Our Members Teamworks Development Institute are putting on an intensive 3 day gather for Cleaning co-ops. Check out their site to register.
The Intensive is for everyone involved in planning, launching, and growing worker-owned house cleaning cooperatives. We will customize the program based on the needs of participants. We expect to have sessions and activities that will bring the estimated 10-20 attendees together to facilitate learning across roles (these will be fully bilingual, Spanish-English). We also anticipate specific break-out tracks for:
Members. Doing cleaning as a co-op member and being involved in co-op governance is very different than simply having a “job”. Workshop sessions will be driven by the participating members’ needs and questions and will be faciliated by experienced worker-owners who have lived through common co-op challenges that members often ask about, such as interpersonal conflicts, member pay, and client issues. Language: Primarily Spanish.
“Managers” (or whatever you call them). Someone at the co-op needs to handle areas such as customer service, scheduling, sales, and administrative tasks. The folks in these roles in small co-ops sometimes feel like they have been assigned a “mission impossible”. They juggle many demands and can feel caught between clients and members. Sessions will cover “nuts-and-bolts” tools — everything from worksheets for estimating the price of cleaning jobs to web-based scheduling systems — as well as trainings on emotional intelligence and managing conflict. Language: Bilingual, flexible to meet participants’ preferences.
Co-op Developers. These sessions will address two areas: First, we will explore the complex and often contradictory role of the developer including the inevitable differences of power — and in many cases of race, gender, culture, language, and privledge — between developers and co-op members. And second, we will dig into a range of technical issues such as legal structures, market analysis, financial planning and management, insurance (workers comp, health, disability, liability), cleaning systems, and the use of mindfulness training as the basis for building relationships and resolving conflicts. Lanuage: Primarily English.
Location: Join us at the beautiful Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos in the Bay Area, 25 minutes from San Jose International Airport and 35 minutes from San Francisco International Airport.
Schedule: The Intensive begins with dinner at 6:00 p.m. on Tues. March 21 (plan to arrive between from 4:00 – 5:45 p.m. to check-in) and concludes at 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 24. To support not only their own and others learning, participants are expected to fully immerse themselves in the Intensive for the full three days.
For details about price and solidarity opportunities please visit their registration page Here.
