Attorneys, CPAs and others who attend NCBA CLUSA’s second annual conference for legal and accounting professionals who serve the cooperative community are eligible to earn Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits.
Scheduled for Minneapolis, Minnesota, from November 9 – 11, the 2015 Co-op Professionals Conference will advance an emerging platform for professional development within the co-op movement. Click here to register.
Ahead of the opening session, NCBA CLUSA will host a Co-op 101 Primer designed for accounting and legal professionals new to cooperatives. This session will be relevant for conference attendees new to cooperatives or looking for a refresher on the basic structure and unique issues cooperatives face.
The first workshop of the conference, called “Choice of Entity,” will tackle emerging trends, multi-stakeholder co-ops, LLC co-ops corporate co-ops, work-around and public benefit corporations. Participants will explore how co-ops are organized based on varying state statutes, as well as the tools and resources available for creating and defining a cooperative enterprise.
Workshop 2, “Growing the Co-op Ecosystem,” will provide a broad overview of alternative financing approaches for cooperatives. Participants will consider the potential for traditional and new venture capital, along with unconventional debt finance structures, to create and grow the cooperative movement.
Conference attendees interested in cooperative taxation, Subchapter T and the IRS should plan to attend Workshop 3, while Workshop 4 will focus on regulation and compliance for co-op founders, managers, employees, contractors and freelancers. Workshop 5 will address conversion, conversion trends and conversion tax issues for business entities converting to co-ops.
During the final workshop of the conference, a panel of legal and accounting professionals familiar with cooperatives will discuss and offer resolutions to ethical issues submitted in advance by conference attendees in advance.
To view a complete schedule of events, click here.
NCBA CLUSA is organizing the 2015 Co-op Professionals Conference in collaboration with the following legal experts:
Thomas Beckett, Attorney, Mountain South Business Law
Linda D. Phillips, of Counsel at McClure & Eggleston, LLC
Jason Wiener, Principal, Jason Wiener, P.C.
Audrey Griffin, Supervisor, Wegner CPAs
Nancy McClelland, Owner/Accounting Consultant, The Dancing Accountant