place: 12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
who: 16 people representing 9 housing co-ops, 2 worker co-ops
Theme: housing justice
notes
intros + announcements:
ivy, whirlybird
rich, The Burrow – upcoming show @ the burrow
ernest, The Burrow
ben, Quilted (worker co-op)
shiela, Circle Amory
samantha, no co-op (interested in finding a co-op to live at!)
william, no co-op (interested in finding a co-op to live at!)
kyla, Food Trade Center
steph, Steph’s House – report back from Peter @ red sun press
micha, 3-person commune, past-Bigtop past-Millstone, CFNE, US Fed Worker Co-ops – this is international year of the co-op! and brought co-opoly board game to loan out
deanne, worker co-op conference
gabriel, spirit of ‘76
oren, Millstone
matt, Lucy Stone co-op, past-Beaufort
susan, no co-op (interested in finding a co-op to live at!)
agenda
- Announcements/Intros
- Guest presenter: Micha Josephy
- Guest presenter: Gabriel – housing fund proposal
- Guest presenter: Matt – Vida Urbana/City Life
US federation of worker co-ops conference
ben mauer: US Federation of Worker Co-ops conference happening at northeastern university in boston June 22 – 24, 2012. Invite everyone, even those not in worker co-ops to come and support at the conference. ben is presenting on starting grassroots co-op formation, in conjunction with boston worker alliance, especially for starting a worker co-op. there will also be sessions on finance, governance and decision-making, and ad-hoc breakout sessions (“bird-of-a-feather”). if you’re looking to source things your house uses from other cooperatives, that’s another thing you can accomplish.
ben mauer: there are also tours. all national conferences have tours as a tradition in the city of the conference. for example, last time in baltimore, there was a co-op cafe and other places, a brew-house and pub. equal excange as well as others are working on the tour, so you should get in touch if you want your house to be a part of the tour, or if you want to lead a tour through a neighborhood. there will be biking and walking tours.
micha: there will both guided and self-guided tours. also an overview of worker co-op, co-ops are businesses that are owned and controlled democratically by it’s workers. there are about 8 worker co-ops in the greater boston area, and hopefully this conference will spur the creation of more. See all of them at: http://worcn.org/directory/
q*: what’s the difference between consumer & producer worker co-ops?
micha: some worker co-ops, especially larger producer-run co-ops, have representatives to allow democratic operation. there are also consumer co-ops.
q: what can co-ops do to pitch in and support the conference?
there are five things that we encourage:
- leading or participating in tours
- lodging – putting up conference visitors in your house for free (food not an issue)
p*: kyla will coordinate w/ micha re: housing email survey - volunteering for reduced price (please commit), especially during stonybrook (jamaica plain) picnic and co-op faire with music/party. we’ll need help setting up tables, etc.
- brewing beer – contributing kegs to the party with spoof logo
- promotion – fair trade, environmental work, democracy– there’s lots of overlap with housing co-ops and there can be some great promotional events thru housing co-ops
micha: has anyone seen the film “at home in utopia”? great film about historic radical housing co-ops. there may be movie nights, or also bowling nights, etc. lots of opportunities for events.
p: steph can help organize co-op-related movie nights at the lucy parsons center, or at 549 http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/athomeinutopia/http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/athomeinutopia/columbus ave (former lucy parson’s center).
p: ivy will coordinate w/ ben mauer to promote posters when they are ready.
ben mauer: there’s an exciting new funding opportunities due to legislation for urban co-ops, and other co-op sectors.
micha: for example, if you’re interested in buying a house. please vote for this bill on popvox.com [link to legislation below]
collective housing fund for starting new co-ops
micha: intro CFNE, coop fund of new england
gabriel: we want to get more startup housing co-ops off the ground by organizing a collective housing fund. we want to reach out to existing housing co-ops to donate on a regular monthly basis (a small amount), the idea is it would eventually make more money and could be a target for donation. we ask how to organize and manage this fund, and where money can come from. CFNE may be able to be the organization that manages this fund. one limitation of CFNE is that $5 donations on a monthly basis won’t cut it, so we need an intermediate organzation to collect and facilitate small-scale grassroots donations. who could that organization be? BCC? a new account for boston collective house assembly? branches?
one aspect of this is the intermediate organization, and another is getting money to new co-ops through perhaps the same intermediate entity. or maybe bcc, the assembly (through appeals?).
in summary, this is still a brainstorm, and we need to develop a model to make this work.
q: what are your thoughts? what would co-op houses want to see out of this type of thing? how would we collect?
kyla: would want to see marginalized groups having access to this from the beginning. city life could be helpful for this. would want to have this be written in to the mission.
