February 2016 Newsletter

NASCO Board Election Results

We are excited to welcome eight new directors to the NASCO Board. Four of them will be serving full three-year terms, while two will be serving two-year terms and two will be serving one-year terms. These shorter terms are filling the remainders of terms that were vacated by board member resignations. The new board members are:

• Henrik Tucker - term ending in 2019
  Member of College Houses
  Austin, TX
• Ellie Benedict - term ending in 2019
  Member of Inter Cooperative Council Ann Arbor
  Ann Arbor, MI
• Kiyomi de Zoysa - term ending in 2019
  Member of Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative
  ​Isla Vista, CA
• Jenn Scott - term ending in 2019
  Nominated by The Hive, former member of River City Housing Collective
  Newburgh, IN
• Izzy Brace - term ending in 2018
  Nominated by 3B, member of Greensboro Mural Project
  Greensboro, NC
• Syd Burke - term ending in 2018
  Member of MSU Student Housing Cooperative
  ​Lansing, MI
• Lana Wong - term ending in 2017
  Nominated by Whitehall Cooperative, former member of Waterloo Cooperative Residence Inc
  Toronto, ON
• Tristan Laing - term ending in 2017
  ​Nominated by individual members, member of Campus Cooperative Residence Inc
  Toronto, ON

There were eleven highly qualified candidates for eight seats. All candidates received votes from multiple cooperatives, and most cooperatives gave votes to multiple candidates.

Formation of U.S. Congressional Cooperative Committee

Last month, the U.S. National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA CLUSA) announced the formal launch of the newly-formed bipartisan Congressional Cooperative Business Caucus. This is a very powerful opportunity for US cooperatives to promote the cooperative business model and educate and inform policymakers on issues that face their co-ops

Current committee members are co-chairs Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI). If your U.S. Senator or Member of Congress is not yet a member, please write your Senator or your Member of Congress and ask them to join the bipartisan Congressional Cooperative Business Caucus. You may use and copy the sample letter provided by NCBA CLUSA and personalize it as necessary, state your message in your own words, or submit a joint-letter with your fellow co-op members.

We’ll be in touch with updates, and will let you know the best ways to engage with the committee as it becomes more active. We congratulate NCBA CLUSA and VP of Advocacy Alan Knapp on this major development.

Report-Back: End of Year Fundraiser

Last month, we invited all supporters of NASCO to help create more co-ops, change the ways that cities think about affordable housing, and build the cooperative movement with our End of Year fundraising campaign.

You all went above and beyond! We received donations from fifty individuals and raised a total of $6,240. We’re touched by this support, because of the large, diverse crowd of people that chose to make NASCO a priority in their lives: from NASCO founders and co-op newbies, members of co-ops, staff of co-ops, even from parents of people who used to live in a co-op. It's powerful when so many people join together. It tells us that there is a common element to all of our co-op experiences, and that we can work together to make a meaningful difference in each others' lives.

Thank you very much for supporting our work, we’re going to continue doing great things together!

Cooperative Internship Network: Accepting Host Applications

NASCO's Cooperative Internship Network is officially accepting host applications for 2016 internship positions, due by Sunday, February 28th! Whatever the size or type of your organization, we encourage you to take part in this opportunity to expand your support team.

The NASCO Cooperative Internship Network allows cooperatives and other organizations to directly market internships to cooperative youth through NASCO's membership and networks without the hassle of a traditional intern hiring process.

Visit our website for more information, or join us for an Information Session on February 3rd or 12th. If you have any questions, contact Morgan Crawford at morgan@nasco.coop.

Resource: Your Study Guide to the Cooperative Movement

Cooperatives are all the rage! And that’s because cooperatives are, well, pretty great. They can change lives, communities, regions, and entire economies.

At the same time, while an increasing number of people are discovering cooperatives, it’s not always clear how or where to learn more about them – whether you want the fundamentals or to dig in deeper with specifics.

That’s why our friends at the Toolbox for Education and Social Action put together a study guide for the cooperative movement. This guide – while not a complete and total list – provides tools, activities, videos, readings, and more to help you brush up on your cooperative skills and knowledge. Some of these resources are free, some of them have a cost. But all of them will help you better understand what a cooperative is, how to practice cooperation, and the power of the cooperative movement.

Check it out!

CHS Foundation awards NASCO $26,000

We have been generously awarded $10,000 to support NASCO’s annual Cooperative Education & Training Institute, and a $16,000 capacity building grant to grow NASCO's resource and program development capacity to more sustainable levels. We are extremely grateful for the continued support of the CHS Foundation and are excited for the many ways that this funding will strengthen our organization and our movement.

The CHS Foundation the major giving entity of CHS Inc. (NASDAQ: CHSCP), the nation's leading farmer-owned cooperative and a global energy, grains and foods company.  As a part of the CHS stewardship focus, the CHS Foundation is committed to investing in the future of rural America, agriculture and cooperative business through education and leadership development.

Year in Review: Co-op Development

The Genesee Valley Cooperative in Geneseo, NY was one startup group that we first met in the spring of 2013, when their members still lived in campus housing and “The Co-op” felt like a distant dream. They started renting their first property in the fall of 2014. We worked with GVC throughout the year to create member labor systems, bylaws, and plan for the future. In the fall of 2015, GVC was able to expand to renting a second building.

After 25 years of successful operation, the members of the Student Cooperative Organization were ready to expand beyond The Vine, their eight bedroom housing cooperative in Athens, OH. The SCO worked closely with NASCO to plan the timeline, set target rents, and find the right property. After several months of searching and several dead ends, their new property was found. This expansion doubled the size of the SCO, and gives the members a larger presence in Athens, with more stability to build on for the next expansion.

To learn more about the work that we’ve done to support co-op development in the past year, download the latest NASCO Development Services Annual Report.

The Next System Teach-Ins

Across the country students, faculty, staff and communities are organizing Next System Teach-Ins because they're tired of the status quo and want to be part of building a new more equitable, democratic and sustainable future. It's only been a month since launching this initiative and already hundreds have signed up to take part and 12 official teach-ins are in the works with many more to come.

From New York to Seattle, Detroit to Santa Barbara, communities are gearing up to explore system change and plot the next steps their community can take to deepen ties between existing projects and movements, as well as spark new initiatives based on each campus or community's needs.

Recognizing that problems like mass incarceration, climate change, student debt and growing inequality are problems of system design, the Next System Teach-Ins will provide a forum for discussion, debate and community building around concrete, systemic solutions.

Join the conversation! Register today to host or attend a Next System Teach-In.