This week, Metis was proud to host a Worker Coop Summit at our shop! Topics of discussion included coop organizational structure, business sustainability, owner onboarding and the employee-owner experience.
As worker-owned cooperatives, our employees are our greatest assets. Their talents as craftspeople, ambitions as owners and individual strengths are all key to a successful organization. As such, we strive to raise up our staff through training, mentorship and a strong company culture. A1, Metis and 3BLC all have their own distinctive training and mentorship programs suited to the needs of the individual business; this summit provided great insight into the various teaching tools employed by each company.
Although all three cooperatives that presented have unique organizational structures; one thing that we all have in common is our commitment to organizational sustainability. Written into each company’s bylaws, are strong governing rules that ensure that no one person or group of owners has the ability to simply liquidate or sell the company for profit. One of the most important aspects to the worker-owned model, is for prospective owners to have the utmost confidence in the future of the company; knowledge that business will always be working for them.
We would like to thank A1 Design Build of Bellingham, and Triple Bottom Line Construction of Seattle for sharing their business stories; and thanks to the attendees who were interested in forming a coop of their own!
“Metis is not just a workplace; it’s a community.”-Cheng Cooper, worker-owner.
