Month: March 2016

Tackling the Law, Together: Legal Resources for Worker Cooperatives

Event Date: Monday, April 4, 2016 at 6:00 PM – Monday, April 11, 2016 at 8:00 PM (EDT)
Location: Legal Services Center 122 Boylston Street Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

Event Details: Are you a worker cooperative who could use some help understanding the law?
If so, please join us to meet lawyers, law students, and other technical assistance providers who are working together to create and share valuable resources and information for worker cooperatives in Massachusetts.
We will be hosting two presentations to discuss legal issues that are common to worker cooperatives:
1. Monday, April 4 from 6:00-8:00 pm – Employment and Immigration Law for Cooperatives
2. Monday, April 11 from 6:00-8:00 pm – Securities and Tax Law for Cooperatives
Join us over delicious food provided by local cooperatives to learn more about the ways in which lawyers and other technical assistance providers can assist your business, as well as to teach us about ways in which we can better address your cooperative’s needs.
Please R.S.V.P. by Monday, March 28th.  The presentations will be given in English. To request language interpretation, please contact lmaynardjd16@clinics.law.harvard.edu.
Hope to see you there!
Location: Legal Services Center, 122 Boylston St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
(next to Stony Brook stop on the Orange Line)
Presentation to begin at 6 p.m.

More information and Online Registration

Have questions about Tackling the Law, Together: Legal Resources for Worker Cooperatives?
Contact Community Enterprise Project of the Harvard Transactional Law Clinics

Hosted By:

Community Enterprise Project of the Harvard Transactional Law Clinics
The Community Enterprise Project is a clinical program of the Transactional Law Clinics at Harvard Law School that serves clients who live and work in the Boston neighborhoods surrounding the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. Under the supervision of staff attorneys, clinical students represent small businesses, entrepreneurs, community groups, and nonprofit organizations with respect to entity formation, contract drafting and negotiation, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, intellectual property protection, and other transactional legal matters.
In addition to engaging in direct client representation, Community Enterprise Project students partner with community organizations to develop and implement strategies to address persistent legal barriers to economic development. To this end, Community Enterprise Project students conduct workshops and produce educational materials for targeted audiences on specific legal issues, as well as develop networks of technical assistance providers and other resources around a particular industry or need.

For more information or to become a client, please visit http://www.harvardtlc.org or call (617) 998-0101.

DiscoTech coming up in May

http://codesign.mit.edu/discotechs

On May 1st 2016, the MIT Co-Design Studio team, Research Action Design, Intelligent Mischief, and the Detroit Community Technology Project are calling on YOU to attend (and/or organize!) a Co-op DiscoTech near you. A Co-op DiscoTech (shorthand for a Cooperative Economy Discovering Technology fair) is an event designed for people of all backgrounds and skill levels to learn about how technology can be used to support the growth of the cooperative economy – worker-owned cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, housing cooperatives, and more!

Cool! Tell me more about DiscoTechs.

Our DiscoTechs follow the model developed by the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition:

DiscoTech is a community-based, community-organized, multimedia workshop and fair. At a DiscoTech, participants learn more about the impacts and possibilities of technology, and take part in fun, interactive and media-based workshops. Discotech workshops are designed to demystify technology and create a space where we can inform and engage our community […] A Discotech utilizes the unique skills and expertise within each community, and morphs to adapt to changing needs. [Source: “How To Discotech” Zine, by the DDJC.]

The Co-op DiscoTechs are free, open, multi-site events. This page is for sharing information about these events, as well as for resources to help you organize your own DiscoTech!

I think I understand “DiscoTech,” but what is the “Co-op” about?

At the Co-op DiscoTechs, we’ll focus on creating welcoming spaces where a wide range of people (not just techies!) will feel welcome sharing and learning about each other’s experiences with cooperatives: worker-owned co-ops, consumer co-ops, housing co-ops, hybrid cooperatives, co-op support organizations … pretty much anything that has to do with the cooperative economy! We’re also inviting cooperative organizations, technologists, developers, and designers to come to the DiscoTech to learn, teach, sprint, hack, meet up, explore projects, and build community together.

We’ll dive in deep to understand worker cooperative tools, systems, and histories, through speakers, skillshares, workshops, and activities open to all. We’ll also get hands-on with tools and approaches that can strengthen worker, consumer, housing, and hybrid cooperatives. We’ll link existing co-ops, technologists, designers, and community organizers to strengthen our strategies and tools for a cooperative future!

Sounds awesome! How can I participate?

Come to a Co-op DiscoTech near you on May 1st, or organize your own! We’ll be happy to share our approach, link to your event, and otherwise support you.

Where will these Co-op DiscoTechs be happening?

All over the place! So far (as of early February) we have interest from organizers in the following locations:

Cambridge, MA (@MIT Media Lab)
Boston, MA (Location TBC)
Berlin (TBC)
Philly (TBC)
Detroit (TBC)
More soon!
How to organize your own Co-op DiscoTech:

For general background on DiscoTechs, check out this DiscoTech Zine, by the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition: http://detroitprojectarchive.com/client/DDJC_amc2012.pdf.zip

For more Co-op DiscoTech organizing resources, check out this folder: http://bit.ly/coop-discotechs-resources.

Please get in touch by emailing Katie: klarthur@mit.edu