Creating a vision

Pamela's CoHOP Step 1 vision answers

Step 1:
The object is to collect as many ideas as possible--nothing is too small, too big, or too crazy for consideration.

• How does CoHOP improve people's lives? How do we make the world a better place?
- New Zealand has had one of the fastest growing rates of income inequality among the world's richest countries. In society at present, value tends to be based on the monetary and financial system;
- In CoHOP we can create an economically and socially fairer society where individuals contributions are equally valued and supported. Education through modelling to the world of a way of being in society that values all people

• What would a CoHOP community be like if you had the power to make it any way you wanted?
- Large and comfortable main communal living area and centre for gathering together for shared living, different community activities, Sharing bees for households such as preserving foods from community gardens, bread making, cheese making, sewing, crafting, gardening, creating, meeting and socialising. Trading and enterprise: A village shop/market that stock’s communal and individual’s wares and that deals in $1’s and a village money system along side a village credit/debit system. Village Time Bank for recording time trades. Village Savings Pool of interest free finance, that pools village’s spare money together for the use of its members to start small enterprises, pay off high interest debt, purchase goods and services needed to move forward. Private and peaceful individual homes for retreat from the world, Natural health and herbal medicinal clinic on site, Buildings Surrounded by Gardens, orchards, live stock, forests, water, for the provision of sustenance and environmental enjoyment, Social and play recreational area’s for the enjoyment of all ages. Communally shared and resourced tool and equipment building available for all villages to use. Philosophy of Support for each other (eg: When someone is struggling in any area, others support their recovery) Strong Conflict resolution systems, Fair decision making systems. Welcome atmosphere for the local community to encourage trade outside of the village.

• Would it be one big building with a shared kitchen, or separate houses?
-Both a Shared house with bedsit type communal living/ rented space, and village centre. Individual private homes clustered around smaller shared utility building.

• What would a cluster of co-houses look like?
Small groups of (2-4) small private homes clustered around and linked to a shared utility building servicing the cluster only.

• What kind of energy would be used for heating? For transportation? For travel? Where would it come from?
-Heating: Wood stoves/ solar power. Transportation: walking, golf type carts/ bikes/ shared eco vehicle‘s/ within a vehicle library owned by the CoHOP . Travel: sustainable choices

• How would the air, water, and environment be kept clean?
- Permaculture design principles: Caring for the land, natural flora filters, personal and community responsibility.

• Where would people work?
- Entrepreneurial on line, small business’s from home, within the Community, within the local and wider community,

• Where would you shop? How would you get there?
- Shop within the village first and then the local and wider community

• How would we get to schools and workplaces?
- Via the Village CoHOP owned eco van within timetabled trips.

• In your free time, where would you go and what would you do?
= Resting and relaxing at home, Creating within the workshops of the community, Going to river/beach/mountains, Hanging out with others, being by myself and enjoying the peace and quiet to dream of possibilities. Having the cosy comfort of my dearly loved pets.

• What would your ideal community be like in 10 to 20 years – be specific? As a guide here are some categories :
people, housing, schools, jobs/businesses, health care, hobbies, transportation, amenities, environment, and public involvement.
- Same as above
• Do you have any other hot ideas?

Step 2:
• Share these ideas with one another.

Here is the document Sonia produced for us to follow while creating our own vision and mission statements. I have worked out how to attach it

• What inspires you about the CoHOP system?

New Zealand used to be one of the most egalitarian societies, where opportunities and rights were available to all regardless of income, gender (to a large extent), education, race, religion, social status, etc. That is no longer the case. I fear for current and future generations for whom home ownership will be a distant dream, denied by a system of private ownership that is untenable and unsustainable and reinforced by a system of debt-based money creation that cripples the home owner. I feel inspired by the CoHOP model which allows more egalitarian home ownership without crippling debt -- as long as the CoHOP does not enter into a debt-creating mortgage. This last point is crucial. If CoHOP engages in the same practices used to create our troubled system, it will merely perpetuate the status quo.

