Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 05:00 PM · 30 rsvps

  Alchemy Collective Cafe in Berkeley, CA

  Teach-in: Cooperative Conversions 101

  

  Come learn why converting businesses to cooperatives benefits owners, workers, and communities. We'll provide an overview of benefits, models, and stories of businesses converting to cooperatives.

  SOLD OUT! 

  Wow! We didn't know this was going to be so popular! In case you are unable to attend our teach-in on December 11th, don't worry! We'll host this same discussion at an upcoming Legal Cafe in January.

  To make sure you get the email about our January date, please go to our Cooperatives Program subscription page by clicking this link and update your email preferences. Make sure to check the box next to "Conversions."

  We're excited to have Mariposa Gardening & Design Cooperative come and talk about their experience converting to a worker cooperative with their founder and worker-owners! We'll also share some of the legal steps and business considerations owners and employees should know before moving forward. Space is limited so please RSVP below!

  About the Speakers

  Mariposa Gardening & Design Cooperative Founder Andrea Hurd: Andrea is founder and worker-owner at Mariposa Gardening & Design. Andrea converted her company to a worker cooperative, has over 20 years experience in organic food production and organic ornamental gardening and a lifetime commitment to increasing and sustaining bird and butterfly habitat as well as sustainable living practices and ecological stewardship.

  Cooperatives Attorney Charlotte Tsui: Charlotte provides legal support, coordination, and training for immigrant owned cooperatives, entrepreneurs, legal professionals, and movement organizations focused on immigrant rights.

  Director of Economic Democracy Ricardo Nuñez: Ricardo co-coordinates the Law Center’s education, research, advocacy, and advice for equitable, democratic enterprises. He has been providing technical support to cooperatives for over nine years and is on the board of US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and the California Center for Cooperative Development.

   

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  Teach-ins at the Resilient Communities Legal Cafe

  This teach-in is a part of the Law Center's Resilient Communities Legal Cafe. Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting.

  SHOUT OUT! This Legal Cafe is hosted by Alchemy Collective Cafe, a worker-owned cooperative business that serves delicious coffee and pastries! And, they host our Legal Cafes at NO CHARGE to the Law Center! Thanks, Alchemy!!!

  Everyone is welcome to attend this cafe. 

  Interested in legal advice only? Please RSVP here.

  sold out

• Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 05:00 PM

  Alchemy Collective Cafe in Berkeley, CA

  Legal Cafe at Alchemy

  The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting. This Legal Cafe is hosted by Alchemy Collective Cafe, a worker-owned cooperative business that serves delicious coffee and pastries! And, they host our Legal Cafes at NO CHARGE to the Law Center! Thanks, Alchemy!!! Everyone is welcome to attend this cafe. Please RSVP below.

  

  For more information about the Legal Cafe, including the areas of law we specialize in, our upcoming teach-ins, and more, please visit www.theselc.org/cafe.

  rsvp

• Wednesday, December 12, 2018 at 09:30 AM

  CompassPoint in Oakland, CA

  Rethinking Nonprofits: Aligning Equity and Justice with Your Organizational Structure

  As nonprofits and movement workers committed to social transformation, how can we embody the change we want to see and create more effective, accountable, and equitable organizations as we do it? 

  

  This training will explore how to infuse the governance, management, and operational practices of our organizations with our values of social, racial, gender, and ecological justice through the practice of deep democracy. Grounded in experience, research, discussion, and practice, the workshop will support participants to reimage and redesign teams, departments, or even their whole organization.

  We will focus on ways to shift formal and informal power structures within organizations, with a particular focus on new approaches to organizational design for distributed leadership. This workshop will invite you to speak openly about the impact of practices we have inherited from oppressive systems and often reproduced in our own workplaces. Then we’ll discuss practical steps that organizations can take now to align your practices and policies with your commitment to justice and equity.

  Participants will leave the workshop with:

  1. A general understanding of the operations and management of deeply democratic organizations and a vision for how they might embed more democracy in their organization moving forward;
  2. Specific tools and practices to spread power throughout their  organization and give impacted people more voice to shape strategic and programmatic decisions.
  3. Resources to engage their board of directors, co-workers, and other key stakeholders in conversation about new organizational structures and practices; and;
  4. An understanding of legal issues arising from worker-self direction.

  This experience is ideal for individuals working in or with social justice organizations of all sizes and at all stages of organizational development. All you need is a desire to either develop or refine self-governance practices in your team, program, group or organization. Participants should be people in a position to enact change within their organization. This means operations coordinators, human resource directors, executive directors, leaders of teams, or people with the capacity and energy to start making changes. We strongly recommend that organizations send 2-4 people to the training so you can partner in both sharing the learnings and taking actions when you return to your organization.  Get 20% off if you register 2-4 staff/board by using this coupon code: SELC20

   

  
  

   

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  About the Presenter

  Presenter Bio & Photo

  Sustainable Economic Law Center cultivates a new legal landscape that supports community resilience and grassroots economic empowerment. We provide essential legal tools - education, research, advice, and advocacy - so communities everywhere can develop their own sustainable sources of food, housing, energy, jobs, and other vital aspects of a thriving community.

