Notices by Steve Herrick (steve@social.coop), page 8

@datatitian That's pretty remarkable.

@zoey @garbados Funny you should ask. I just visited a cooperative funeral home. They have very reasonable rates.

@donblair @mattcropp I'm working on a write-up. I'll make it public when it's done. It will have links to new things I learned about.

Yes, that's the event. :)

Hanging out in Montreal with @mattcropp and a whole bunch of other people at the ACE conference. Learning a lot in the sessions, and outside the sessions, too.

@mattcropp Yeah, we actually get in around noon. I'll keep an eye out for you.

@polymerwitch Not gonna happen, and here's why: factionalism.

I've been browsing through what passes for "useful" 3D printing plans. They're ridiculous: pencil holders, novelty showerheads, even paperweights. Where are the really useful things, like construction materials, furniture, and reusable packaging?

@bhaugen @emi This quote is broadly applicable these days.

@Matt_Noyes That's a shame, but I can see where they were struggling to compete.

Here's a short interview I did with my org's flagship start-up co-op.

http://www.mcdcmadison.org/2019/05/15/co-op-spotlight-soaring-independent-cooperative/

@emi The best part (so far) is that I have solid leads on two of these ideas. The marketing co-op is one of them. The other is the hemp idea. Turns out there's already a co-op of growers near us, so now we need a co-op of retailers.

@FreeScholar @colombene @mlncn Wow, this is excellent! I don't have either clients or workers to send your way, but if that changes, should I? Or is it too soon?

@FreeScholar @colombene @mlncn I'm signed up for the list, but is there a write-up of this marketing co-op idea anywhere that I could read?

@FreeScholar @mlncn Done! Thanks! I'll scout around for interested people from Madison.

@mlncn @FreeScholar Glad you like it. Feel free to adapt as needed.

We'd love to have a marketing co-op -- that's why it's first on the list -- but I'm having trouble picturing a distributed marketing co-op. That seems to assume you couldn't find enough people in each city to have a local co-op. I would hope that you could, and that they could eventually form a network.

@mattcropp Oh yeah, I forgot about that. We could build on that pretty easily, because the HMO we'd be likely to go with locally doesn't offer those. Thanks for the reminder.

@Matt_Noyes @bhaugen Yeah, something closer to home. Something I could model on a bit more directly.

@bhaugen A second-tier co-op is a co-op of co-ops, like a meta-co-op. All the individual worker co-ops do their own thing, and also band together as organizational members of a larger association, which is also a co-op.

Where I'm going with this is that if the member co-ops are small, they likely can't afford benefits, but as a larger group, they just might be able to. Since everyone wants benefits, and there are a good number of second-tier co-ops, I'm hopeful there are examples to follow.