Downloads

Resources and reference material which we hope will be useful are provided below.

– Local communities and economic sustainability.

Document	Title	Information
	Community Enterprise Ownership	The edited text and associated slides of a presentation by Peter Gates, Chief Executive of Mercury Co-operative, to the Annual Conference of Monash University’s Institute for Regional Studies in October 2006. The title of the conference was ‘Owning Your Future: small towns and community assets’ – 260Kb.
	CED Action Strategies	Community Economic Development Action Strategies. This article looks at sustainable economic development action strategies based on a framework of six broad and inter-related approaches to local business, local economy and community capacity building – 137Kb.
	Effective Economic Development	Effective Economic Development – What makes it happen?. Key ingredients against which all communities can evaluate themselves and prepare for economic development. (Our thanks to Community Builders NSW for this information) – 96Kb.

– For new and existing co-operatives.

Document	Title	Information
	Co-operatives in Australia – A Manual	This manual is designed to assist anyone who wants to start or join a co-operative, and also increase the understanding of members already involved in co-operatives across Australia. It is also designed to assist members of other entity types to understand the pros and cons of the co-operative structure (compared with their existing structure).– 908Kb.
	ICA Co-operative Identity	International Co-operative Alliance Statement on the Co-operative Identity – 57Kb.
	Innovative Co-ops in the Social Services Sector	The report of a research study on the development of social co-operatives around the world to benefit people with developmental disabilities and mental illness – 1.04Mb.
	The Co-operative Difference	A presentation on Co-operatives in Australia by Peter Gates, Chief Executive of Mercury Co-operatives and Suzanne Henderson, Editor, CCC eNews to Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre seminar Developing Research Agendas in November 2007. – 512Kb.
	Overview of Co-operatives	An overview of co-operatives taken from the Regulatory Impact Statement for the introduction of the new Co-operatives Regulation 2005, issued by the Policy & Strategy Division of the Office of Fair Trading, NSW Department of Commerce. – 55Kb.

– For boards and management.

Document	Title	Information
	Building Effective Corporate Governance	This paper examines the subject of corporate governance, looks at a number of descriptions and models of corporate governance including Mercury Co-operative’s own Quality Governance Framework – 327Kb.
	The Wheel of Participation	Describes the ‘Wheel of Participation’ developed by South Lanarkshire Council. The wheel moves from the extreme of no community input, with the Council taking all the decisions, through consultation and participation to citizen empowerment, where the community make their own decisions on issues that affect them – 96Kb.

– Includes ownership planning, community buyouts, business succession and employee ownership.

Document	Title	Information
	Employee Buyouts Guide	Employee ownership of a business can be achieved through a process called an “employee buy-out”. This guide sets out what an employee buy-out is, when a buy-out is appropriate and why a buy-out should be considered. It also deals with the forms of buy-outs and the steps in performing a buy-out – 235Kb.
	Business Succession and Buyout Solutions to Rejuvenate Communities	Presentation to the Small Business Development Conference in October 2006 by Alan Greig, Director, Ownership Strategies of Mercury Co-operative – 70Kb.
	Co-op Comeback in the Outback	Article reproduced from the April 2006 edition of Ethical Investor exploring the topic that “Rural communities are pooling funds to plug the drain of essential services” – 552Kb.
	Asset Based Policies: Matched Savings Accounts: Exploring Options	Report to the Chifley Research Centre Prepared by The Allen Consulting Group. Table 1.1 on page 8 provides details of empirical studies linking asset ownership to measures of well being – 997Kb.