Think Outside the Boss provides community members an introduction into the nuts and bolts of starting and running a cooperatively owned business. We go over legal issues in an accessible way to help you understand the relationships between cooperatives, employment, and community wealth-building.

This workshop is taking place at the Cooperation and Economic Democracy Conference put on by the US Social Forum's Movement School for Cooperative Economics. Ticket info coming soon!

Attorneys, law students, and experienced cooperative professionals give short presentations on legal issues, governance structures, financing, and more -- including resources and information on:

• What is a worker-owned business?
• What's the advantage of forming a cooperative business?
• How do you run a business democratically?
• How do you spread ownership and control across a group of people?
• What's the tax and accounting issues in a cooperative?
• How do you raise money from your members, your community, and even the bank?
• What are the employment and labor laws about how to treat your workers?

At the event, we will have bound copies of the Think Outside the Boss manual! You can also download it prior to the event here.

SELC is immensely grateful to Human Agenda and the US Social Forum's Movement School for Cooperative Economics for hosting Think Outside the Boss. The mission of Human Agenda is to envision a world where the human needs of all can be met, engage the community in forging local institutions that are democratic, cooperative, egalitarian, sustainable, and kind, and take individual responsibility to embody the change we’d like to see. The US Social Forum is a series of events and actions striving to step up and take its place in history by advancing the interests of working class, low-income, and grassroots struggles.