February Assembly Notes are up!

This month we discussed partnerships with worker co-ops and housing justice organizers and continued to develop our idea for a Co-op Startup Fund. We also began compiling links and info for the Co-op Resources Wiki (ok, it’s still a static page for now, but the wiki is on the way!). Thanks to Oren for these great notes!

Next Assembly : 10 March
12 Feb, noon-2pm, at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison St.
Theme: Reaching Out, Reporting Back
It’s the Boston Collective House Assembly’s 6 month anniversary! We’re going to take this meeting to catch up on all the projects we’ve been working on, reportback on what’s been done, reflect on how we’ve been effective and what’s lacking, and make plans to better engage our neighborhoods and multiple communities in these co-op living adventures.

Yardsharing for Collective Gardens

At our last Collective House Assembly, folks wondered how we could cooperatively share yards big enough to cultivate with all the landless co-opers who would like to garden and eat homegrown produce. In an effort not to reinvent the wheel, two Collective House Assembly members met up this week with the founders of My City Gardens, a Boston-area yardsharing website that is about to launch this spring. We were really impressed!

The goals of My City Gardens are simple: match prospective gardeners with landholders in their neighborhoods. To do this, they’ll be launching an interactive map of yard space and gardener profiles in the next few weeks, allowing prospective yardsharers to talk it out and match themselves up (don’t worry– they won’t release any addresses publicly). In the meantime, they’ve already begun connecting folks who sign up on their website with gardens or gardeners in their area.

This project elegantly fills a need co-opers have already expressed at our Assembly meetings, and does so without limiting the benefits of cooperatively sharing garden space to those who already cooperatively share living space. Co-op houses that welcome a new gardener or two onto their land can act as ambassadors to their other collective projects and better integrate their co-op into their neighborhood. Meanwhile, big collective houses full of hungry housemates can work as gardener teams on large gardening projects, helping to maintain the momentum that has a tendency to dwindle as dog days and busy summer nights set in.

So co-ops, we encourage you to check out the site and consider signing up!

Looking for space to grow a garden?
Have extra space in your backyard?

My City Gardens is a free Boston-based yard sharing service launching in 2012. Visit our site:
• Sign up for updates
• Check out listings in your neighborhood
• Prepare for next spring! Post your available space or your gardening space needs.

Questions? Suggestions?
Interested in volunteer opportunities?
www.mycitygardens.com
info@mycitygardens.com
617.383.9523

ps don’t forget!
Next Assembly : 11 February
11 Feb, noon-2pm, at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison St.
Theme: Housing Justice with CityLife
Come meet with representatives from CityLife and the Cooperative Fund of New England to deepen our discussion of practical ways co-op houses can support housing justice in Boston. Bring your own projects and ideas!

January Assembly – Notes

Our biggest Assembly meeting yet! Members of Boston’s collective houses turned out in droves to discuss our local food system, from CSAs to Fair Trade.

Check out the Notes!

Next Assembly : 11 February
11 Feb, noon-2pm, at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison St.
Theme: Housing Justice with CityLife
Come meet with representatives from CityLife and the Cooperative Fund of New England to deepen our discussion of practical ways co-op couses can support housing justice in Boston. Bring your own projects and ideas!

January Assembly: Sat the 14th, 12-2pm @ E5

Our next meeting is approaching and we would love for you to join us. All are welcome!

This month’s theme: Food Sovereignty
Join us and members of Red Sun Press, Equal Exchange, and Boston Food Not Bombs for a discussion of urban agriculture, food distribution, bioregional farms, international solidarity and ways in which we as a community can make an impact and achieve autonomy through our food

Time: Saturday, January 14th, from 12:00 noon – 2:00 pm
Place: Encuentro 5, 5th Floor, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston MA 02111
Who: At least one representative from your house (other interested folks welcome too)
What: Potluck, planning, and working group discussion
RSVP on Meetup.BostonCoops.Org!

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions. See you there!

“The cooperative is the physical entity of cooperation”

Human cooperation is the fundamental building block to solving all our problems.

Yesterday, some Collective House Assembly members met with Peter from Red Sun Press, a cooperatively owned and managed printing press in Jamaica Plain.

Red Sun Press is launching a campaign to promote coops for the 2012 Year of the Coop. We met yesterday to ask how housing co-ops and worker-owned cooperative businesses can work together to shift the capitalist economy to a more cooperative model.

