LAEV 2007 Retreat – Day 1 Minutes
Facilitated by Tree Bressen
Session 1: Sat, Dec 1: 9:30 AM → 12:30 PM
Opening Games
Review of Ground rules
Review of Agenda
Various Questions about agenda: LAUSD? Membership?
Visioning
Review text of vision building blocks, values, from our agreements
Looked at other examples of visions
How to proceed
- Lara would like to hear input about her addition of ‘the good of all’
- seems to be agreement about using Lara and Joe’s model to move forward
- Thiago would like us to talk about addition of ‘low cost’ and to talk about diversity
- Are we talking about vision statement of vision statement? We seem to be talking about the role of ecovillage in the world, so we’ll focus on mission
- Federico brings up the discussion of LAEV referring to the IC or the two block neighborhood. Do we want to discuss this? How do we deal with this question.
- Lois brings up the distinction between the LAEV neighborhood and the LAEC-IC.
- Do we want to use those distinctions?
- Yuki points out that she thinks the questions is about nomenclature, not who we are visioning for.
- Do we want to include sustainability? How to use this concept w/o using the ‘sustainable’ buzzword?
- Dave suggests something about education and outreach
- Ann suggests something about our decision-making: Consensus, direct democracy, non-hierarchical.
- Harmful? Is this too negative word? Can we be affirming rather than negative.
Decision about Los Angeles Ecovillage wording:
-For the purposes of this mission statement, when we say the Los Angeles EcoVillage? (LAEV), we are referring to those people living in the neighborhood who have chosen to be (and been approved of as) members of the intentional community.
Discussion about for the good of all:
- do we include this?
- this is pretty radical
- implies social action
- Thiago is concerned about insularity and isolation. If we define ourselves this radically, we need to be aware that we need to make an effort reach out to those who are not that radical.
- There is consensus in the group that we want to include a statement about ‘for the good of all’
Phrase notes: ‘solidarity’
Discussion of Low Cost:
- Andrea likes the idea, but wants to use something involving minimal use of capital, minimum consumption. Phrase ‘low cost’ not so good. :-)
- Affordable, economically sustainable
- say something about how we use resources
- use Buckminster Fuller phrase: “Do more with less”
- summary: should use something talking about affordability or economic sustainability
Diversity
- lois shares original diversity goals
- income, ethnic, gender, generational, household composition
- different spirituality, different diets
- sexual orientation
- skill set
- sounds like there is agreement that we want to include more of this in the explanation of ‘diverse’.
Sustainability
- Ann suggests that ‘sustainibility’ is included in ‘higher quality of life’ and ‘lower impact’
- Dave asks question about translations and ease of translation
- Thiago says this implies a question of who is audience
- Tree answers, wearing consultant hat: “Broad”
- Federico likes the ‘higher quality of life’ and ‘lower impact’ language
- Summary: Agreement that we like the current language, and don’t necessarily need to use ‘buzzwords’
Phrase notes: restorative? Regenerative?
chaos? Experimenting? Creativity?
- seems to be agreement that there should be some use of this in our mission statement, but that we probably will use this more in the description than
outreach and education? Learning? Evolution?
- seems to be relatively strong support to add this to the actual wording of the mission statement
consensus, direct democracy, non-hierarchical?
- collectively cooperative?
- should included this somewhere, not clear where
misc notes
collectively cooperative
to do more with less
how we use resources
lower cost of living
frugal
lower environmental impact
making of committee for drafting/redrafting this mission statement
Federico, Thiago (convener), Lara
Session 2: Sat, Dec 1: 2:35 PM → _______PM
Finding Ourselves on the Transition Roadmap
Membership Committee Progress Report
Interview Mode, by Ron and Ann
This is a summary, there is a list of accomplishments that has been sent to the listserv.
- POG (Prospective Owners Group): developed action plan and stakeholder’s document, and draft of “transition times” newsletter. Drafted a statement of values.
- Bienvenidos Committee: among other things: developed new membership process, took less than a year, created “community green light”, capacity, revised bienvenidos committee policies and goals, guidelines for liaisons, orientations, drafted a brochure, started a listserv, made bienvenidos committee the first point of contact.
Things to do:
- finish orientation do a trial run
- finish membership criteria document
- finish brochure
- what does it mean to be a member without living here
Community Land Trust Report
Accomplishments:
- Deciding on the name (Beverly*Vermont Community Land Trust)
- Target area delimited (1 mile around)
- Mission Statement
- Articles of Incorporation Filed
- Bylaws Drafted
- Formally supported participation on LEED
Goals
- Outreach and recruitment
- Elections will be held at the first meeting in January 2008.
- To draft documentation for transition of CRSP properties
- Work on 1023 application
Final comments:
People are invited to join.
If someone wants to work on the 1023 application with lois pleas get in touch with her.
Other accomplishments
- Bylaws Committee: there are some articles that will come back to the community for further deciding.
- Started a Food Coop
- Welded a lot of the front gate that is called “Multiple centers of initiative”
- Avocado Alley – taking down the chain link fence and barbed wire
- Expanded the number of trees
- Liberated Clothes line
- Oyster Mushrooms patches started outdoors
- Maybe Fridays
- Shared Streets in progress
- Celebrated the marriage of two eco-villagers
- Take a Book leave a book bookshelf in the lobby
- CRSP and Radical Change LA hosted the Urban Permaculture Course
- CERT training took place
- Lots of community movie watching
- Bike room
- Wiki took off
- Dave set up network
- 127 was finished
- A lot of members of community came together to help Julio heal
- got some chickens
- South garden expanded and made organic
- Federico got a door
- Lara got steps on her door
- Saturday Esfandiar’s Neighborhood outreach
- Celebrated parking day LA
- Eating a lot of food from the garden including volunteer plants
- Lots of new people came along
- Some people who didn’t feel connected to the community moved on
on a sadder note:
- commemorated the life of a community member that passed out (Diana)
Where are we, what do we need to do now
Brief presentation by Joe.
