After two seasons as a podcast, All Things Co-op is making the leap to video! 
For those of you prefer audio, we've got you covered. ATC will still be available as a podcast.

Kevin, Cinar and Larry are joined by Rob Brown, the Director of Cooperative Development Institute’s Business Ownership Solutions program. They discuss the motivations for cooperative conversions, the practicalities of co-op conversions and what they do for communities, some realities of Main Street Employment Act, how the right of first refusal works for housing cooperatives versus business cooperatives, the existing but rarely used systems within the Workforce and Innovation Opportunity Act that could support cooperative conversions and more.

BOS promotes employee ownership and works with business owners and their employees to facilitate conversions. He was part of the advisory group that successfully converted three retail businesses into the Island Employee Cooperative, which is now the largest worker co-op in Maine and the second largest in New England. Rob participates in several national networks promoting the strategy of employee ownership conversion and best practices in the field, including as a 2015 DAWI Cooperative Developer Fellow and as a member of the Workers to Owners Collaborative. Rob joined CDI in 2012 as the Maine Housing Program Manager in CDI’s NEROC program, working to convert investor-owned parks into resident-owned cooperatives. He has a diverse background in community organizing, communications, non-profit and for-profit business development, and public policy development and advocacy. Rob studied economics and public policy at the University of Maine and College of the Atlantic, specializing in rural and community economic development, and has completed the Maine Association of Nonprofits’ Executive Leadership Institute.

Learn more about the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) and their Business Ownership Solutions program (BOS), as well as the Ownership Transition Initiative.