Difference between revisions of "Catalyst hub"

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=What is a cooperative?=
Catalyst hubs are community-serving buildings that serve as catalysts for a regenerative culture and economy in the neighborhood - designed, governed and owned by local communities. The intention is to establish a living example with one building that can then seed other buildings as catalyst hubs, then entire blocks, and eventually a neighborhood, while networked with other initiatives in other neighborhoods around the world.
A cooperative enthusiast would probably say that ANY organization that is committed to and practices cooperative principles is a cooperative. A corporate lawyer would say that a cooperative must be formed under a cooperative statute. A tax lawyer would say it doesn’t matter what statute it’s formed under as long as it “operates cooperatively” as that term is defined in tax law.


The basic (non-legal) cooperative principles according to the International Cooperative Alliance are:
=Societal Benefits=
1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training, and information
6. Co-operation among cooperatives
7. Concern for community
See Appendix: ‘Cooperative Principles’ for details of each
 
=What is a solidarity cooperative and does this compare to others?=
 
We are using the solidarity cooperative model, where ownership is shared between customers, tenants and workers under a shared vision. Here’s how it compares to other cooperative models.
Solidarity cooperative - Ownership is shared between customers, tenants and workers, often with distinct membership categories.
Producer cooperative - Allows its members to cooperatively market and sell products, most commonly found in the agriculture industry (30% of total agricultural production is marketed by co-ops.)
Purchasing cooperative - Groups of businesses that wish to jointly purchase services or supplies, allowing them to compete with national chains.
Consumer cooperative - Organized by consumers who want to achieve better prices or quality in the goods or services they purchase.
Worker cooperative - A company owned by its employees, and its purpose is to provide employment for the members.
Housing cooperative - One or more residential buildings owned by a corporation that is membership-based, with each member granted the right to occupy one housing unit.
 
=Why a cooperative, from a societal point of view?=
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=Why a cooperative, from a personal point of view=
=Personal Benefits=
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=Where can one find examples of the solidarity cooperative model?=
=Cooperative development and governance systems=
 
==Prosocial==
Our favorite example is Commongrounds in Traverse City, cofounded by cohort Kate Redman, a $15 million, 50,000 s.f. new mixed-use 4-story building with 500 community members and tenant owners. Quebec, Canada, has over 300 solidarity cooperatives. One successful U.S. solidarity co-op is Weaver Street Market in Carrboro, North Carolina, where both consumers and workers are members.
'''[[Prosocial]]''' - A perspective, practical purpose, research effort and community toward the welfare of others and society as a whole. This might be an attitude, a behavior (e.g. helping, sharing, donating, cooperating, volunteering), or an institution. It might be directed toward family and friends or the social acceptance of all people. Ultimately, Prosocial is an entire worldview.
 
==Co-creation==
 
'''[[Co-creation systems]]''' - Systems, models, tools for co-creation, designed, governed and owned by participants with a shared purpose, such as campaign teams and local communities.
=What are the pros and cons of the solidarity cooperative model?=
==Self organization==
 
'''[[Self organizing systems]]''' - Processes where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized, distributed over all the components of the system. As such, the organization is typically robust and able to survive or self-repair substantial perturbation.
The primary pros of the solidarity cooperative model is that it is holistic and inclusive of those that both provide and use the services that the cooperative offers, increasing the likelihood of sustained success and reducing the risk of financial default. The primary con of the solidarity model is that it requires multiple classes of membership that in turn requires more sophisticated governance and counseling. Kate Redman of Commongrounds can provide a significant amount of further insight into this topic since she is currently developing one at a large scale (50,000 s.f. new building).
 
 
=What are the different types of ownership in a solidarity cooperative model?=
 
The two main types are ‘community owners’ and ‘tenant owners’. See this explained via diagram at Appendix > II. Community Center Cooperative + Church as Timeshare. Community Owners are essentially those using the services of the building, and the Tenant Owners are those that are providing those services.
 
 
=What are the personal risks in financing cooperatives?=
 
The minimum amount required to become a cooperative member (ie $50-$100) becomes a permanent non-transferable contribution to the cooperative. If you contribute more, say, at least $500, you would get a predetermined % return and it would be treated as a loan, not as equity. If the cooperative defaults on your loan, you would receive equity.
If one is a tenant owner member that owns a section of the property (ie like a condo) or a time-share, they are only responsible for the mortgage payments associated with their share. Just as with any financial arrangement, if the party defaults on their payments, the cooperative would take ownership. However, because this is a project that is community owned, there would be an opportunity to negotiate a buy out versus all-or-nothing repossession when dealing with institutions or money-first financial partners.
 
