Union Coops participant and fabulous person Rebecca Lurie and the Murphy Institute at CUNY have organized a conference about the transition to a new economy. The conference is free, it’s at the Murphy Institute near Grand Central. Details below, hope to see you all there.

Friday, April 12, 2019 — 9am-6pm @ CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies

Can the economy be democratized? How can we transform it into a more socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable system? How can we combat the growing concentrations of power and wealth? What current practices point toward a participatory democracy and resilient next system?

Our current political economy is unjust, anti-democratic, and ecologically unsustainable. This reality has led to a host of efforts to transform our political economy. This conference will bring together leading academics, researchers, advocates, and practitioners for a day of discussion on how we can achieve systemic transformation and make a political economy that is equitable, democratic, and sustainable.

General registration for the OUR ECONOMY! Conference on April 12th can be found here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/our-economy-economic-democracy-system-change-tickets-55582563945

News from our friends at – http://pocacoop.com

Organization: POCA

There’s a special deal for co-op members in the month of May at Somerville’s Community Acupuncture clinic, Open Space Community Acupuncture (http://openspaceacupuncture.com/)! The offer is $15 treatments all month to members of any cooperative. The $10 initial intake fee is also being waived. We are a clinic member of the People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture, a multi-stakeholder cooperative of acupuncturists, acupuncture patients, and community acupuncture clinics.

Join us at Canopy.city on Wednesday 12/6 from 6:00pm – 9:00pm EST for an evening with cooperative members from the Boston area as we welcome a fellow cooperator from San Francisco, Ana Martina the Membership Director of the USFWC (United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives) – http://usworker.coop.

Before joining the USFWC, Ana Martina had been working in both the US and Mexico to support the growth of community media. Ana will give us an update on the initiatives the USFWC has been working on in 2017 and what is coming up in 2018 that you can get involved in.

Ben will give us an update on Drutopia (http://drutopia.org) – a Drupal-based Libre Software as a Service platform where members are included in how the platform evolves and grows.

Micky will give an update on other projects that are being built now as part of the Platform-Cooperativism (http://platform.coop) movement.

2017 has been a very good year for raising awareness about cooperatives and new economy business models that are working for many communities.

The objective is to build communities that are self-sustainable… what does that really mean?

1. It means that the businesses in your community would actually contribute to the wealth and health of the community members.

2. This means that extractive businesses must be recognized and excised from the community. How do we do this? It is a concerted effort to identify extractive businesses, like perhaps a Walmart or Target stores.

3. We must organize effectively to rid our towns of these companies that just take assets from our communities and give nothing back except a few low wage, low level jobs.

Here is a great example of a community in Jackson, Mississippi that is doing the right things effectively – this book is available now and a fantastic read – it is full of strategies that can be applied to any city or town – (Cooperation Jackson)

Please note – to get involved in shaping the future of your community, you do not have to be a programmer or a developer, you can just be someone that has a good idea and the willingness to share it for discussion. You can be an artist, a musician, a writer, an activist, a community organizer or you may just have an interest or some experience in sales and marketing – there is a role for you and your skills in building a caring and inclusive community!

We will share information on some successful projects that are in progress that pave the way for communities to take back control of their assets.

WE RUN THE SHOW > COMMUNITIES ARE PEOPLE.

Snacks and food will be provided by Agaric!

Where: http://www.canopy.city/union-square/
Canopy City Co-working
14 Tyler St.
Somerville, MA

The State of Worker-Owned Cooperatives 2017 and 2018

Wednesday, Dec 6, 2017, 6:00 PM

No location yet.

8 Cooperators Attending

Join us Wednesday night for an evening with cooperative members from the Boston area as we welcome a fellow cooperator from San Francisco, Ana Martina the Membership Director of the USFWC (United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives) -Before joining the USFWC, Ana Martina had been working in both the US and Mexico to support the growth of comm…

Check out this Meetup →

October is Co-op Month and there’s an amazing list of ways to educate and organize coming up.
In particular, our first annual meeting is coming up on Oct 24!
Check it out!

Oct 3: Co-op Investment Club Visitor’s Night
The Boston Cooperative Investment Club is hosting a visitor’s night. Wanna learn how people are taking their money out of big banks and supporting a more cooperative economy? More information here.
7-9pm @ Doyle’s Cafe in Jamaica Plain.

Oct 17th: Tenant’s Right to Purchase
The Mass Assc of Housing Co-ops introduced a bill to the state legislature that would support a tenant’s right of first refusal to purchase their building when if goes up for sale. There’s a hearing to discuss it on Oct 17th and a huge turnout would be a powerful sign of interest in this kind of co-op legislation.
10:00 AM in room B-21 of the State House

Oct 19: Mass Assc of Housing Cooperatives Annual Meeting
MAHC is organizing housing cooperatives all across our state. They’ve been mobilizing resident-owners for important legislative work. Learn more and get connected here.

Oct 24: Annual Meeting of the Chamber of Co-ops
Our first annual meeting! This is a big milestone for the co-op movement in Boston. Join us for an evening of celebrating the work we’ve done so far, electing our new leadership, and visioning where we go from here.
6-9pm. Location: TBD.