Come to the next Collective House Assembly to hear a reportback and build on these ideas.

In the way that “Occupy” has come to define protest in 2011, so “Cooperation” can be the banner under which we define solutions in 2012. Cooperation is to embrace each others struggles and know that each is part of the whole.
–> read more at the Red Sun Press blog

December Assembly – Notes

Big co-op things are in the air for the upcoming year, which the UN has declared the Year of the Co-op!  Even my mom is excited– she handed me an an article from a recent NY Times about worker-owned businesses the moment I arrived on a recent visit home [link].  With the US Fed. of Worker Coops bringing their annual conference to Boston in June, we who live collectively have a unique opportunity to unite with worker-owners and the energy from the Occupy movement to leap forward towards a coooperative economy.  Our January’s Assembly theme is Food Sovereignty– beginning with the food system, we can seriously tackle the basic infrastructure of our economic system this year.  Please come out to Assembly meetings and help plan the transformation!

Anyway, on with the notes.

Next Assembly : 14 January
14 Jan, noon-2pm, at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison St.
Theme: Food Sovereignty
From gardeners trading labor for land at collective houses in town to expanding coop house purchases from nearby farms, from international solidarity with Global South farmers to examining food deserts in Boston, January’s assembly will be a winter planning moment to network local food needs and cultivation resources with the energy and power of our collective houses.  Bring your own projects and ideas!

December Assembly!

Time: Saturday, December 10h, from 12:00 noon – 4:00 pm
Place: Encuentro 5, 5th Floor, 33 Harrison Ave, Boston MA 02111
Who: At least one representative from your house (other interested folks welcome too)
What: Potluck, planning, and working group breakout
RSVP

This month’s theme: International Year of the Coop
Weekly workshops, monthly assemblies, seasonal gatherings, and actually actualizing dream projects like a new co-op startup fund… we’re gonna make 2012 Boston’s Year of the Co-op, too.

The Co-op Sho-up

Hey all you co-opers!

The Boston Collective House Assembly is throwing a potluck extravaganza! We want you to come join the fun and kick off the International Year Of the Co-op! This will be Saturday, December 3rd, at 6pm, on Brainerd Road in Allston, so mark it on your calendars! 2012 will be a big year for Boston co-ops and we’re getting started early by taking some time to get the community together and have some fun! We hope to see lots of friends and lots of new faces!

PLAN for next year!
EAT veggie-friendly barbecue!
SCHMOOZE with fellow, former & future co-opers!
WARM UP by the fire or inside two honest-to-goodness collective houses!
COME to the Boston Collective Houses potluck party extravaganza!
Bring a dish or a beverage or both (sign up at http://is.gd/coopparty)! Please label what you bring along with any ingredients that may be allergens. Alcohol is welcome, but please drink in moderation. Childcare and a bag-check room will be available. This is a family-friendly event as well as a safer space.

The party is being graciously hosted by the good people of the Brainerd Autonomous Zone, two co-ops in Allston. Remember: Saturday, December 3rd, 6pm, on Brainerd Road in Allston.

Oh, and don’t forget that in January, the Boston Co-ops Workshop series begins! For more information, check out http://is.gd/coopmeetup. If you’d like to help out with the workshop materials fund, there will be a jar at the party for donations.

‘Tis the season for potlucking!

November Assembly notes

And they’re online: the meeting minutes from the November Assembly!

This was a fast and efficient gathering where we banged out a lot of logistics, laying the groundwork for some big projects next year including a new co-op start-up fund and the weekly workshop series.

Next Assembly : 10 December
10 Dec, noon-4pm, at Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison St.
(space to be confirmed, check the blog or wait for an announcement here!)

Theme: 2012 Year of the Co-op!
The United Nations declared next year the International Year of the Co-op. We want to take the organizing we’ve been doing this summer and fall in Boston and kick off a year of collective housing projects, workshops, and expansion. December’s assembly will be a workparty to ready ourselves for January launch. Bring your own projects and ideas!

November Assembly this Saturday!

Saturday, 12 November, 12pm – 4pm
Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave (floor 5)
Potluck lunch and snacks!
Read the agenda and respond to the FB event
We invite every collective house in Boston to try to send 1-2 representatives (more are always welcome).

This month’s theme: Housing Rights
From co-ops dealing with landlords to getting rid of landlords through home ownership, and supporting tenants/housing rights in our communities, bring your project ideas and let’s get to work!