How to Make a Labor Co-op Work for You

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You'll need some basic office supplies -paper, pencils, pens, etc.—of course. And access to a typewriter and a copying machine and/or mimeograph would be helpful. If you're really working on a shoestring, though, I'll betcha you could launch one of these co-ops with nothing but a pad of paper and a pencil.

Your most important tools will be [1] an information sheet, and [2] an application form.

The info sheet should anticipate-and answer! -all the questions that interested folks will have about your proposed exchange: What's the purpose of this organization ... what's in it for me ... what do I have to do ... what are my obligations ... what are the rules ... how do I request services? Try to put your basic facts together in an easily understood, widely appealing, enticing way. The more people you can attract and convert into members, the greater the diversity of services your co-op will offer and the more valuable it will be.

Your application form should ask for all the basics: name and address, telephone number, occupation and/or skills, plus the number of hours per week that each applicant is willing to pledge. You should also include a waiver designed protect you and other co-op members from lawsuits just in case something unexpected and disastrous happens because of a service that is rendered. Our clause—drawn up by Richard and a Free? Sig attorney—reads, in part: " . . . All persons who accept such services will indemnify and hold harmless the person or persons who perform the service... with respect to any claims, demands, or liability arising directly or indirectly from the service provided... An attorney in your area or the local Legal Aid Society can help you with this part of the form.

NOW SPREAD THE WORD!

All right. You've done the basics ... now broadcast the news! Tell friends and neighbors what you're doing. Advertise (if you can afford it) in the local paper (and put the bite on the paper's editor for a feature article about your skills and services exchange and what it can do for the publication's readers). Post notices on the bulletin boards of supermarkets, laundromats, and other stores in your area. Talk your co-op idea up around town! Get folks excited and involved by telling 'em what's in it for them. (And they really can benefit from one of these exchanges!)

If it's convenient for you to get a number of people interested in the co-op together some evening, so much the better. If that's impossible (or, for some reason, you even have difficulty taking phone calls), though, you can still do the organizing of your exchange entirely by mail. Just request-on all the notices that you post, in your newspaper advertising, etc—that interested parties write to you for more information and an application form ... and that they enclose a selfaddressed, stamped long envelope with their request. (That way, you'll both [1]"qualify" your prospects-sort the "lookers" from the "doers"and [2] keep yourself from being stuck with bills for all the start-up postage. You can take this idea another step further, too: When you mail back your info sheets and application forms, attach a note asking that a second SASE be returned with the completed form, That way, you'll then be all set to mail out your exchange's first Catalog of Services and Directory of Members.)

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