directory to the relevant community interested in such issues? It's not much use having the possibility of entering such data without it being in and its not much use having the data in if no one is using it! |
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I see a cooperative (both consumer-owned and worker-owned) as a good fit for WiserEarth. Will read this suggestion with more care before adding my vote. Thanks for this Charles.
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Here are great opportunties to integrate cooperatives into the WiserEarth directory:
OPTION "Type": Include "Cooperative (Consumer-Owned)" and "Cooperative (Worker-Owned)"
OPTION "Certification": Include "US Federation of Worker Cooperatives" and possibly other local specifically worker-owned/managed member organizations ( Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives, Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives, Federation of Workplace Democracies in Minnesota). Further Consumer Coops (especially Food Coops) have some certifying organizations like the National Cooperative Business Association and national Food Coop Networks.
*Question: Since most of these certifying orgs are non-profits, should they get listed in the non-profit directory? I'm guessing so :) and am going to move on that with the particular orgs I'm involved with. However, please let me know if WiserEarth has a method for confirming new "Certification" organizations.
My other suggestion is more about having positive social/environmental business that are for profit, than specifically the cooperative sector. The Activites section is applicable, as many for-profit businesses take part in those activities, but also adding something like "Commercial Services" as a generic label for "for-profits".
OPTION "Activities": Add "Commercial Services"
That's it. Just some cooperative minded suggestions. It's exciting to see the continued evolution of WiserEarth.
~charles uchu |
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@Charles: Otherwise, in terms of cooperatives in general where do you think they fit in the existing organizational types? Go to an org and click edit on the type field and see the list. Thanks
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@Charles: Can you format the suggestion as Problem, Solution, How I can help - that would be great. Thanks, Angus
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Contributors to this Page
@Charles: Thanks for your post. So let me see if I get you right:
So the issue still remains where do we classify Coops... seems like if they are mostly For-profit then we could rename For-profit something like "For-Profit including Cooperatives" so people know where to put them, or make a more radical departure and create a complete sub-classification for For-Profit like non-profits which might include "Worker-owned Cooperativess" and "Consumer-Owned Cooperatives" as well as things like "Sole Proprietorship / Consultancy", "Partnership", "Private Corporation" etc. Your thoughts? Am I understanding you?