The OEOC Blog

The Aspen Institute is now host to the largest online academic repository pf teaching and background materials on employee ownership. The resource, the Curriculum Library on Employee Ownership (CLEO) includes an impressive array of books, articles, case studies, and teaching materials on everything employee ownership. CLEO was a collaborative effort of the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education, the Foundation for Enterprise Development and the Employee Ownership Foundation.

It is definitely worth a look!

...from the OEOC family, to yours!

Bloomberg BusinessWeek has a story on two measures passed by the house of Representatives that loosens rules on equity investors for smaller enterprises:

House lawmakers voted 407-17 to pass a measure that would exempt from Securities and Exchange Commission registration firms that solicit and pool small investments, often online, of up to $1 million. The practice, known as crowdfunding, garnered bipartisan support after Obama’s Sept. 8 speech to Congress...

...Representative Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranked Republican in the House, sponsored a second bill passed today that would allow closely held firms to market offerings to accredited investors. The SEC currently bans closely held firms from soliciting funding from investors.

Both measures passed on a bipartisan basis and now move to the Senate for approval.

I thought I would let all of you know about some of the more interesting stories I've read over the last week from the world of employee ownership.

First up are a couple of stories from two officers from seperate employee-owned companies who both stress that employee ownership is good business, and a great way to support the retirement savings of workers:

Greg Klein, CFO and Vice-President of Inland Truck Parts from the Des Moines Register 

Mike Heitmann, President and CEO of Garney Construction from the Kansas City Star

Next up is an article from the Financial News & Daily Record newspaper (based in Jacksonville Florida) on the power of "ownership thinking."

And finally, from the other other side of the world (specifically from the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald) comes an interesting piece on how the "us-vs-them workplace is just bad business".

I think the common theme among all the pieces is the idea of when you allow workers to share in the risk and rewards of operating a business, the end results tend to be positive.

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DotCoop, sponsor of the .coop domain name, announced the winners of its Cooperative Excellence Awards last week. One of the more interesting winners, at least for me, was s.coop, a web link shortening service.

For those of you who don't know what a 'web link shortening service' is, well, let me show you.

If you would like to read a nice article about the full slate of award winners on the excellent Co-operative News website, I could provide you with the following link:

http://www.thenews.coop/article/dotcoop-announces-winners-global-awards

Quite a mouthful, especially if you wanted to send out the link via a social media outlet (such as Twitter) that has a defined limit on the number of available characters allowed in a message.

By using s.coop's service, I can get the link shortened to a more manageable:

http://s.coop/5sqj

Much better!

To begin using the s.coop service, and to show a little cooperative pride, log onto http://s.coop/

The OEOC has started a new group on LinkedIn. Join up, and receive updates on events and happenings at the OEOC, and network with fellow travellers in the employee ownership world!

So get out there and celebrate the men and women making a better economy for all of us.

A group of North American cooperative organizations are hosting a conference on business succession planning and employee ownership in Quebec City from October 11-13. Roy Messing from the OEOC will be participating in a number of events during the 3 days.

Interested? Find out more here.

A Bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that, among other things, will make it easier for companies to convert into S-Corp ESOPs. A press release from Employee Owned S Corporations of America provides some details. Some important quotes:

The bill eliminates barriers that businesses and their owners currently face in establishing a new S corporation ESOP or expanding the employee-ownership stake in an S corporation. Congress created the S corporation ESOP structure to encourage and expand retirement savings, giving more workers in private companies the chance to own their companies through an ESOP qualified retirement savings program. A similar bill, currently endorsed by 18 Republicans and 18 Democrats, was introduced earlier this year in the House of Representatives as H.R. 1244...

...The S corporation ESOP structure accomplishes exactly what Congress intended it to do by creating retirement security for millions of American workers in all 50 states. A study from University of Pennsylvania shows that S ESOP employees have retirement account balances three to five times higher than the average 401 (k) or other defined contribution plans and that S ESOPs generate $14 billion in new savings each year for their workers beyond what they otherwise would have earned, offering greater job stability and job satisfaction. According to a Georgetown University report, S ESOPs have been better able to weather economic downturns, preserve jobs and, in the case of the recent recession, have grown wages in comparison to their non-S corporation ESOP counterparts.

An S-Corporation that is owned 100% by its employees through an ESOP is a 100% income tax free entity.

The bill was introduced by Republicans Pat Roberts and Olympia Snowe and Democrat Ben Cardin and mirrors House Bill 1244 that was introduced earlier this year. The House Bill has been endorsed by 18 Democrats and 18 Republicans.