Black Star has an all-paid, fair-waged staff. But this labor is self-governed, which is where things get really unique. “It means that the Board basically doesn’t hire a manager,” explains Board President Mark Wochner. “In most every other situation, there’s something like a CEO or a general manager who is the lone voice for the Board.”

In this more common co-operation management style, the Board only hires one employee, who then hires everyone else and deals with the lower-level operational details. “But with us, we don’t have that. We have a Worker’s Assembly who are basically self-governed. They make all the decisions themselves, collectively, in however way they want to do it. This is why I was telling you this is an experiment,” says Mark with an excited grin.