We do not list how many members we have, which was a choice made in quorum.
I personally did not care, but some of my more humble members felt it
inappropriate.
We have seven, though (I think it is okay to say so in this forum).
Well the way payment works is like this:
All members are paid equally, by the hour. If someone works more than
someone else, however, they can still benefit: If a profit is made, and we
have voted to distribute it as patronage, then it is distributed based on X
amount per hour. So someone who worked 40 hours would get X amount extra
per hour for every hour they worked. And so would someone who worked 20
hours, however they would get less of a bonus as they did not work those
extra hours. It should be noted that things are still quite in transition;
we may decide to change it eventually. For example, there is still some
debate on whether certain individuals (such as java engineers) should get
paid more for there specific work, ie if one is writing a program or website
for 15 hours, which then $10000, shouldn't they be paid a bit more than if
they were simply building machines? We think a temporary solution to this
issue is to have payment for this "irregular" work done on a per-job basis,
which is then agreed upon in quorum. Hope that's not too confusing.
We took a small line of credit. This allowed us to pay rent + deposit,
fees, and office supplies. It also gave us additional capital for
pre-purchasing (parts, software, etc) so that we could build clients
machines.
At the moment, we are a partnership, so no shares. We are planning on
incorporating as a California Cooperative Corporation before the end of the
year (no double taxation!). We haven't quite figured out the shares issue
yet---there is a lot of info out there and we are just sorting through it
all (with legal help).

I hope this answers some of your questions...

yochai

ps check us out on yelp!