 
=What is the return on the added time it takes in developing a cooperative?=
 
If you’re trying to set up a cooperative alone, it would probably not be worth the time it takes to learn a new ownership model, unless you’re a superhuman lawyer like Kate Redman. With a team of lawyers, paralegals and governance practitioners, much of this is designed to be a turn-key operation, along with a supportive community of cohorts going through the same process. Your time spent on developing the cooperative should be added to the soft cost budget (legal, financial, management time/expense) just the same as any other hard costs (property, renovations, permits).
 
 
=What is the return on the added financial investment it takes in developing a cooperative?=
 
As far as paying for the expenses of setting up and managing a cooperative, all those costs are shared by the cooperative community. As far as what is the financial return on those expenses, here are a few:
Less time spent not only on securing financial partners, but maintaining a healthy relationship with them
Reduced risk of relying on financial partners simply not changing their minds in how aligned they are in your vision going forward.
Less time spent in ensuring enough revenue is flowing, via customers and patronage to the building. This is now a shared responsibility with hundreds of members versus just yourself and your financial partners, or any staff you would have to pay.
Reduced risk of not relying solely on yourself, financial partners and staff in not defaulting on mortgage payments, versus a membership of hundreds with a personal stake. .
The emotional return on being part of a community of shared interests that are collectively dedicated to ensuring the vision of the cooperative is thriving


==Partnerism==
'''[[Partnerism]]''' - An economic system that, unlike Capitalism & Socialism, recognizes the economic value of care and adequately rewards it in both the market & non-market sectors. Like Capitalism and Socialism, Partnerism is an economic ideology that promotes a set of values, assumptions, and beliefs. First coined by Riane Eisler in The Real Wealth of Nations, Partnerism as an ideology promotes and rewards caring for one another, nature, and our collective future.


=How can a nonprofit/community-serving entity maintain equity in a cooperative=
==Sensemaking==
'''[[Sensemaking]]''' - A process by which a large population of people are able to give meaning to their collective experiences, referred to as story-based or narrative-based assessment, and 'the first form of scalable ethnography'.


The easiest way to explain this is via the existing model of the Commongrounds project. Nonprofit and community-serving entities are encouraged to own condo-ized units in the building that they own outright within the cooperative-owned building. This can also be achieved through time share units. See Appendix > II. Type A: Community Center Cooperative + Church as Timeshare.
=Place-Based Catalyst Hubs=
===Commongrounds===
[[Commongrounds]] - A new 4-story, 50,000 s.f. $16 million development in Traverse City, Michigan cooperatively owned by nearly 600 members. It will feature a food incubator, coffeeshop, distillery, childcare center, cowering space for impact organizations and businesses, performing arts and events space, artist-in-residence space, and 24 workforce rental units. Construction began in Fall 2020, with tenants scheduled to move in by 2022.


===LaLa Gardens Cooperative===
[[LaLa Gardens]] - A one-acre home and garden demonstration of permaculture and natural farming in the exurbs of Fort Collins, Colorado. The garden features regenerative farming and gardening, and is a pilot project for community ownership, governance, economy and culture that is based on a Declaration of Interdependence and in part, utilizes a global regenerative currency and ecosystem. It is reflective of hyperlocalsystems of Partnerism, membership, gifting, trade and other forms of mutual support. It is developing models for applying NFTs to regenerative real estate, education, marketplaces, art, culture and re-sci as a model for any neighborhood.


=What are the options for those who don’t have the money to participate?=
===Temple of Mother Earth===
[[Temple of Mother Earth]] - An international plant medicine healing center created out of the need for more welcoming places for people of color. The founding Temple is based in a predominantly BIPOC neighborhood in Southeast Washington DC, offering multi-faceted healing modalities with a primary focus on sacred plant medicines. It is a safe container of spiritual resources and space holders to support everyone in its community as they step powerfully into their sovereignty.


This is the point behind having a low barrier to entry in terms of the minimum share price, which is $50 in the Commongrounds project. Even if a person insists they can’t even afford the $50, there is very likely a way to find someone willing to sponsor their ownership for $50.
===Catalyst Hub Tulum===
[[Catalyst Hub Tulum]] - A regenerative community building in downtown Tulum that is collectively developed, governed, financed, owned and programmed by the local community. It is organized as a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to provide a living, working, gathering place for those in Tulum to catalyze regenerative change based on the values of caring and nature.


