Self-determination, democracy, and solidarity: King County cooperative learning series

Session topic: Two different pathways to worker ownership: Conversion & Start-up

The COO Learning Community is continuing this site visit and conversation series in 2025 -- exploring King County cooperative businesses, the regional cooperative ecosystem, and models of cooperative housing, worker-owned enterprises, and cooperative infrastructure.   

Who Should Attend: This series featuring different cooperative models, conversations and site visits is open to anyone interested in cooperative models, structures, resources and learning from others working in the cooperative space. 

Date: March 10, 5:45pm – 7:30pm

Description: Two guest speakers in the same industry (landscape) will talk about their experiences in operating their business as a worker co-op. One converted an existing business into a worker co-op. The other tried to start a worker owned landscape business from ground up. We will learn more about what are the similarities and differences between these two pathways.

Speakers:

• Bret Kenney: Bret is a founding worker-owner at The Peoples Gardening Collective. PGC was previously the landscaping division of the City People's Garden Store. In 2016, the employees of the division organized into a stand-alone worker co-op as PGC.

• Emme Routon: Emme is a founder of Plot Twist Wildlife Gardens, dedicated to improving the ecological well-being of the Seattle area one yard at a time. Emme has tried to structure the company as a worker co-op.

Location: Jude's Old Town, 9252 57th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118

Register here: https://forms.gle/TYmpK5rN84ge4BXj6