Notices by Steve Herrick (steve@social.coop), page 3

One other notable thing... this past weekend contained by far the most people who explicitly contrasted co-ops to capitalist businesses. I'm comfortable saying that, and I know several other people who do as well, but to be in a building crowded with anti-capitalist entrepreneurs is still novel to me.

Well, #ECWD2019 was a complete whirlwind. In less than 72 hours, I (re-)connected with a great many people (who are both smart and funny), connected friends who hadn't previously met, took over a dozen pages of notes, visited Red Emma's at long last, visited Edgar Allen Poe's tomb, had a fleeting social.coop confluence, didn't interpret, left early (sadly), got both good and bad news, and have a long list of things to follow up on.

@tbeckett @mattcropp Further proof of the confluence.

Social.coop expands into the real world!

@GuerillaOntologist @Matt_Noyes I was there for most of it.

@GuerillaOntologist @wrb Here in Madison, we use the case of Isthmus Engineering all the time. During the Great Recession, they took rolling temporary layoffs and pay cuts, but no one was fired. Meanwhile, their competitors fired people left and right, and even closed down entirely. When the economy recovered, Isthmus was back up to speed immediately, while their competitors were gone or severely understaffed. Isthmus had record revenues for several years in a row, and are still well positioned.

The more I research health insurance, the better Single Payer looks.

@LeoSammallahti I can't do much on the legal side, but I can give advice and encouragement.

@thatsmycheesemonster Want some help? I can reframe Batman as a villain.

@mattcropp @tbeckett @ImmortalM We could always meet up Thursday AND Friday.

@mattcropp @tbeckett @ImmortalM My vote is for Thursday night, if everyone is there. Friday night could also work, or Saturday later in the evening. I have dinner plans on Saturday.

@tbeckett @mattcropp Looks like I better bring one of my vests to Baltimore.

@fluffy Nirvana's Nevermind album is closer to Woodstock than it is to the present.

@tbeckett This is very much a chicken-and-egg question. Until we have the members, the insurance companies won't be interested in us. But until we have an insurance company lined up, we won't get the people.

@tbeckett Consumer co-ops won't go to the wall for worker benefits, largely because most of them already provide worker benefits. My case study is gig workers struggling to pay rent. How can unionized co-ops help them get benefits, above and beyond rent?

@tbeckett Yes, I know. It hasn't tipped the balance. I've talked with the Federation about how complicated health care is, due to the dizzying array of jurisdictions that providers have. It seems like we need a national pool of local pools. Until we get single-payer, of course.

Are there any examples of a benefits pool that includes multiple co-ops and/or multiple unions? There's Union Plus, but that's not general health benefits.

@djsundog Ah, now I see. I'm not sick of all mail. Just the letters asking for money. So, most of it. The letter delivering money are OK.