Are you a legal or accounting professional working for or with a cooperative? The 2015 Co-op Professionals Conference, scheduled for November 9 – 11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is your chance to share best practices with colleagues and earn up to 12 hours of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and Continuing Professional Education  (CPE) credit. With in-depth discussions on co-op organization, governance, financing and taxation, attendees will become experts on the unique legal and accounting issues co-ops face.

Last year I attended the National Cooperative Business Association’s first-ever “Cooperative Professionals Conference“.  It was incredible — as much as I’d learned at the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives conference earlier in the year, I’d felt like it catered to large-scale industries like agriculture and rural electric… where were the worker co-ops, grocery co-ops, housing co-ops?  Where were the types of cooperatives that I worked with and of whom I was a member?

Here they are!  Although NCBA works on behalf of cooperatives everywhere, they definitely serve as the primary resource for small business co-ops.  The conference — which invited accountants and attorneys from across the country to learn and network together — was a resounding success, and they decided to do it again this year.  I was honored to be invited to join the plenary committee and to co-chair two of the workshops, and I couldn’t be more excited about them.  See the schedule here.

This conference is not just for accountants and attorneys that already work with cooperatives.  In fact, one of the sessions I am co-chairing is a “Co-ops 101” pre-conference… designed to provide the basics of cooperatives, as well as legal, accounting and taxation issues specific or common to co-ops.  It should be amazing.  Please join us in Minneapolis this November 9-11, and spread the word!