Hey there. I'm not sure if you still check this site or not, but thought I'd give it a try. I'm trying to recruit some local baristas to go in on starting a worker owned cafe. The cafe we're trying to buy is Nomad on 65th and Shattuck. The 5 members I have so far are Nomad veterans/ex managers, but we're ready to bring in some new talent, and I noticed you work around here. I'm also trying to recruit from Guerilla and Mediterraneum (cuz they're my favorites) though I hear good things about Mixing Bowl. Our intention is to bring back Nomad's all-green reputation, make the best coffee and food around, and run it as a cooperative of kickass baristas. Let me know if you're interested and I'll send you more info, or if you have any questions, just ask.

How the coop works is actually pretty simple: With 7 hour shifts there are about 840 total work hours per week, so we divide the profit per month by 840 and multiply by how many hours you work. This doesn't include manager hours, but that's something we'll decide as a group.

Manager tasks are also something we can refine as a group, but here's what we're thinking so far:
-Music officer (books shows and communicates with musicians),
-Art officer (chooses art per month, hosts art openings)
-Communications officer. (maintain website, reply to emails, posts on facebook)
-Accounts officer (communicates with vendors, facilitates bookkeeping)
-Personnel officer (makes schedules, handles our paychecks)
-Purchasing officer (keeps a running list of where/how much we spend on products to minimize costs/maximize quality)
-Espresso Control (works with roaster, charged with keeping everyone's skills sharp, organize espresso trainings)
-Food Control (same idea, but for menu items)

Responsibility for doing inventory/ordering would rotate.
We'd all be responsible for coming up with special events and hosting them (we want at least 2 events per month)

We're also required to elect a "secretary", a "chairman of the board", and a "financial officer" by California Coop Law, but these are just legal technicalities.

By law, each member gets exactly one vote, and we'd have monthly meetings to make changes, which would be voted on.

Investment: Our goal is to bring in around 5,000 from each member. Most of us don't have that kind of cash on hand, so I put together a professional business plan, and we're putting together a promotional video to send to our friends and family to get loans (a la Ritual) You would be responsible for paying them back, but the cafe would pay you back a percentage every month until you're paid off. It's ok if you can't make the 5000, we're more concerned with getting good people, we'll make it work. I can give you the whole financial breakdown when we meet up.

Other than that, there's just some paperwork we have to file with the state before we're a legal business. So, that's basically how the coop works. Let me know if you still want to meet up and/or if you know of anyone else who'd be interested. Cheers :)