copgalor wrote:
>
> I have gone through your website, and learned much about you.
> First I would like to congratulate you and wishing you all success.
>
> Still, I have some questions.
> - It is not clear to me how many members do you have.
> - I understand that members are remunerated equally regardless their
> qualifications and regardless efforts and hours they have given tot
> he cooperative. Is this is the case? Can you elaborate more.
> - Do you have any fixed assets you have purchased in order to start
> the coop. How did you finance them?
> - How many share capital each member has, and what is the value of
> each share. Is the value of the share is relating in any way to the
> real value of the fixed assets of the cooperative.
>
> Zvi
>
> Zvi Galor
> www.coopgalor.com
>
> On 09/10/2007, at 00:37, yochaigal wrote:
>
>>
>> Well it's up and running!
>>
>> I just wanted everyone to know. I had a lot of help, both from
>> people online
>> and from the wonderful Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives
>> (nobawc.org).
>> So here's the company, if anyone's interested in a success story...
>> six
>> months in, we're going strong!
>>
>> yochai
>>
>> www.techcollective.com
>>
>> ps I just want to mention that I never saw these responses... I'm
>> not sure
>> how I missed them! But thanks anyways!
>>
>>
>>
>> Nora Madden wrote:
>>>
>>> Hey Yochai,
>>>
>>> My partners and I are in the start-up phase of a collective, so
>>> this is
>>> all
>>> fresh for me. Just off the top of my head, I would add the following:
>>>
>>> I am REALLY doubtful you could get a loan anywhere near that size
>>> for an
>>> untested business, unless it's from a very wealthy relative or the
>>> like.
>>> (Some of the business books mentioned below discuss various
>>> methods of
>>> capitalization.) I agree with James that it's probably best to start
>>> small,
>>> and then once you can prove you have some success, you can try
>>> approaching
>>> your local credit union (actually, you might make an appointment
>>> with a
>>> loan
>>> officer just to see what your future options might be). Before we
>>> decided
>>> to organize as a coop, two of us went to our local SCORE
>>> counselor; this
>>> might be worth doing, though we didn't get a lot out of it.
>>> Worker coops
>>> are tricky because most "mainstream" business folks don't know
>>> anything
>>> about them; but you're still running a business, so some of what
>>> they have
>>> to say will be applicable. (At least until the revolution.)
>>>
>>> Check out your local library, if you haven't. Let your reference
>>> librarian
>>> ask you lots of questions so they can help you. Sometimes they
>>> have good
>>> "how to start a local business" resources already gathered. Our
>>> local PL
>>> also has copies of "Putting Democracy to Work" and "We Own It"; if
>>> you
>>> can't
>>> borrow them, you might consider buying such books (there aren't many
>>> specific co-op business books, as far as I know) at Alibris or the
>>> like
>>> (of
>>> course, check your local used bookstore first!) General business
>>> books
>>> that
>>> we've found helpful are "Small Time Operator," "The Partnership
>>> Charter,"
>>> "Growing a Business" (good section on how it's better to start
>>> with less
>>> money) and many, many books put out by Nolo. A good reference
>>> librarian
>>> will also be able to help you find good online resources for worker
>>> cooperatives. You will have to figure out what your legal
>>> structure is
>>> going to be if you haven't yet (e.g. Partnership, LLC,
>>> Corporation, etc.)
>>> -
>>> when you have, there's a Nolo book to help you through the legal
>>> shmegal
>>> stuff (but good to check stuff with a lawyer).
>>>
>>> Make appointments to meet local accountants, bookkeepers, possibly
>>> bankers
>>> and attorneys. They will give you lots of advice, which you
>>> should try to
>>> receive as politely as possible; some of it is very helpful, and
>>> you will
>>> probably eventually hire the services of at least one or two of them
>>> (unless
>>> you have a CPA on staff). Get recommendations from the small-
>>> business
>>> people you know.
>>>
>>> Finally, it sounds like you are doing a lot of this yourself (you
>>> say "my
>>> plan," etc.). If your partners are really "in," figure out a way
>>> that all
>>> of you are doing the start-up legwork. Find a way to make it a
>>> collective
>>> process from the get-go; things may take a little longer, but you
>>> will be
>>> building important working relationships as you go. Try to not
>>> operate on
>>> assumptions, and together examine all of your deeply-held, probably
>>> unconcious beliefs about you have about business, money,
>>> relationships,
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> Best of luck to you!
>>>
>>> Nora
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 10/7/06, james <news@...> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> So I decided that I instead I would start my own co-op.
>>>>
>>>> instead of what? is this part of a thread I've missed?
>>>>
>>>>> Specifically, I would like it to be a Computer Retail and Service
>>>> store.
>>>> I expect something along the lines of
>>>>> a "mom 'n' pop" hardware store... but a little like CompUsa.
>>>>
>>>> It's possible that you could start this business in a smaller and
>>>> less
>>>> risky way; for example, with fixing computers, you could
>>>> advertise, and
>>>> go
>>>> round to people's houses; that way you won't need to pay rent on
>>>> a shop,
>>>> and
>>>> it could be seen as an advantage in that it's more convenient for
>>>> people.
>>>>
>>>> It also seems to me that you're far more likely to get a loan to
>>>> have a
>>>> shop if you can show that you have a working business already.
>>>>
>>>>> Here's the other thing. I'm 23 years old---I know that this is
>>>>> young,
>>>> but this is what I want to do. I'm sure of it.
>>>>> Thus far, my plan is this:
>>>>> 1 Research how to build a cooperative business.
>>>>> 2 Build a Prospectus. Generate business data, etc.
>>>>> 3 Obtain some sort of loan (I'm thinking in the $100,000 range).
>>>>> 4 Find myself as many co-owners as I think I need (so far I have 3
>>>> besides myself willing to join).
>>>>
>>>> My experience is that you should assume you have *zero* people
>>>> willing to
>>>> join - when they sign a piece of paper going in on a $100,000
>>>> loan with
>>>> you,
>>>> that's when they're willing to join.
>>>>
>>>> If you have an IndyMedia collective in your area, you might
>>>> contact them;
>>>> it's likely to be a place where you will find people who are both
>>>> computer-literate, and likely to be interested in the idea of
>>>> worker-owned
>>>> cooperatives.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A-How-do-I-
>> start-a-worker-cooperative.-tf2400282.html#a13106258
>> Sent from the Worker Cooperative mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

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