• Why might we need a collaborative housing system?

The current system is not working. New Zealand and Australia are in housing bubbles at the moment, driving prices higher than many people can afford. A cooperative (using the true meaning of the term, not the legal meaning) housing system would make us all joint caretakers, stewards, of the land and dwellings for the benefit of all. Or it would be for ‘all’ if the environment was an equal shareholder.

• Who would benefit from CoHOP? How would they benefit?

Resident-investors would certainly benefit by way of affordable housing with share rights that are transferrable and heritable. Pure investors would benefit by aligning themselves with an ethical choice of investment, though they may not stand to gain monetarily. Their investment would be in tangible assets which are more secure than paper assets.

• How do we make the world a better place?

Relocalisation is the most crucial step we can take at this point. This means that we source inputs from the local area and dispose of outputs in the local area (preferably linking the input of one enterprise to the output of another). We live and work at a human scale, and our enterprises are fundamentally local in nature. When we stop buying so much stuff, we find that we need a lot less and can work a lot less. We form supportive cooperatives in enterprises, housing, services. We may have a local currency, LETS or timebank system, or we may go the extra step and invest in the gift economy. We take responsibility for our own lives and our communities, leaving the government (which will also be fundamentally local) less and less to provide to people…and less and less justification to tax. We get to know our neighbours, make music and art, educate our kids. We voluntarily regulate our population growth.

• What would a CoHOP community be like if you had the power to make it any way you wanted?

Multiple small dwellings in an area with one or more sets of common shared facilities (like a laundry, big kitchen and dining, etc), common land between dwellings, common power generation and waste treatment. Atamai Village itself would have a community house, although I don’t necessarily see the CoHOP being the owner of that – I think a community house should be owned, built and maintained by the whole community. Likewise, the whole community should own and maintain the agricultural lands, orchards, woodlands. CoHOP doesn’t need to. Unless CoHOP and AVC were the same or closely related entities…

• What will CoHOP be known for in 10 years’ time?

CoHOP will own the land and dwellings on several blocks at Atamai Village. It will have made living at Atamai more affordable and will have done so without engaging in the banking system. CoHOP will have used open source technology to spread its model throughout New Zealand and possibly other countries. CoHOP will have initiated a plan to buy back all investor-only shares, making it truly owned by the residents. The CoHOP will also have branched out and become active in investing in local enterprises.

• Any other questions that come to mind?

Will all residents of CoHOP be AVC members? What if they sell their shares and leave? What about investors?

Sonia's updated, shortened version of the vision and mission statement process

• What inspires you about the CoHOP system?
The model offers self-determination and empowerment around the energy of money. I see money as the concrete expression of flow or 'right distribution'. We are growing into personal understanding of the small part we play in large systems of circulation, re-energising and conservation. Movements like FairTrade, righteous Business & peer:peer lending are pervasive models of group service to humanity. I believe we are evolving into more group collective consciousness.
• Why might we need a collaborative housing system
Co-Hop grows the skill of thinking/acting /enabling collectivity. It allows us to practice philanthropy at whatever level we feel comfortable with, or financially enabled to do. It enacts the will and heart to share and create our wealth in a community of worth. We rub shoulders with others who are refining this world-view, too. We re-create/claim our out-moded thought-forms around money, debt, mortgages("death-grip" in French), interest, rich and poor of means.
• Who would benefit from CoHOP? How would they benefit?
This model is a win:win experience for all in diverse ways... Depending on your focus and life-stage, people will interact from their "inherited stories" around money, security, savings, etc.
To be continued...