  Part of Sustainable Economies Law Center's approach to catalyzing a more just and resilient society is to be the change we want to see. We have adopted policies that distribute "ownership" throughout the organization, allow for more dignified livelihoods, expand access to our legal services, and empower a new generation of grassroots legal experts. 

• Tuesday, December 18, 2018 at 05:00 PM

  East Bay Community Law Center in Berkeley, CA

  Legal Cafe at EBCLC (Adeline)

  The Sustainable Economies Law Center provides direct legal support to individuals and groups who are working to create new solutions for resilient local economies. The Resilient Communities Legal Cafe is a first-come, first-serve, donation-based legal advice clinic, providing a collaborative space for community building and connecting. This Legal Cafe is hosted by our partners, the Community Economic Justice Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center. They're pretty awesome.   Everyone is welcome to attend this cafe. Please RSVP below.

  

  For more information about the Legal Cafe, including the areas of law we specialize in, our upcoming teach-ins, and more, please visit www.theselc.org/cafe.

  rsvp

• Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 06:00 PM · 20 rsvps

  Berkeley City Hall in Berkeley, CA

  Berkeley Votes on Ordinance Supporting Worker Coops

  IMPORTANT NOTICE: THIS HEARING HAS NOT BEEN CALENDARED. HEARING DATE STILL TBD. THE DATE PROVIDED BELOW IS MERELY A PLACEHOLDER. PLEASE RSVP TO RECEIVE UPDATES. 

  We need YOU to show the City of Berkeley that you care about worker cooperatives. Will you submit a letter of support and RSVP below to follow announcements about the introduction of this historic ordinance to support worker cooperatives in Berkeley? 

  The hearing date is still unannounced so please RSVP to this page to receive important announcements!
  Background:

  The Sustainable Economies Law Center, in partnership with other organizations and community members, has crafted an ordinance that will support the creation and success of worker cooperatives in Berkeley.

  The Law Center's Worker Coop Policy Brigade has been hard at work with Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Berkeley City Council Members, and Berkeley City staff to push forward the Ordinance Supporting Worker Cooperatives. Berkeley City Council will vote on the ordinance this summer! The hearing date is still unannounced so please RSVP to this page to receive important announcements!

  How you can help:

  • SUBMIT A LETTER OF SUPPORT: Click here to download the template letter of support and instructions.

  • CALL YOUR COUNCIL MEMBER: Do you live or work in Berkeley? We need you to call your councilmember and tell them why you believe worker cooperatives are important and should be supported by the City of Berkeley. Find your district’s representative here.

  • RSVP: RSVP to this page to follow important announcements like the summer hearing date as soon as it is announced. We need you to join us at the city council to celebrate the impact of worker cooperatives and demonstrate widespread support for this ordinance!

  RSVP BELOW TO RECEIVE IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS ABOUT THE VOTE!

  rsvp

• Wednesday, March 27, 2019 at 09:00 AM through March 30, 2019

  Exact venue TBD in Oakland, CA

  Tools for Collective Self-Governance: A Nonprofit Democracy Network Gathering

  March 27-29, 2019

  Oakland, California

  Priority Deadline to apply: December 5th, 2018

  Final Deadline: December 14th

  The Nonprofit Democracy Network is a community of practice and peer support network for organizations working to make their organizations - and the broader nonprofit sector - more liberatory and transformative. We want the nonprofit sector to be more effective at creating a just, joyful, and sustainable world. We want our organizations to be living examples of the equitable, caring, and effective communities that we know are possible. And we know that there is a rich field of experimentation and practice of democratic self-governance from which we can learn and which we can help grow by building and sharing with one another.

  We launched the network at our inaugural gathering in fall of 2017 (read more about it here). At our second gathering, March 27-29, 2019, we’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of co-creating forms of collective self-governance, taking on topics like compensation, inclusive decision-making, the impact of identity and culture on participation, coordination and accountability, and collective budgeting of time and money. 

  

  Are you part of an organization experimenting with any of these areas? We would love for you to join us! This is an opportunity to learn about the state of the field, connect with fellow practitioners, learn from groups at the forefront of experimentation, and deepen your own organization’s practice.

  We’re looking for organizations that are:

  • Committed to undoing dynamics of racism, patriarchy, and other forms of structural oppression;
  • Playing with more democratic internal structures, regardless of how far advanced; and
  • Interested in being part of an ongoing network to deepen this work.

  More details:

  Format:This three day gathering will include education, conversation, and co-creation around common themes of collective leadership. The first day will focus on frameworks for organizational design and how those relate to systems change, identity, and liberation. On the second day, participants will break into smaller groups to dive deeper into specific issues and growing edges (e.g. staff/board structure, compensation policies). The third day will focus on identifying next steps and how to integrate learnings into your organizations.

  Cost: Sliding scale from $400 - $1500 based on organization's annual operating budget. We want participation in this cohort to be as accessible and community-driven as possible. We also want to justly compensate our facilitators, organizers, and other vendors. (Cost includes venue, facilitation, and meals over three days for 2 org representatives.) More information on cost included in the application form.
  

  Organized and facilitated by: Participants in the 2017 Nonprofit Democracy Network, including staff from Sustainable Economies Law Center, Community Development Project, 350 Seattle, Reflex Design Collective, and more.

  For more information and to apply: Fill out this Application by December 14th, and we will get back to you by the end of December.