ben mauer: if there is a fiscal sponsor involved, network for good and other excellent grassroots fundraising tools. they all take a cut if you handle credit card processing.
matt: if every member donated $5/month, that would be enough money to start lots of co-ops and even buy houses we’re currently living in, or move and purchase other houses. one way of looking at living in a co-op is that it saves me so much money on bills and other costs that giving back part of that to allow more to save that kind of money, that would feel great.
ivy: another aspect of this would be services related to paperwork and bureaucracy and other barriers in housing, both renting and buying.
matt: NASCO offers that service, they ‘hold your hand at the bank’
p: anybody who knows other co-op houses, please encourage them to attend and represent their house!
ben mauer: there’s also lucy stone and methunion manor, but asking for donations from limited-equity co-ops like that.
micha: there’s a house with a very different model (i.e. Methunion Manor Coop). this might be a useful area to look into, larger apartment complexes, housing parks, etc. Affordable housing orgs in general.
matt: bcc and lucy stone both got low-interest loans to start as well.
ivy: my housemate nate recently bought a house to start a co-op and he’s presenting a session on buying a house for a co-op. more info on meetup.com [link below]
p: gabriel will work to facilitate a brainstorm to craft a vision statement
supporting vida urbana / city life
matt: what other kinds of housing justice work can housing co-ops support? city life helps people going through foreclosures. they helped pass legislation preventing negligent landlord issues from evicting tenants. also, neighborhood outreach and meeting people through this type of foreclosure protection could be great. we’ve gone to a few meetings.
samantha: i went there once and there was food, childcare, probono lawyers, it was far but good.
kyla: there were lots of people, it was packed. there’s an education portion which was great, with people sharing stories and testifying that success is possible. they blockade houses so they can’t be evicted.
steph: my particular interest is getting more activists involved to combat gentrification through this.
matt: they have a “shield and sword” strategy. some people come to the meeting with lawyers to fight the eviction, that’s the “shield.” and then public pressure for legislation is the “sword.”
p: i really encourage everyone to go and find out more. [link to weekly tuesday event below]
ivy: i really think this is an invaluable way to go beyond just getting buy cheaply and cultivating a culture of resistance.
samatha: i also feel that helping those in need is invaluable.
gabriel: i find that the human experience has a need for human connection, in ways traditional families don’t.
kyla: you can redistribute wealth through sliding scale like our house does, i love how directly you can support eachother.
rich: you also have more capacity to be communal in general, meetings, book clubs, just having space to share, and it would be so great to expand that type of space.
susan: urban renewal and saving neighborhoods is another great affect.
matt: the whole part of vida urbana is that people go into these meetings and join a movement, they say “when we fight, we win” and they do win. co-opers can volunteer with city life to approach people who have been foreclosed, they also make phone calls for the weekly meetings and they also can always use childcare.
micha: at seedpod we canvassed with city life in our neighborhood.
matt: i just started an inter-co-op housing justice email mailing list the other day
p: we should share housing openings with vida urbana to share with people in precarious housing situations.
gabriel: another thought is to convert foreclosed houses into co-ops.
matt: if we have an ongoing partnership between housing co-ops and vida urbana it would lead to big things. there’s definitely lots of ways the relationship is mutually beneficial.
assembly website updates
kyla: two new things on assembly.bostoncoops.org, an “issues” page and a “resources wiki”
q: what can we add to the wiki?
ben mauer: co-op development institue
matt: university of wisconsin center for cooperatives
ivy: i want book lists
rich: i want a list of CSAs
samantha: how to join a co-op
bem mauer: cdi
micha: ncba and ica
web-accessible action items:
vote online here to support co-op legislation: https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr3677
1-time event: homebuying for co-ops: http://meetup.bostoncoops.org/events/43513662/
recurring event: vida urba / city life open meetings: http://clvu.org/events
reference links
- http://worcn.org/directory/
- http://quilted.coop/
- http://brandingsource.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-logo-international-year-of.html
- http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/athomeinutopia/
- http://cooperativefund.org/
- http://www1.networkforgood.org/
- https://www.dwolla.com/
- http://nasco.coop/
- http://www.maloneyproperties.com/properties/methunion_manor.htm
- http://www.cdi.coop/
- http://aortacollective.org/
- http://www.ncba.coop/
- http://www.ica.coop/al-ica/
next assembly
theme: reaching out and reporting back
date: saturday, march 10 at 12:00 PM @ Encuentro 5 (55 Harrison Ave, MA 02111)
facilitator: gabriel
key
q: (question asked to group)
p: (proposal passed by group)
see you next assembly! -oren (note-taker)
The Boston Collective House Assembly is network of co-opers meeting regularly to hash out ideas and work on projects to support collective living in the Boston area.
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