Cohousing Development Cooperative Proposal

August 11 Handout (updated Co-op proposal, Circles proposal, Agenda, and Sociocracy proposal): ProposalforEVNJ-CDC&Agenda-10Aug2019a

July 2019 Proposal:

Create the NJ Cohousing Development Cooperative (NJCDC).

Purpose:

To develop cohousing in New Jersey area:
A. The immediate goal of the cooperative is to support the development of new cohousing neighborhoods, ecovillages, village cooperative businesses, in NJ
B. The overall mission of the cooperative is to develop sustainable communities in a way that is itself self-sustaining and beneficial to the co-op members.

Membership:

Open to all but requires a declared commitment and financial obligation

Mode of operation and decision-making:

A. The group will use sociocracy as its operating model
B. The cooperative will adopt the principles and practices of permaculture: earth care, people care, and fair share; and
C. The seven principles of cooperatives: 1. Voluntary and Open Membership, 2. Democratic Member Control, 3. Member Economic Participation, 4. Autonomy and Independence, 5. Education, Training, and Information, 6. Cooperation among Cooperatives, and 7. Concern for Community
D. It will explore the model developed by the Ecovillagers Alliance, for one or more community land cooperatives that include investors, owners, and tenants in each community.

Resources:

A. Member contributions
B. Member investments
C. External sources of capital, including: NJ Community Capital, the Reinvestment Fund, credit unions, and others.

Setup:

The co-op will get started inside the existing EVNJ nonprofit, with legal and financial structure to be determined by the members afterward.

Additional notes:

Legal structure and IRS status: a cooperative may be designated “for-profit” or “non-profit,” but is mostly considered a “third way”: the co-op does not pay taxes, because any taxable benefits are distributed to the members.

Interested? Complete the CDC Interest Form