Hi! I’m based in Athens, GA, and unfortunately we have a very siloed co-op ecosystem here in northeast, GA. We have multiple credit unions (Georgia United, Robins Federal, Peach State being the most prominent) which all seem like frenemies with each other, a few electric co-ops which have monopolies (but at least Walton EMC has a sign on its HQ that says “customer owned”), one small struggling grocery co-op (Daily Groceries, near and dear to my heart having worked there myself for almost a decade), another also perpetually struggling worker co-op (cleaning company). So when the opportunity arose from our local mayor and commission defining goals for economic development funding via ARPA (COVID-19 recovery money) that included the formation of “secondary co-ops” I interpreted this to be about forming one or more shared services co-ops by and for local solopreneurs and micropreneuers. So, not a secondary co-op, but rather many micro businesses joining together and doing what many of our secondary co-ops are doing, e.g., joint purchasing, joint marketing, joint educational services. But we’ve quickly realized the level of curriculum development in this space is quite lacking, and so we’re building a lot of the curriculum for ourselves right now. That being said, more tools are very welcome! And we’re happy to share what we’ve made so far, and swap notes. The more people we interview, the more I am realizing that folks practicing shared services are eager to meet one another. We’ve spoken with Amicus Solar O&M in Colorado, Community Purchasing Alliance in DC, Ujamaa Collective in Pittsburgh, and an effort trying to start now in Camden, NJ, joining the purchasing power of bodegas together to access and sell more fresh produce. But we could really benefit from more supply chain experts who have done negotiations with and for these kinds of alliances/networks/federations of businesses seeking economies of scope, and scale, while preserving local autonomy and independence (look at that, I roped P4 into a P6 thread). Our public document describing this campaign can be access here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JRDASrR9UcbTUpSoC8zBOt30IWEMdime/view?usp=sharing, and my email is mreppers@gmail.com.