About Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative

A Short Video Featuring a Few GoLocal Members

Who We Are

The Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative is a network of locally-owned businesses, residents, non-profit organizations, and government agencies working together to build a resilient, thriving, local economy by supporting local, independently owned businesses and encouraging sustainable practices.  

Sonoma County GoLocal is an affiliate network of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), promoters of the concept of "Triple Bottom Line" - people, planet and profit, and The American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA), working to advance the social, cultural and economic well being of communities.

Our Mission and Values

Management By Responsibility as Our Organizational Culture

One of GoLocal's core objectives is to create a organizational culture based upon cooperation and responsibility.  To that end we have formed a management team consisting of four team members and a board of nine members.  We work closely to create economic development programs that exemplify innovation in bringing value to our community.

Management by Responsibility (MBR) was developed by Michael Durst in the early 1980's based on the idea that responsibility begins with an individual and percolates within an organization as each person matures through an ever expanding understanding and practice of personal responsibility.  This expansion and unification of responsibility among the members catapults the organization to greater adoption of organizational responsibility to other stakeholders.  This is a 21st century imperative to take responsibility personally, economically, socially and politically.

A corollary to MBR is our cooperative structure and how our management team makes and enacts decisions.  The industrial revolution brought about various hierarchal management structures.  Those systems focused authority on a single authority figure; the later stage of this being what we've seen in most recent years as the leader as "superhero".  Hierarchal systems and structures aren't necessary when a number of responsible people gather and organize.  GoLocal is structured as a heterarchy organization, i.e. multiple-rule.  We feel this is in keeping with the fact that we are a cooperative.  As a team and board we are committed to not only create innovative programs, but to exemplify innovation in our management and governance practice as well.

Please feel free to inquire about these practices.

Our Team

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