All Things Co-op

In this first episode of Season 3, Cinar and Kevin talk to Kevin McPhillips from the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership (PACEO). They discuss educating people about worker co-ops, the initiatives that Kevin has helped foster with the city, and the overall work and goals of the PACEO.

Mayor Jesse Arreguin joins All Things Co-op to talk about Berkley's cooperative roots, the legislation that Berkeley adopted in 2016 that provides incentives and support for cooperatives, and how cooperatives are a critical part of a just and equal economic system, and an inclusive recovery from the current pandemic and economic crisis. Mayor Jesse Arreguin is the Mayor of Berkeley, California. Berkeley has been a leader in city initiatives assisting worker cooperatives and business operating on cooperative principles. Mayor Arreguin lead the charge to create a program where City’s Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) could be used for the purpose of converting traditional businesses into worker cooperatives.

Kevin and Cinar talk to Steve Storkan, who self describes himself as "the ESOP 101 guy." He is the Executive Director for the Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) and has been involved with employee stock ownership plans for over 25 years. Take a look at the YouTube video description box for a full breakdown of topics with time-codes: https://youtu.be/gFVuFcaukcA Steve Storkan has been involved with employee stock ownership plans for over 25 years, most recently as the Director of ESOP Administration for Alerus Retirement and Benefits where he worked closely with businesses in the creation of an ESOP and the technical administration and compliance required in subsequent years. Steve spent 11 years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota-Dakotas Chapter of the ESOP Association where also served as Chapter President and VP of Government Relations. Steve holds a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) designation from the University of Minnesota State Mankato. Learn more about EOX: https://eoxnetwork.org/

In this episode, Kevin, Cinar and Larry talk with two key figures at the Madison Cooperative Development Coalition (MCDC). Charity Schmidt is a cooperative development specialist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives. Ruth Rohlich is a Business Development Specialist for the City of Madison, working in the Economic Development division. Among their many topics, they discuss how the city of Madison is approaching this cooperative initiative, the importance of community ecosystems, how entrenched legislation creates unforeseen barriers to cooperative ownership that must be changed, financing, and more.

In this episode, Kevin speaks with Rodney North, a member of the DC Cooperative Stakeholder Group, a co-op consultant, and a former co-op member for many years. Rodney and Kevin discuss a number of issues related to a coop, how one becomes a co-op consultant, and a little about the DC cooperative stakeholders group.