structure talk at next meeting? and some thoughts

[benjamin yager]

hey y'alls-

i was wondering if we could throw on the agenda for next meeting a chance to talk about structure again, but this time as more of a brainstorm.  i know that y'alls have done it before, but it seems like the thoughts on it that were presented at the last meeting are heading towards a different place?  i'd be happy to facilitate something like this, and it would probably only take 45 minutes to get a rough in structure to start refining.  

i think a good first start for me would be sharing my thoughts and dreams about all this yummy stuff.  and i would love to hear more from y'alls about your thoughts and dreams and such.  but that's up to you.  anyway, here we go!

my desire for a co-op is rooted in several visions and dreams of the world.  first, it's important to me to eat healthy food and support local economies.  i do my best, but a co-op would make it a lot easier.  second, i am a HUGE fan of cooperative economics and community economics, and believe that a successful co-op can be a great starting platform for other people excited about cooperative economics to get together and start rad projects together.  third (and super-duper important to me), food justice and land justice is important to me, and i would like to see this co-op actively work with communities and individuals who never had or have been robbed of their access to land and food in changing that.  fourth, and lastly, it is a challenge to keep the spaces like red emmas, 2640, etc., open even in the best of times, and adding more seems like it may spread the radical community too thin, but i also believe that building spaces like co-ops (which are hopefully self-sufficient) help expand our community's reach and therefore make it easier to keep those spaces open.

my vision for a co-op isn't too crazy.  i'm most interested in a storefront that sells locally sourced and/or organic food (i'm more invested in local over organic) that equally supports local farmers while providing food cheaper than most super markets.  a huge stretch, but totally do able once we get large enough.  i'd love to have a community farm as part of the deal, where a several acre plot grows a ton of food for the co-op.  cooked food is nice, but it isn't something i would personally care one way or the other and is a challenge (but do able challenge that i think we can do) (one major benefit of being able to cook food though would be being able to cater events we like, either free, at cost, or for a profit- that would be hella hella hella awesome).  having a group of people who can go out and do workshops and trainings with the community on cooperative economics, worker-owned businesses, etc would be awesome, as well as help those projects get off the ground and more.  it sounds kinda silly, but something that is really important to me is having a small social area attached to the co-op somehow.  it could just be a couple tables and chairs out front and encourage people to hang out and relax and meet other co-op members, or a back patio or something inside if we had enough space.  but the chance for people to meet each other and hang out, both co-op members and people in the neighborhood who don't want to participate, is really really important to me.  so maybe it is a little crazy, but ya know, totally doable.

some thoughts on structure!  i would be happiest (but totally up for whatever on this) with a co-op that is a members only co-op, with members buying shares in the beginning and then getting discount prices.  non-members could get precooked food, but i want this for the following reasons-

• member only co-ops have a stronger base.  stronger base means longevity of the store, stronger community, more support for internal projects, and members who are committed to supporting a co-op.
• there will be a lot of people who would shop at a co-op without ever joining if they don't have to.  and i think that a good stance on co-op membership for a co-op to have is- co-op membership goooooood.
• it makes it easier to make decisions about what the co-op should be up to.
• i like that mariposa members have keys to get in whenever.  i'm sure there have been some problems, but i think it is worth it.

and i think that having a part of membership be required volunteer time (3 hours every month) would be awesome.  if we have 300 members, and are open 10 hours a day, then we would theoretically have 3 people in the store at all times volunteering.  since most people do their shopping in the afternoon evening, we would schedule more people during that time, but yar yar.  then the only costs we would have to cover would be a couple core members (like, 6 or something like that) and one staff would be there at all times too.  but then it would also be easier since everyone would know their way around the store like the back of their hands.  if there were a community farm place, then it would also be a volunteer place.  but yada yada yada.  it'd work.  if we can get an initial starting group of 200, it could work.  and i totally think we can get those people together in six months.  i already can think of 40 who would be down.

hours!  10-8 everyday.  and if members have a key, then they can go whenever.

farm- it would be totally rad to find an empty block somewhere that we would throw down a huge garden on.  i'm super not into doing it in a community under the assumption that we have some right to the land, or under some sort of savior idea of let's go in and make a community garden for this community here type a deal, but i 100% believe there are ways to do it without being fucked up.  like ask around for permission to throw up a huge garden that anyone can eat out of, but we'll come through and harvest a couple times a week.  but we'll do most of the gardening, and at the end of the summer throw a party for everyone in the neighborhood to say thanks.  i wouldn't want plots (i hate community gardens with plots- yards that aren't attached to your house don't seem like "community" to me) and i wouldn't want to try and keep people out (quite contrary, i would rather encourage it).  even if this means that we lose a bunch of the produce.

lastly, i think that we can do whatever the fuck we want.  cuz we rock.  we have the skills, time, dedication, and desire to make this happen.  true, we may not actually have all the skills now, but we can FIND those skills and learn them, which is a skill in and of itself.  so cool coolcool.  

let's do this.  

if other people are down to share, i would love to hear everyone's thoughts.  and i know that y'alls have had discussion on this so i'm mostly trying to just catch up with y'alls.  but there it is.  a big giant email of dreams.  

xoxo

benny

ps- i would love it if the food we cooked wasn't the standard co-op cookery.  i mean, pasta and the like is nice, and stir-fry is great, but what i would really want is more like: bbq tofu (or seitan) sandwiches (with grilled tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and melted prolovone cheese), vegan mac and cheese, calzones/strombolis, french fries.  yeahhhhh.  i mean, we could have things like normal sandwiches too i guessss, but damn.  that shit would be soooo good.

pps- imma go make a bbq tofu sandwich...