• Who would benefit from CoHOP? How would they benefit? Continued...
I like Jo's points about the difference between tangible and conceptual assets. We are anchored in and hobbled by notions of material wealth. A return to valuing each other's offerings, (much like the Timebanking ethos), re-frames distinctions like ageism, gender roles, poor-rich, parenting, education, careers, life experience. Anybody can attain share/s in CoHOP, enjoy rich dividends in their local community. "Take an interest, rather than expect interest."
• How do we make the world a better place?
By becoming self-aware, educated, self determining, we re-group from a position of re-source certainty. All of society is at different evolutionary points, enroute through individuation to group consciousness (see Spiral Dynamics-Don Beck or Integral Theory-Ken Wilber). It takes acts of Will and Heart to consciously choose a more collaborative approach to our personal and natural world resources. CoHOP is one such mechanism to effect change, to Be the Change We wish to see.
• What would a CoHOP community be like if you had the power to make it any way you wanted?
Through my Co-Housing research, I learnt from Bill Metcalf, researcher, that co-housing units work best with a minimum of 5 households or individuals. I vision that small clusters of co-housing will create "neighbourhoods of empowerment", as models at Atamai Village of CoHOP in action. These will grow organically, but I'd like focus to gathering a diverse range of skills and ages to each cluster. We then grow a model of resilience within each CoHOP enabled hub. This experience eventually underpins the CoHOP model as growing wealth at many more levels than just a tangible asset. This 'healthy CoHOP model' can naturally cross-fertilise into more conventional communities elsewhere in NZ and internationally. Research: https://vimeo.com/52777938
http://vimeo.com/barbaragibb/cohousingintvbillmetcalf
• What will CoHOP be known for in 10 years’ time?
A revolution in financial creativity. A fully open-source technology of radical social change in the living economies sphere. Enabling a re-think about 'retirement', ageism, saving, social capital. Through experiences of taking very small steps to enable a "culture of social investment", anybody regardless of wealth can secure their personal and collective financial resillience.
• Any other questions that come to mind?

Will all residents of CoHOP be AVC members?
I feel it is important that any member of a CoHOP nested within a community join and mindfully share/contribute in the "culture" of that community. This will ensure high health of the CoHOP and its members.
What if they sell their shares and leave? The CoHOP must design into the model both a contributor 'initial fixed term of investment' and a base of due diligence pool of funds. This pool could take the form of an underwriting fund pool, or an endemnity fund across an Association of CoHOPs. Full transparency and creative pathways to build value-added benefits for loaners and investors will also enhance the experience, eg. Visits to the co-housing twice a year, opportunities to join bees and high value workshops, produce dividends at cost (honey and preserves from the land), network hosting(AirB&B style sharing).
What about investors? As above-it would provide the same sort of assurances that investors might look for in a conventional money-system.
How does CoHOP develop a secure foundation of capital to protect members? (i.e. Prometheus experience)
How does CoHOP market itself in more humane and creative ways? While demonstrating its points of difference?

Vision sentence draft one
To build and establish an affordable co-housing community based on natural sustainability, resilient local economy, and an egalitarian society

I'm struggling with the vision. I'll explain why and maybe you can all help me get through this. The CoHOP is fundamentally an investment company. It can be applied to cohousing at Atamai, and I will certainly include that as part of my mission statement ideas -- but it's fundamentally an organisation that is attempting to create a more equitable and egalitarian society. Earthsong was all about cohousing, that was the reason for its existence. But potential residents had to have the money to buy. CoHOP is not all about cohousing. If someone is interested in cohousing at Atamai but wants to own the property (or a unit title), CoHOP really can't help them. So it's not just about cohousing. So do we include cohousing in the vision statement? Sorry to be such a pain, sometimes I overthink things!

Yes I see what you mean Jo. We could say there are two things going on here. One is the establishment of the Village CoHOP company which is the financial vehicle or system used to establish Colaborative Home ownership progammes. and two is the Creating co-housing at Atamai using the CoHOP system.
I have done my vision for the Creating Co-housing at Atamai. Not sure if this is correct or not would appreciate some input from everyone.

I wonder if we could also say that there are many different types of co-housing. Like one sort that uses a financial system of purchasing unit title such as earth song and another where the owner is the Company that you own shares in who provides a home for the resident. What do you think???