=Does sweat equity count in cooperatives?=
=Regional Place-Based Cooperative Programs=
===Regenerate Idaho===
[[Regenerate Idaho]] - An initiative in Idaho supporting community development that is collectively developed, governed, financed, owned and programmed by the local community. It is organized as a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to support the co-creation of living, working, gathering places in Idaho based on the values of caring, creativity and regeneration.


This is referred to as patronage, the amount someone contributes to the health and success of the cooperative. By law, cooperatives require profit sharing to be distributed based on patronage, not financial investment. It is up to the board of directors on whether they want to count sweat equity as viable currency in purchasing the minimum share.
=Regeneration=
===Regenerative Systems===
[[Regenerative Systems]] - An overview of regenerative systems and their applications.


=How are profits distributed?=
=Self Organization=
===Systems===
[[Self Organization|Self Organization Systems]] - A list of self-organizing systems.


By law, cooperatives require profit sharing to be distributed based on patronage, not financial investment. It is up to the board of directors on whether they want to count sweat equity as viable currency in purchasing the minimum share.
===Sensemaking===
[[Sensemaking]] - A primer on the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences.


=How is the cooperative financed?=
=Co-Creation=
[[Co-Creation Systems]] - Systems, models, tools for co-creation


The cooperative is financed by its Tenant Owners and Community Owners. See Appendix > II. Community Center Cooperative + Church as Timeshare for how this is arranged. Tenant Owners are equivalent to condo or timeshare owners, responsible for their ownership unit. The rest of the building is financed by Community Owners, and this is usually managed via a crowdfunding platform like SmallChange.io or crowdlending platform like Semble.com.
=Regenerative Currency=
Community Owners have the opportunity to invest starting at $50-$100, with at least a $500 contribution to receive a predetermined return, which makes it a much more meaningful and fiscally responsible alternative to the stock market.
===SEEDS===
* [[SEEDS]] - An overview of the SEEDS ecosystem.
* [[SEEDS Neighborhubs]] - A peer onboarding program for SEEDS members, learning and growing together
* [[Partnerism in SEEDS]] - A course on [[Partnerism]], an economic and cultural system based on nature and caring, as an alternative to domination culture.
* [[Regenerative Civics Incubator & Alliance]] - a program to pilot regenerative operating systems to place-based regenerative development projects.
* [[SEEDS_Changemakers_Program|SEEDS Changemakers Program]] - An ambassador program to onboard changemakers to SEEDS Citizens.
* [[SEEDS_Changemaker_Guide|SEEDS Changemaker Guide]] - A Changemaker's guide to participating in the SEEDS ecosystem.
* [[SEEDS Changemakers Onboarding Pilot]] - An experimental program to onboard 100 changemakers without personal invites into SEEDS via the [[SEEDS_Changemakers_Program|SEEDS Changemakers Program]].  
* [[SEEDS_Glossary|SEEDS Glossary]] - A glossary of key terms in the SEEDS ecosystem.
* [[DAO/DHO Platform]] - A governance, operations, and tokenomics platform for Decentralized Autonomous/Human Organizations (DAO/DHOs).
* [[SEEDS_Roadmap_to_Globally_Regenerative_Economies|SEEDS Roadmap]] - An overview of the future of SEEDS.
* [[SEEDS_FAQ|SEEDS FAQ]] - Frequently asked questions.
* [[SEEDS_Gratitude|SEEDS Gratitude]] - An overview of the innovative gratitude system in SEEDS.
* [[Leading from the Emerging Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies]] - A framework for ecosystem building based on Theory
* [[Regenerative Communication]] - A holistic human-centric approach to communication.


=Regenerative Urban Planning and Development=
[[File:Transect.png|thumb|right]]
* [https://formbasedcodes.org Form-based Codes Institute] - The organization that supports regenerative urban planning operating systems known as form-based codes.
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form-based_code Form-based Codes] - Form-based codes are a planning and development code that prioritizes physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for regenerative development. The SmartCode is one example of a form-based code.
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartCode SmartCode] - A regenerative urban planning and development operating system and form-based code.
* [https://transect.org/codes.html SmartCode documents] - SmartCode documents.
* [https://www.cnu.org/who-we-are/charter-new-urbanism Charter for New Urbanism] - A set of principles and guide for regenerative community planning and development.


