We recorded video for our 2024 conference morning plenary as well as for one session from each of the four rounds. Please enjoy and share the videos in this selection as you please.

The 2024 Vermont Employee Ownership Conference brought out over 250 people to UVM’s Davis Center on May 31 for a full day that included an excellent keynote address plus 24 workshops led by presenters and panelists from 23 different employee-owned companies from around Vermont and New England.

Early this year, variations of the same headline appeared in multiple publications: World's Five Richest Men Have Doubled their Wealth since 2020. Meanwhile, the world saw a reduction in the combined wealth of the world's poorest 60% (nearly 5 billion people) over the same period.

Professors hold the power to share this knowledge with the next generation of entrepreneurs, accountants, lawyers, lenders, and policymakers. Helping them understand the power of employee ownership is a seed we plant today not for our own benefit but for those who come after us.

With her latest book, Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s Crises, Kelly has taken a step back from promoting any particular business models or economic solutions. Instead, the book deliberately goes straight into the center of our economic system in order to give name to what is found there.

In celebration of Employee Ownership Month, the Employee Owners of Vermont, an active group of local employee-owned companies, raised just under $30,000 in October for the group’s sixth annual fundraiser for the Vermont Foodbank.

In the basement of the old firehouse on Main St. in Windsor, Vermont, a worker-owned cookie-baking cooperative is carrying on a legacy of local artisanal baking.

In the end, Jason celebrated Alliance’s ESOP for allowing he and Shaun to receive the value they were happy with when they sold to employees in 2018 and then creating the opportunity for a meaningful payday for employees in April.

As an intern at VEOC and first-time attendee my one takeaway from this conference is that to build community resilience and sustainability companies must consider employee ownership as a viable business approach.

Thanks to the 2022 earmark from Senator Bernie Sanders, the VEOC is thrilled to announce the availability of $50,000 in technical assistance grant dollars for those interested in exploring employee ownership!

Included in the Omnibus was the Retirement Improvement and Savings Enhancement to Supplement Healthy Investments for the Nest Egg (RISE & SHINE) Act of 2022, which includes the Worker Ownership, Readiness, & Knowledge Act (WORK Act).

In celebration of Employee Ownership Month, the Employee Owners of Vermont, an active group of local employee-owned companies, raised more than $30,865 and collected 480 pounds of food in October for the group’s fifth annual fundraiser for the Vermont Foodbank.

The New England architecture firm has long taken a different approach to its design work. Now it has joined the movement for a different type of ownership.

VEOC board treasurer and Gardener's Supply executive Cindy Turcot participated in the symposium at Oxford on September 7 & 8.

On July 21, with the weekend forecast showing no relief, the worker-owners announced their decision to temporarily reduce the cafe's weekend hours to avoid the hottest part of the day.

Historically, owning a home has been the primary avenue for Americans to have a stake within their local communities, while owning a business has been another powerful means of local ownership for a much smaller subset of the population. Today, however, we’re at an historic moment where broad-based employee ownership is gaining momentum across the nation.

Representatives at employee ownership organizations across the country tell why they are proud to be SBDC Ambassadors, and how they are partnering with state SBDCs to broaden capital ownership and help build stronger businesses and resilient communities.

The center will use the funds to reach more Vermont business owners and entrepreneurs, administer technical assistance grants to businesses considering or converting to employee ownership, and create legal resources to simplify employee ownership transactions for Vermont business owners, employee groups, and entrepreneurs.