The Co-op Boot Camp is a 14-week educational course for anyone who wants to learn more about worker co-ops, become a worker owner, or start their own co-op business.

The course consists of two classes: the four-week Introduction to Co-ops and the ten-week Building a Co-op Business. The first class introduces basic concepts, definitions, co-op history and their role in transformative social/economic justice. The second class gets into the nitty gritty of developing a business plan, legal entity choices, marketing, governance, financial projections and so forth.

The class meets once a week for three hours. The fee for the Intro is $50 and for Building a Co-op Business is $125. Scholarships are available. Since the pandemic, the Co-op Boot Camp has been held online, but when we return to in-person classes, they will be held in Springfield, MA.

The Co-op Boot Camp uses a popular education approach to learning in which everyone is a learner and everyone is a teacher. We build on people’s knowledge and experience to develop analysis and action for liberation. Since everyone learns differently, we use a range of methodologies such as participatory small group exercises, role plays, games, videos, and presentations.

Participants are exposed to the many different types and structures of cooperatives, allowing them to develop an informed cooperative model that suits their needs and business. Prior to the pandemic, and expected to return when safe, in-person courses included a field trip to local cooperatives in Western Mass such as Real Pickles, Artisan Beverage, and PV Squared Solar where students were given tours of the cooperatives and learned about how they function.

Worker-owners from Wellspring Harvest, Jumping Jack Hoops, and Farm Bug Cooperative in the Wellspring network graduated from the Co-op Bootcamp. The Co-op Boot Camp is helping to build a local cooperative economy that promotes a more just and sustainable future in which workers learn how to run their own businesses together, share in the profits, and give back to the local communities that support them.

History

The Worker Co-op Boot Camp is a project of Wellspring Cooperative. It built on a partnership with the Springfield Technical Community College, TESA (Toolbox for Educational & Social Action), Cooperative Fund of New England, Association of Black Business & Professionals, and Arise for Social Justice. We drew on our collective knowledge and experience as well as curriculum that other organizations had developed. We piloted the first Co-op Boot Camp in the fall of 2017 and have offered it every year since then.

Introduction to
Cooperatives

This 4-week course will give you the tools to understand what it takes to be a worker-owner and the knowledge to decide if working in, or starting up, a co-op is for you.

• What is a cooperative?
• What are the different types of co-ops?
• What role have co-ops played in supporting social and economic justice?
• Why is there a current upsurge of co-ops?
• How well do co-ops perform? How can they benefit workers and communities?
• What does economic democracy and culture look like in practice?
• What does it take to be a worker-owner as opposed to a worker?
• Case studies and problem-solving. Exploration of starting up your own co-op.

Building a
Co-op Business

This 10-week course will help you explore the feasibility of your idea and develop a business model/plan for your cooperative. Pre-requisite: Intro to Co-ops or equivalent

• Business model/Business Canvas: what’s your big picture?
• Governance and Management, Intro to Sociocracy
• Legal & Human Resource Issues: Incorporation choices, articles and by-laws, worker handbook, hiring, evaluations, etc.
• Marketing: What makes sense for your business?
• Sustainability: How can you strengthen your co-op’s economic, social, and environmental sustainability?
• Financials: Accounting, open book management, key metrics
• Raising Capital: Choices and strategies to raise startup capital

See What Our Students Are Saying!

“I really appreciate Wellspring running this course. It was really easy to digest and super educational. I have been in and out of a few other courses over the past year or so and have found them pretty intimidating for newcomers like myself. This was not the case in Wellspring’s course—maybe because of the focus on the popular education model and Emily’s instruction”.
Avani, Marshfield Class of 2022Village Store Cooperative
Class of 2022
“I think one of the greatest takeaways was honestly the reminder of how much I love popular education. I really love learning in space together and hearing from other people. I think Emily did a really great job with the case studies and the breakout groups. I appreciated how engaging it all was”.
ErinClass of 2022
“The most powerful part of the course for me was the discussions and being able to talk with likeminded people and really see that there are people out there that want things to be different. The information we got was great, but what stuck with me was the fellow students sharing their perspectives and experiences”.
EzraThe Source Fungi
Class of 2022
“The classes were a nice mix of practical, lecture-based content where you got the facts: you would walk through what the process was, the tenants, legalities, and the structure of a co-op actually is. Then you had another group component where you were shaping the idea that you came with or that you developed there to incorporate those lessons in real time with others. So as opposed to being fed information, it gave us opportunities to practically engage with the material we were learning”.
Liam MaloneGeneral Manager at Wellspring Harvest
Class of 2020
“There are a lot of moving parts in any business. If you’re considering a cooperative, there are added levels to consider such as who makes the decisions, how people are held accountable, etc. Because there is a lot to dig into, it’s good to have a program that covers so much in a manageable period of time. Like any bootcamp, it’s just a beginning, but it provides a solid entree into some of the most important things that you need to learn about. So I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in co-ops and wants to get a broad overview in a short amount of time”.
J JasperMember of Farm Bug Co-op.
Class of 2020