=What should the minimum share price be?=
=Development phases=


This should be determined based on your patronage, the people who use your services. With Commongrounds their patronage includes every single person in Traverse City, Michigan, so it’s important they price their shares at a minimum that everyone can afford - $50. If your patronage typically pays a minimum of $500 for your services, that could be the basis for a minimum share price.
# Phase I: Develop Core Team and Vision
## Define and pre-develop the mission, vision and founding support team
## Seed the idea, enable emergence of partners
## Develop project access
## Develop cooperative governance and financing agreements
## Develop interim staff


# Phase II: Develop Founding Membership and Vision
## Develop 15/150 founding membership
## Launch publicly
## Support visions from the membership
## Launch successive series of campaigns
## Conduct feasibility studies


=Cooperative Principles=
# Phase III: Property Acquisition
## Secure down payment for property acquisition
## Secure tenant partners
## Secure finance partners
##  Finalize financing


The basic (non-legal) cooperative principles according to the International Cooperative Alliance are:
# Phase IV Optional: Construction/Renovation
## If necessary: Secure development and construction team
## If necessary: Secure development and construction loan
# Phase V: Ongoing Management and Emergence
## Financial accountability
## Restorative practice
## Self organization
## Crowdsourced placemaking


# Voluntary and open membership: Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.
=Resources=
# Democratic member control: Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives, members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote), and cooperatives at other levels are also organized in a democratic manner.
* '''[[Be The Change Cooperative]]''' - A cooperative of local communities co-creating regenerative community buildings governed and owned by local neighborhoods through a shared platform.
# Member economic participation: Members contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. Members usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing their cooperative, possibly by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
* '''[http://bethechange.coop/catalysthub/ Catalyst hub cooperatives]''' - A similar model to innovation hub cooperatives, supported by '''[[Be The Change Cooperative]]'''.
# Autonomy and independence: Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.
* '''[https://collectiveimpactlab.com Collective Impact Lab blog]''' - A collection of articles on projects and systems related to innovation hubs, including '''[https://collectiveimpactlab.com/2020/02/14/the-rise-of-mutual-stakeholding The Rise of Mutual Stakeholding]
# Education, training, and information: Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public—particularly young people and opinion leaders—about the nature and benefits of co-operation.
* '''[[Glossary|Glossary of terms related to Innovation Hubs]]'''
# Co-operation among cooperatives: Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional, and international structures.
# Concern for community: Cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policies approved by their members.

Latest revision as of 12:45, 3 June 2022

Catalyst hubs are community-serving buildings that serve as catalysts for a regenerative culture and economy in the neighborhood - designed, governed and owned by local communities. The intention is to establish a living example with one building that can then seed other buildings as catalyst hubs, then entire blocks, and eventually a neighborhood, while networked with other initiatives in other neighborhoods around the world.

Societal Benefits[edit]


The Societal Benefits of Cooperative Ownership
Extractive (Institutional) Ownership Generative (Cooperative) Ownership
Financial Purpose:
Maximizing profits in the short term 		Living Purpose:
Creating the conditions for life over long term
Absentee Membership:
Ownership disconnected from life of enterprise 		Rooted Membership:
Ownership in human hands
Governance by Markets:
Control by capital markets on autopilot 		Living Purpose:
Creating the conditions for life over long term
Institutional Finance:
Capital as master 		Community Finance:
Capital as friend
Commodity Networks:
Trading focused solely on price and profits 		Ethical Networks:
Collective support for ecologial and social norms

Adapted from Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, by Marjorie Kelly


Personal Benefits[edit]


The Personal Benefits of Cooperative Ownership
Finance-As-Partner Ownership Cooperative-
As-Partner Ownership
Financial Partners:
Partners based on who has money 		Purpose Partners:
Partners based on who shares purpose
Personal Risk:
Revenue responsibility held solely by partners 		Shared Risk:
Revenue responsibility shared by community
Limited Support:
Assistance limited to financial partner network 		Extended Support:
Assistance extended to cooperative community
Fragile Ownership:
Partner’s project interest can change overnight 		Resilient Ownership:
Shared accountability in maintaining core mission
Limited Equity Growth:
Limited by growth capacity of financial partners 		Robust Equity Growth:
Accelerated by increase in community value

Adapted from Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution, by Marjorie Kelly


Cooperative development and governance systems[edit]

Prosocial[edit]

Prosocial - A perspective, practical purpose, research effort and community toward the welfare of others and society as a whole. This might be an attitude, a behavior (e.g. helping, sharing, donating, cooperating, volunteering), or an institution. It might be directed toward family and friends or the social acceptance of all people. Ultimately, Prosocial is an entire worldview.

Co-creation[edit]

Co-creation systems - Systems, models, tools for co-creation, designed, governed and owned by participants with a shared purpose, such as campaign teams and local communities.

Self organization[edit]

Self organizing systems - Processes where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized, distributed over all the components of the system. As such, the organization is typically robust and able to survive or self-repair substantial perturbation.

