Guests | Members | Community | Environment
Founding Member Elisabeth Barton had the opportunity to speak with Tim Armstrong with the Socialist Entrepreneur last week about the creation and drive behind Echo Adventure Cooperative!
The Socialist Entrepreneur is based out of the United Kingdom and looks at cooperatives and member owned businesses across the globe to better understand the motivations and impediments facing the cooperative community. "So this question stuck with me and ultimately became the genesis of this blog." Tim states on the blog's "About" page. "My personal question evolved into a more general question: how do you start a worker-owned business? In this blog, I want to try to answer that question. I want to explore the theory and practice of worker-ownership, and in particular, I want to examine one important facet of the ecology of a worker-owned economy: socialist entrepreneurship. What motivates some folk to initiate new worker-owned businesses? What are some of the challenges they face and how do they succeed?"
"In this industry, guides give up a lot to live their dream."
During their phone interview, Tim and Elisabeth explored these questions in relation to the outdoor and tourism industry and discussed the burgeoning legislation and resources available to Cooperatives in the United States. "In this industry," Elisabeth commented, "guides give up a lot to live their dream, so the four of us felt like this was another step in becoming a productive member of the community. Being a Board member gives guides full access to their company and the opportunity to make decisions about how the company operates in the community in which they live."
Check out the full interview with Elisabeth and other inspiring discussions with cooperative leaders around the world!