Save the Date for the 2020 California Co-op Conference

April 26-27, 2020 - Sacramento, CA

DISCOVER how cooperatives revitalize and fortify local economies by creating jobs, housing, and locally owned businesses

LEARN how to strengthen you own cooperative and start new cooperatives

ENGAGE with other cooperators and share ideas, experiences, and strategies

Submit a Workshop Proposal

Bring your experience and learnings to the California cooperative community by becoming a conference speaker or panelist. The conference serves as a forum to further expand our statewide cooperative ecosystem by discussing organizational best practices, strategies for collaboration, and trends in the cooperative sector. Workshops can be applicable to all kinds of co-ops or targeted toward specific sectors. We encourage particular emphasis on worker, housing, multi-stakeholder, and food cooperatives.

Workshop categories include the following:

• Co-op Governance and Communication—Provide guidance to co-op members, managers, and board directors around effectively making decisions, communicating, fulfilling roles and responsibilities or monitoring the financial performance of their cooperative. We encourage workshops across the experience spectrum.
• Co-op Basics and Start-up—Identify approaches and strategies for starting a cooperative. Important areas of focus within this category include start-up capital, feasibility studies, and business plans.
• Supporting Equitable and Inclusive Co-ops—Highlight examples of co-ops addressing the challenges faced by marginalized communities. Additionally, present approaches employed by co-ops to ensure economic and social equity and inclusion among members.
• Legal Issues in Co-ops—Highlight common legal challenges and offer insight on how to navigate or avoid them. Preference is given for workshops that will qualify for MCLE credit.
• Building Opportunities for Financing and Equity Creation—Share funding strategies for start-up, growth or special purposes, especially pertaining to community capital.
• Co-op Culture and Member Engagement—Present approaches for maintaining a positive cooperative culture and supporting members’ involvement from start-up through growth and change. Emphasis on workshops that discuss bridging generational or cultural gaps among members.
• Converting to a Worker Co-op—Share case studies and best practices related to the national trend in co-op conversions from Baby Boomer-owned small businesses.
• Co-ops as a Tool for Empowering Job or Housing Creation—Designed for economic/community development professionals, city staff, and elected officials, content can include examples of initiatives, projects, and strategies.
• Building the Cooperative Ecosystem—Discuss ideas and strategies for scaling the cooperative sector, especially as pertains to financing, policy, and education. Particular emphasis on collective approaches for building new co-ops and forming international alliances.
• Policy Support for Co-ops--Highlight efforts and updates surrounding increasing federal, state, and municipal support for cooperative development.
• A Cooperative Future for the Next Generation—Geared toward younger cooperative members, present research/academic work conducted on co-ops or share case studies surrounding co-op housing, farms, etc. for students.

We encourage considerations of equity and inclusion to be integrated in sessions across all categories. In addition, we encourage and welcome workshops that are presented in Spanish. If you have a workshop idea or case study not represented in this list, we invite you to share it.

Submit your proposal here. Proposals are due Monday, December 2 by midnight PST. 

The one-day conference fee is waived for solo presenters who offer one workshop, with a half-price fee available for the second day. Participants in workshop panels are each allowed a 50% discount on the conference fee for the day they present. Further discounts apply for presenters who participate in more than one workshop or panel.

Stay Tuned for Registration Information!