Oct 25: Harvest Co-op Annual Meeting
Harvest is in a time of major transition and this will be a particularly important election of five new board members. If you’re a Harvest member, you’re enthusiastically invited to this year’s annual meeting.

Membership Campaign!

The Chamber is in the midst of our membership campaign leading up to our first annual meeting.

To learn more and sign up to be a founding member of the Chamber, check out the official membership forms here:

Membership Form for Co-ops and Affiliate organizations

Membership for Individuals
The Greater Boston Chamber of Cooperatives centers racial and economic justice in its work of strengthening and expanding the Greater Boston cooperative economy through education, advocacy, and collaboration among its member organizations.
Through shared resources and cross-sector collective action, we are working to build a more just, democratic, and sustainable economy.

Join the Greater Boston Chamber of Co-ops for a day of training to grow skills and capacity for our co-op movement!

When?
Saturday, Sept 23rd.
9:30am-4pm.

Where?
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston St. in the Back Bay.

Schedule
9:30am Coffee and Donuts
10am-1pm Facilitation For The Win:
Advanced Skills for Guiding Co-op Groups
1-2pm Lunch on your own
2-4pm Healthy Cooperative Communications

RSVP here http://bit.ly/2fescO1
& get more info and share the event on facebook.
Who?
The Greater Boston Chamber of Cooperatives is partnering with the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives to host a day of intensive trainings on how to help our Boston area cooperatives run better, through an anti-racist and anti-oppressive lense. Our trainer, the amazing Esteban Kelly, is the co-Executive Director for the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, is a cofounder of the AORTA anti-oppression training collective, a founder of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), has been a staff member for NASCO, and was inducted into NASCO’s Hall of Fame.

Training Costs
For members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Cooperatives:
$30 per workshop, or $50 for both.
For non-members, $40 per workshop or $70 for both.
Limited need-based scholarships will be available.

Membership
Cooperative organizations and individuals will have the chance to sign up as members of the Chamber at the training.
While these workshops are geared towards members and staff of worker and housing cooperatives, this event is open to the public. Anyone involved in social justice groups more generally and particularly those working in the Solidarity Economy/New Economy movement would benefit from this training.

How do I sign up?
Here again is link to RSVP – http://bit.ly/2fescO1
& to invite folks and share the event on facebook.

Drutopia – Drupal as a Service for an ecosystem of free software distributions.

We are on a mission to build a Drupal as a Service full featured distribution of Drupal for organizing and campaigns. There is NationBuilder and other proprietary tools that are available, but why not a Drupal solution? How would a cooperative hosting solution work? Come and discuss the possibilities and opportunities.

Come learn about the Drutopia distribution and how grassroots groups will be able to easily create a Drupal 8 site with pre-configured selectable features and the SAAS hosting option. Drutopia.org

So for those outside the Drupal/FreeSoftware community, I’ve been skipping over Drutopia and just talking about Solidarity. I find that people just get confused with the relationship between Drutopia and Solidarity and it’s really Solidarity that is going to be most interesting and relevant to them.

So with that in mind, here’s a first draft of text for the one page informational sheet.

Our movements are growing and more easily coordinating with one another to live out these values of solidarity, but all too often we’re dependent on platforms and tools that don’t have our best interests in mind.

Solidarity is a member-based, Libre Software as a Service tool for grassroots organizations to effectively network and organize online.

The platform is built around four main features: groups, campaigns, actions and news.

A hosted option is available for $50/month which provides membership to Solidarity, covers security updates for the site and priority in determining the roadmap for future development.

Learn more at drutopia.org/solidarity

We will gather at the Tang center at MIT in room E51:
E51-145 : http://whereis.mit.edu/?go=E51
Date: Tue 08/22/17
Time: 6:30p – 9:00p

We will have dinner after the meetup at Clover in Kendall Square.

Unless you have already spoken to an Agaric and confirmed… Please RSVP here:

Drutopia – Drupal as a Service for an ecosystem of free software distributions

Tuesday, Aug 22, 2017, 6:30 PM

MIT Campus – E51-145 : http://whereis.mit.edu/?go=E51
MIT Cambridge, MA

1 Tech Lovers Attending

August is here, let’s celebrate Drupal! Why? – do we need a reason? While there is a regular monthly meetup there is also a mission to build a Drupal as a Service full featured distribution of Drupal for organizing and campaigns. There is NationBuilder and other proprietary tools that are available, but why not a Drupal solution?Come learn about t…

Check out this Meetup →

There is a mission to build a Drupal as a Service full featured distribution of Drupal for organizing and campaigns. There is NationBuilder and other proprietary tools that are available, but why not a Drupal solution?

RESOLVED:
Come learn about the Drutopia distribution and how grassroots groups will be able to easily create a Drupal 8 site with pre-configured selectable features and the SAAS hosting option. Drutopia.org

We will gather at MIT:
E51-145 : http://whereis.mit.edu/?go=E51
Date: Tue 07/18/17
Time: 6:30p – 9:00p

Food will be provided by Agaric and there will be a surprise 15 minute movie followed by a short discussion at 8:15pm