This handbook walks worker owners and cooperative developers through the process of laying the groundwork for, creating, and implementing systems of accountability and evaluation in small to medium sized worker cooperatives.

Editable versions of the toolkit's appendices can be found here.

When forming, worker cooperatives have an important choice to make regarding their legal entity. Each entity type has implications on important issues including taxation, employment law, and access to capital. This resource is intended to give a brief overview of the entity types and lay out the issues worker cooperatives may want to consider when choosing which is the best fit for the business at whatever stage it is currently in.

This presentation goes over the steps of the cooperative transition process and outlines benefits, challegnes, and key questions of a business transition.

Link: here

Before a cooperative transition process can get started, the selling owner needs to make some decisions about how to structure the process, specifically she needs to clearly define who has decision-making power in the process: herself, the transition committee, the likely coop members, and the whole group. This chart outlines who decides what.  

Gant chart outlining the phases a business goes through during transition to a cooperative. 

The absence of supervisors, who are charged with immediately identifying and addressing problem performance, makes the periodic occurrence of worker evaluations critical in a collective. This 1-page document outlines the importance of evaluations and provides tips on performing evaluations effectively. 

Tips for effective meetings and consensus decision-making. Thanks to USFWC member, South Mountain Company, for this resource. 

A chart to assist with selecting the most appropriate legal entity for your worker cooperative. Compares: Sole Proprietor, C-Corp, S-Corp, Limited Liability Company (LLC), and Cooperative Corporation. 

28 essential questions for any start-up to ask - and try to answer - before meeting with a lawyer. 

Worker Coop 101 pamphlet.

Written by Co-operatives UK’s Worker Co-operative Council.  Dedicated to people around the world who are taking ownership and control of their working lives.