What to do now:
There is a committee structure in place:
Related to Limited Equity Housing Coop
- Membership
- One task took over on this committee about bringing people in (the intentional community) it might be good to talk about separating them again.
- Finance
- Bylaws
Others
- CLT
- What to do next in general?
- Committee Accountability for committees (BIKERACKED ITEM!)
- Figure out what do we need to accomplish and then figure out the structure
- Something about timeline
- Increase our financial literacy – FINANCE COMMITTEE
- what needs to get done next to move forward with the transition?
- Figure out language on bylaws and approve them – BYLAWS COMMITTEE
- Figure out how much money needs to be raised and from what sources
- for buying - FINANCE
- and for operating coop - FINANCE
- Consense on rights and responsibilities of stakeholders and figure who is in which category – MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
- coop needs to interface with the CLT through the ground lease – FINANCE COMMITTEE
- form co-op (filing paperwork) - BYLAWS
- financial framework for the coop (equity structure) - FINANCE
- Clear diagram of categories and sequence of joining them – MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Proposal: to create a coop area on the bike rack wiki page and facilitation teams are comiting to check bike rack in planning for the agenda. THIS HAS BEEN CONSENSED BY THE COMMUNITY
Federico volunteers to create the section and add the items
Bylaws committee has been renamed “Governance Committee”
Committee Structure: there would be 3 core group members for each committee
- responsibilities: scheduling meetings, get help if needed, report back, a meeting can happen with just these 3 people.
- Post meetings in advance on the listserve and the white board on the lobby (THIS HAS BEEN CONSENSED BY THE COMMUNITY)
- Post notes
BIKE RACK ITEM! Committee Protocol (about who attends, how things are posted, how much power do they have, what is the appropriate participation)
Committee Sign up
(! Implies willingness to be convener)
Membership
Federico
Yuki
Randy
Joe
Governance
Somer!
Ron
Ann
Angel
Finance
Lara
Dave!
Yuki
Thiago
Aurisha
Break - >
4:45pm
Transition Planning Options from CRSP board Memo overview
Document has been sent to the listserve.
Lois’s current management functions:
- collect rents
- pay vendors and utilities
- reconcile checking accounts
- taxes
- insurance
- basic bookkeeping
- annual reports to IRS
- franchise tax
- initial point of contact for prospective members
Some notes:
Lois is going to post copies of appraisals and inspection reports of the buildings at the moment of purchase.
Questions:
- do all the options imply that the transferee has to be a 501c3?
At this point, yes.
- do we have to choose one of this options by may 31 first?
Lois: it is the intent.
Pros and cons of each option
Option 1. Pog plan deadline to board by 3/31/08. POG PROPOSAL
PROS:
- we get to define it
- potentially simpler
- easier to have other financing options
- by creating the plan ourselves we will have more clarity, we would have to get our sh” together
- CRSP might like it too
- more open to proposals
CONS:
- we would have to figure out a plan to be and then negotiate with crsp
- unpredictable climate for financing (“easy money is over”)
- having too many things and open ended, but It could take a long time and be overwhelming
Option 2. Lease to own between POG and CRSP. At $10.000 a month ,all to purchase until figuring out next step
PROS:
- could be done quickly and easily without having so many things together
- fastest way of doing an initial transition
- it would be a smooth transition from a renters perspective (the money just goes to a different pool)
- gives most autonomy right away
- uses CRSP as the coop bank
CONS:
- decreases the urgency of the ultimate transition – loose momentum of the ownership stage – we could get stuck there - (and amendment could be written)
- two difficult large negotiations
- the POG hasn’t decided how it operates, it’s and ad hoc body, so there is potential confusion
- the group accepting responsibility might not be up to it
- leaves CRSP involved for a longer amount of time
Option 3. Owner finance. Purchase financed by CRSP at $10.000 from POG to CRSP. POG to create 501c3
PROS:
- we need to get our stuff together faster
- a clean break, full independence
- opportunity to create credit
- aim for this one, could use option 2 as a fallback
CONS:
- pressure. We got to do it.
- Creates a long term financial obligation
- Loose certain safety on the possibility of making mistakes (consequences of the learning curve) – risky
- takes a lot of work
- starts with establishing sale price early on
Option 4. Find another organization with aligned values to take on the responsibility
PROS:
- We get to continue doing what we are doing. No additional responsibility.
- If it is a flexible enough organization might be good.
- it could be a back up plan
CON: - Hard to find an organization that would fulfill the conditions
- a middle man with a cost
- delays progress on where we ultimately want to go
We agree to drop out option four in terms of putting energy on it, it still remains as a CRSP option.
Evaluation and Wrap Up
positive
- listed our accomplisments
- Bike ride
- good opening exercise (milling)
- blankets were nice
- we stuck to timing
- fireworks free
- good professional facilitation
- interview
- we know what the committees are doing
- good switching seats
- high level of participation and engagement
- good coffee and tea and
- Change:
- felt a little rushed sometimes
- crazy acronyms
- more heat
- stack was confusing
- scribe could help
- 90 minute sessions feel long could add brakes in the middle