Some special things about my job and a cooperative dinner

I'd like to start off with an initial result of my resolution.
I had one of those moments where I just wanted to run to a convenience store, buy some chips and salsa, call that dinner and head in for the night. I was getting out of work at 6:30 and didn't really feel like getting involved in making a whole meal.
Well, I thought of my little dedication here and decided it'd be stronger just to head out and see what I could come up with at River Valley Market. Being pretty hungry when I got there I grabbed some tempeh and salad (You know the kind I'm talking about? Pret-ty good, I tell ya.) by the Quarry Cafe and headed out to achieve my short shopping list making some rice and bean deliciousness burrito style. So, heres to resolutions as I'm healthier and the cooperative economy has one more well fed customer to its credit.

I wanted to put a couple thoughts down about why I'm so curious about cooperatives and why I want to participate more in them. So much of my reasons come from my experiences at work.

I've been at CC since 2004 and have learned much about myself, my coworkers, and what it means to work toward a common goal with others.
One of the beautiful things about working in a cooperative is that it means different things to different people. At my job my co-workers and I get to experience many unique benefits: the dynamics and challenges of a cooperative business, shared control over conditions and compensation, ability to challenge ourselves and gain expertise in new areas, apply our values to our business and just that feeling of trying to create a safe, supportive, productive place to work.
I feel there are two important facets that we have at work that make this such a different and rich experience. First is the one member, one vote, consensus decision making. A requirement of worker cooperatives and collectives is that only workers are members and all members own an equal share of the business. This insures that those affected by decisions that are made are the very same people who make them.
The second thing that I really value is that workers decide what to do with the surplus of our business- that is, what's left over and typically called profit in a traditional capitalist firm. I feel that it is in control of the surplus where I feel I really have a say and really share the experience of working as I can apply my full self, my values and my love for my coworkers to the decisions on the table. I don't have to fear retaliation of a boss or try to make some decision happen behind the scenes. As in many worker cooperatives we use this as an opportunity to contribute to our communities and at my job we donate 10% of our gross surplus to the community in copies and financial support.
It strikes me that for how well Collective Copies works for the workers and our customers there aren't more worker run businesses. At my job we spend more money on paper (we only stock recycled paper), have decent pay and health benefits for workers, use what is considered a slow, difficult decision making process with no business or accounting degrees awarded to any of us and we are succeeding at our mission. It just makes me wonder if a little copy shop, by introducing equality based and transparent practices in our business, can make such a difference, what else can we do by cooperating? Where else is it really important to cooperate? How can I inform others about worker cooperatives?