Bob Proehl, Buffalo Street Books
Hannah Dobbz, The Big Idea Bookstore

Bob Proehl is the Director of Operations for Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca and is on the board of directors for the Buffalo Street Cooperative. In April of last year, he spearheaded the effort to convert Buffalo Street Books into a community-owned cooperative, organizing over 600 community members in a community buy out.

Hannah Dobbz has worked with the Big Idea Bookstore for over three years and has been a major player in the business' restructuring and transition into a formal cooperative. She also works with the International Year of Cooperatives Pittsburgh Organizing Committee (IYCPOC) to advocate, educate, and celebrate cooperatives in Western PA during the IYC. Hannah is the author of the forthcoming book Nine-Tenths of the Law: Property and Resistance in the United States on AK Press in Fall 2012, which in part examines cooperatives as an equitable ownership alternative.