2024 Report to the Community
Event notice:
VEOC is holding its annual Report to the Community next Thursday! You are invited to join us for a discussion highlighting our accomplishments in 2024 as well as addressing some of the challenges and exciting opportunities ahead in the year to come.
Location: Switchback Brewing Co., 160 Flynn Ave, Burlington, VT
Time: 4-5pm, Thursday, Feb. 20
No reservation required
Reflections on 2024 from VEOC Executive Director, Matt Cropp
2024 was an exciting year of progress and change for VEOC. We kicked off the year with a bang, welcoming the arrival of Annie’s first child in January, followed by Ryan’s first child in February. Fortunately, between good planning, starting conference preparations several months early, and our founding Executive Director coming back from retirement to pinch hit, we were able to navigate that period without significant disruption to the services we offer. Which, to be frank, is a significant accomplishment for an organization of our size.
Our Annual Conference was held at the start of June, and we exceeded our attendance goal and received positive feedback following the event. Due to starting to feel constrained by the amount of space at the UVM Davis Center, we decided it was time to give Vermont’s largest conference venue - the Doubletree - a try, so we will be holding the conference in a new location in 2025.
2024 also saw a bumper crop of new employee-owned companies, with four transitioning to the ESOP model in the calendar year, and a worker co-op closed its deal shortly after the new year. Over the course of the year we received a steady flow of new companies interested in exploring transitioning to employee ownership, and are hopeful that 2025 will be another fruitful year for our work.
Strategically, we’ve continued to operate in a zone of uncertainty that has been intensified by the national political situation around Federal funding. In particular, both the WORK Act and a proposed Congressionally Directed Spending Appropriation via Senator Sanders would, if funded, provide an opportunity to significantly expand our capacity. So, we’ve developed plans that we can implement rapidly should those resources become available, while ensuring that we keep the organization on a financially sustainable path in the meantime. Fortunately, we’ve seen some success in diversifying our funding streams over the past few years, have a healthy reserve, and presently have very little reliance on Federal funding, so are in a strong position to continue supporting the growth of employee ownership in Vermont in 2025, come what may.
Many thanks to our staff (including our fabulous Summer Intern Matt Cleary), volunteers, funders, and partners who are essential to advancing our mission, and we look forward to supporting the creation of more opportunities for Vermonters to benefit from owning their work!
