[BCN] NASCO Institute Subsidies Request

[Micha Josephy]

Dear fellow Boston Coopers,

I am writing for a discrete fundraising request to help send Boston area
coopers to the NASCO Institute in Michigan November 3-5 (see nasco.coop
for more detail). The NASCO Institute is the North American conference for
coop developers and activists focusing on group equity coops (the type of
coops that share BCC/Millstone/Seedpod's model). There are 75 formal
workshops in addition to another handful of informal learning sessions.
Topics include nuts and bolts issues like: group decision making,
financial management and how to purchase property for coop use;  various
presentations giving a global perspective on coops, including
presentations focusing on Palestinian, Basque, and African-American
cooperatives; various anti-oppression workshops including how to make your
coop trans-friendly, and anti-racism; and others.

In addition to BCC's 4 members who would like to attend, the Bishop Allen
Drive Coop (a rental coop in Cambridge) is trying to send one of their
members to gain knowledge and contacts to help them purchase a coop
property through a non-profit model. (BCC is in dialogue with them to
figure out if it makes sense for them to join BCC and buy their property
through BCC or to go it independently)

All together, for travel, registration and incidentals, this will cost
roughly $2300. BCC has a few hundred dollars in its budget to subsidize
these costs, and NASCO itself is supporting us Boston coopers with $240.
We'd like to fundraise as much of the rest as we can to make it as
affordable as possible.

Participants last year offered three reportbacks on their experiences
including mini-workshops on gentrification, dynamic facilitation, and
something else that's escaping us at the moment. We believe that between
the renewed energy for coop organizing brought by NASCO Institute
participants and the concrete knowledge shared through the reportbacks,
participants are providing a real service to the coop community. That's
why we're asking for your support.

If you are interested or have questions, please let us know by replying to
this note. You can make checks out to Boston Community Cooperatives.

Please also keep an eye out for announcements about reportbacks by this
year's NASCO participants.

In cooperation,
Micha Josephy (of BCC's Seedpod coop)
617-436-2965