Partnerism[edit]

Partnerism - An economic system that, unlike Capitalism & Socialism, recognizes the economic value of care and adequately rewards it in both the market & non-market sectors. Like Capitalism and Socialism, Partnerism is an economic ideology that promotes a set of values, assumptions, and beliefs. First coined by Riane Eisler in The Real Wealth of Nations, Partnerism as an ideology promotes and rewards caring for one another, nature, and our collective future.

Sensemaking[edit]

Sensemaking - A process by which a large population of people are able to give meaning to their collective experiences, referred to as story-based or narrative-based assessment, and 'the first form of scalable ethnography'.

Place-Based Catalyst Hubs[edit]

Commongrounds[edit]

Commongrounds - A new 4-story, 50,000 s.f. $16 million development in Traverse City, Michigan cooperatively owned by nearly 600 members. It will feature a food incubator, coffeeshop, distillery, childcare center, cowering space for impact organizations and businesses, performing arts and events space, artist-in-residence space, and 24 workforce rental units. Construction began in Fall 2020, with tenants scheduled to move in by 2022.

LaLa Gardens Cooperative[edit]

LaLa Gardens - A one-acre home and garden demonstration of permaculture and natural farming in the exurbs of Fort Collins, Colorado. The garden features regenerative farming and gardening, and is a pilot project for community ownership, governance, economy and culture that is based on a Declaration of Interdependence and in part, utilizes a global regenerative currency and ecosystem. It is reflective of hyperlocalsystems of Partnerism, membership, gifting, trade and other forms of mutual support. It is developing models for applying NFTs to regenerative real estate, education, marketplaces, art, culture and re-sci as a model for any neighborhood.

Temple of Mother Earth[edit]

Temple of Mother Earth - An international plant medicine healing center created out of the need for more welcoming places for people of color. The founding Temple is based in a predominantly BIPOC neighborhood in Southeast Washington DC, offering multi-faceted healing modalities with a primary focus on sacred plant medicines. It is a safe container of spiritual resources and space holders to support everyone in its community as they step powerfully into their sovereignty.

Catalyst Hub Tulum[edit]

Catalyst Hub Tulum - A regenerative community building in downtown Tulum that is collectively developed, governed, financed, owned and programmed by the local community. It is organized as a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to provide a living, working, gathering place for those in Tulum to catalyze regenerative change based on the values of caring and nature.

Regional Place-Based Cooperative Programs[edit]

Regenerate Idaho[edit]

Regenerate Idaho - An initiative in Idaho supporting community development that is collectively developed, governed, financed, owned and programmed by the local community. It is organized as a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) to support the co-creation of living, working, gathering places in Idaho based on the values of caring, creativity and regeneration.

Regeneration[edit]

Regenerative Systems[edit]

Regenerative Systems - An overview of regenerative systems and their applications.

Self Organization[edit]

Systems[edit]

Self Organization Systems - A list of self-organizing systems.

Sensemaking[edit]

Sensemaking - A primer on the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences.

Co-Creation[edit]

Co-Creation Systems - Systems, models, tools for co-creation

Regenerative Currency[edit]

SEEDS[edit]

Regenerative Urban Planning and Development[edit]

Transect.png
  • Form-based Codes Institute - The organization that supports regenerative urban planning operating systems known as form-based codes.
  • Form-based Codes - Form-based codes are a planning and development code that prioritizes physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for regenerative development. The SmartCode is one example of a form-based code.
  • SmartCode - A regenerative urban planning and development operating system and form-based code.
  • SmartCode documents - SmartCode documents.
  • Charter for New Urbanism - A set of principles and guide for regenerative community planning and development.

Development phases[edit]

  1. Phase I: Develop Core Team and Vision
    1. Define and pre-develop the mission, vision and founding support team
    2. Seed the idea, enable emergence of partners
    3. Develop project access
    4. Develop cooperative governance and financing agreements
    5. Develop interim staff
  1. Phase II: Develop Founding Membership and Vision
    1. Develop 15/150 founding membership
    2. Launch publicly
    3. Support visions from the membership
    4. Launch successive series of campaigns
    5. Conduct feasibility studies
  1. Phase III: Property Acquisition
    1. Secure down payment for property acquisition
    2. Secure tenant partners
    3. Secure finance partners
    4. Finalize financing
  1. Phase IV Optional: Construction/Renovation
    1. If necessary: Secure development and construction team
    2. If necessary: Secure development and construction loan
  1. Phase V: Ongoing Management and Emergence
    1. Financial accountability
    2. Restorative practice
    3. Self organization
    4. Crowdsourced placemaking

Resources[edit]

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