In this Issue:

> Annual Conference

> Chroma Introduces
New Subsidiary

Vermont Employee 
Ownership Center
P.O. Box 546
Burlington, VT 05402
Phone: 802-861-6611
Email: info@veoc.org
Website: www.veoc.org

Thank you to
our Sponsors:

Conference photos
Conference program (PDF)
Presentations and remarks
Audio recordings

"An informative and inspiring day."

"I love the spirit of employee ownership in Vermont and enjoyed being among such a dedicated group."

"Very informative for a small company deciding on: (1) do we want employee ownership; and (2) if yes, an ESOP or a co-op."

"This was my first VEOC conference and I really enjoyed it. The content was very solid and the speakers were great. I will be back!"

These are just some of the quotes we received from the nearly 180 people who attended the Seventh Annual Vermont Employee Ownership Conference on June 5th in Burlington.

The day began at 9:00 am with the morning plenary, which featured remarks by VEOC Board President Paul Millman, Vermont's Governor Jim Douglas, and a keynote address by William Greider.

"I think employee ownership provides a great opportunity for some stability of the economic status of Vermont at this challenging time, because obviously if somebody is local, is a part of our community, is a part of an organization, then he or she has a far greater commitment to the success of that enterprise than somebody who might be located far from home," explained Governor Douglas. "So if we can encourage employee ownership of businesses, I think it's a lot better for the future of our state's economic base." (Click here to listen to portions of the morning plenary.)

William Greider (left), Governor Jim Douglas (center), and Paul Millman (right) speaking during the morning plenary session of the conference.

The full-day conference featured 14 workshops covering a range of topics from employee ownership basics to culture and management issues. Many of the presentations are available for download in PDF format here.

The conference's closing remarks were delivered by John Abrams, co-founder and president of South Mountain Company. John spoke about the challenges the company is facing as a result of the economic downturn and the role that employee ownership might play as our economy is reshaped in the coming years. Click here to read a full transcript of his remarks.

Thank you to all of the speakers and attendees for making the Seventh Annual conference our best yet. We look forward to seeing you next year.

Chroma Technology Introduces New Subsidiary

Employee-owned Chroma Technology Corp. has launched a new subsidiary. 89 North, located in Burlington, VT, will leverage resources from the area including the University of Vermont and the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies to develop innovative products for the life science imaging market.

Like its parent company, 89 North is also worker-owned, though the ownership arrangement between the two companies is still being worked out. The Chroma board of directors approved the new company. Chroma supplied the start-up capital and all the workers at Chroma in Rockingham are in turn part owners of the new Burlington company. And the Burlington employees own their new company, and have a stake in Chroma, but the specifics are still being worked out. "This is a whole new concept," Baumann said. "We are still investigating the best way to do this. There are a lot of details to work out." Click here to read an article from the Brattleboro Reformer.

The company was also recently named to the WorldBlu list of Most Democratic Workplaces. Click here to read an interview with Paul Millman about how employee ownership has contributed to the success of the company.