Tag Archives: cooperatives

How Urban Animal plans to become nation’s first worker-owned veterinary co-op — and what it means for the people who care for Capitol Hill fur babies

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(Image: Urban Animal)

(Image: Urban Animal)

 

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After more than a decade of providing walk-in veterinary care to Capitol Hill, Urban Animal will be transitioning to a co-op business model — the first of its kind in the nation. Drawing from 24 years of veterinary experience, founder Cherri Trusheim is responding to her observations of increasing corporatization and high levels of burnout within the industry.

“It is an emotionally taxing field to work in and sometimes the job lifespan isn’t too long,” Trusheim said. “We’re having a hard time finding veterinary professionals because corporate has come in and designed these jobs for them in a way that’s not sustainable.”

Trusheim’s vision for the cooperative emphasizes giving employees a say in how they provide veterinary care and other business decisions. The business will be owned by workers, which is different from other co-op models, where ownership falls on the consumers or producers of the product. Trusheim says there’s a lot of variance between each cooperative.

“For me, it was really that governance piece. Giving people a voice and not just giving them money,” Trusheim said. “Really having a voice at the table because burnout is, that feeling of overwhelm coupled with helplessness, you just don’t feel like there’s anything you can do to make it different.” Continue reading →

Urban Animal — including its Capitol Hill clinic — set to become state’s nation’s first worker-owned veterinary co-op

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Founded in 2012 on the edge of the First Hill “Pill Hill” medical neighborhood, Urban Animal is reorganizing as a cooperative and giving the chance to its 110 employees across three Seattle locations including Capitol Hill’s E Thomas to become owners of the veterinary clinic that serves more than 50,000 clients.

“The veterinary industry is in the eye of a perfect storm due to factors such as employee burnout and private equity buyouts, which are diminishing the number of qualified veterinary professionals,” Urban Animal founder and veterinarian Cherri Trusheim said in the announcement. “Urban Animal is presenting this groundbreaking solution to set the bar for the industry and beyond.” Continue reading →

Central Co-op CEO announces exit

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arnettAs Central Co-op attempts to win a place anchoring the commercial development around Capitol Hill Station and repair the situation in Tacoma where it is looking for a new location to open a market after this year’s merger, it will do so while searching for a new leader.

CEO Dan Arnett told the 40-year-old cooperative’s members Thursday he will be stepping down in December to head a co-op in Sacramento. Arnett told CHS he was ready for a new challenge and that controversy over the closure of Central Co-op Tacoma had no impact on his decision to leave Seattle.

8446998444_a8c3a36dab“It’s really irrelevant to my decision making process,” he said. “There’s always some group that’s mad about something.”

Overseeing the merger of the Tacoma co-op with the  E Madison-headquartered Central Co-op was one of Arnett’s most significant accomplishments during his four years in Seattle. The Tacoma store later closed when Central Co-op could not reach an agreement on a new lease. Arnett said there were no plans for Central Co-op to make any further mergers, with Sacramento or elsewhere.

Last month, CHS reported on the frustrations of Tacoma co-op members following the abrupt closure of their store in the wake of a merger. Christine Cooley of Tacoma’s Friends of the Co-op group told CHS that she hopes Arnett’s resignation could expedite the opening of a new Tacoma store. “I worry a lot for Sacramento,” she said.

Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s cohousing pioneers are ready to move in on 12th Ave

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The residents gathered for a rooftop portrait (Images: Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing)

The residents gathered for a rooftop portrait (Images: Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing)

“At some point you need to have that bigger vision in mind and that long term goal.”

Getting along with apartment building neighbors requires at least a modicum of social grace. Getting along with potentially lifelong neighbors that are also equal owners in a partnership to develop and own a building mandates serious training.

After breaking ground in 2014, and years of planning prior to that including classes in consensus decision making, the members of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing are ready to move into their new home (and their 12th and Howell building is almost ready for them). You can get a sneak peek of the building on Saturday from 10 AM to 4PM as part of National Cohousing Open House day.

The 12th Ave cohousing development isn’t a traditional cooperative. CHUC residents are their own developers. While tenants in a cooperative or condo building have to eat the costs of a developer’s profit, CHUC residents say there are keeping their costs as low as possible and will essentially impose their own rent control once they have moved in. The nine families making up the community are all equal partners in an company that obtained a loan to develop the building.

Looking back on what it took to get to this point CHUC co-founder Mike Mariano paused when asked if he would do it all again.

“If you think about it too much, you would never do it,” said Mariano, a principal architect at Schemata Workshop. “At some point you need to have that bigger vision in mind and that long term goal.”

As Mariano and the rest of the CHUC members discovered, financing is not easy when you’re not trying to simply maximize profits. Developing the property as a community was a means to an end for CHUC — ends that include communal meals and work in the rooftop garden, longterm stability, and a tight-knit support group that will hopefully last a lifetime. Continue reading →