Co-ops
What is a cooperative?
I worked at a southern slope cooperative and have loved Since I was in high school I've always been fascinated by cooperatives on just how accessible and interesting they make capital and resources for people.
It's still kind of intimidating and interesting when looking at cooperatives and it felt like for quite a while they were not showing the most love. but their ability to be voluntary associations to be at cost or nonprofit structure to have accrued Capital credits dividend distribution and other ways of compensating members. you were not just a consumer in a Cooperative you are a member owner of the cooperative. it transcends for profit non-profit and government entities into its own form of cooperation and capital. hopefully in the future they'll be more cooperative and more entities like this that can help grow and expand community and opportunities for people.
telecommunications and REC’s
I always wanted to start a telecommunications Cooperatives 501 c12.
I worked for a few years at a telephone cooperative a Southern Slope you may call it :) they had a defined benefit pension fund from the NCTA the National Cooperative Telephone Association. all non-management staff were represented by the Union the CWA or Communication Workers of America so I was able to experience all that and on paper that's kind of a dream Utopia and I think in a lot of ways it was there was a lot of positives with it.
https://reic.uwcc.wisc.edu/telephone/
The 260 U.S. telephone cooperatives are consumer-owned utilities established to provide quality telecommunications service at reasonable cost. They offer various telecommunication services to 1.2 million rural Americans in 31 states. Telephone cooperatives are most often located in rural areas where there is a strong cooperative tradition. They provide local telephone exchange services, long distance telephone operations, direct broadcast satellite, wireless, TV, mobile radios, cellular and key systems, and Internet access.
While size varies significantly, the average telephone cooperative has >5,000 subscribers, 31 employees, and an annual revenue base between $1-5M. Like their rural electric counterparts, telephone cooperatives serve a very small proportion of the nation's telephone subscribers - about 5% - but their service area covers >40% of the country’s land mass
my 1st job I worked the company got bought out by the above co-op
National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC)