<div dir="ltr">Love your idea Aaron and your interest in cooperatives and sociocracy. <div>This space is more office like, not a maker space.</div><div><br></div><div>Val</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Oct 23, 2019 at 11:38 AM Shel Horowitz via Hidden-discuss <<a href="mailto:hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net" target="_blank">hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Co-working spaces in the Valley go back at least to the mid-80s and the Creamery Building on Fearing Street in Amherst. The person I've dealt with at Click is named Mary. I don't now her last name. She's always there for the arts events, anyway. There are also some cool Maker spaces in Holyoke (and I think Easthampton also) in some of the old mills that might be more suitable for fabrication.<br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div style="font-size:small"><br>Shel Horowitz - "The Transformpreneur"(sm)</div><div style="font-size:small">________________________________________________</div><div style="font-size:small">Watch (and please share) my TEDx Talk,</div><div style="font-size:small">"Impossible is a Dare: Business for a Better World"</div><div style="font-size:small"><font color="#1155cc" size="2"><u><a style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" href="http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809" target="_blank">http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809</a></u></font><font color="#1155cc" size="2"><u><a style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" href="http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809" target="_blank"> </a></u></font><br><div style="font-size:small">(move your mouse to "event videos")</div></div><div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-size:small">Contact me to bake in profitability while addressing hunger, <br></div><div style="font-size:small">poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change</div><div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-size:small">Twitter: @shelhorowitz</div><div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-size:small">* First business ever to be Green America Gold Certified</div><div style="font-size:small">* Inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame</div><div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-size:small"><a style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" href="http://goingbeyondsustainability.com/" target="_blank">http://goingbeyondsustainability.com</a> </div><div style="font-size:small">mailto:<a style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" href="mailto:shel@greenandprofitable.com" target="_blank">shel@greenandprofitable.com</a> * <a style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" href="tel:413-586-2388" value="+14135862388" target="_blank">413-586-2388</a></div><div style="font-size:small">Award-winning, best-selling author of 10 books. Latest:</div><div style="font-size:small">Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson)<br></div><div style="font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-size:small">_________________________________________________</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 9:39 PM Aaron E-J via Hidden-discuss <<a href="mailto:hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net" target="_blank">hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">In terms of the the
theory side of things (coop structure, sociocracy, ex.) I am all
set, it is more just a matter of finding people who are interested
in committing a bit of time and resources along with me to get
things set up. That's the first step, after that, then we can
begin thinking about money and a location. </font><br>
<pre cols="72">Aaron E-J
The Other Realm LLC
<a href="http://otherrealm.org" target="_blank">http://otherrealm.org</a>
<a href="http://theotherrealm.org" target="_blank">http://theotherrealm.org</a> (Blog)</pre>
<div>On 2019-10-22 6:36 PM, Andrew Bellak
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p>This is an interesting thread.</p>
<p>It make me think of several people and organizations in the
Pioneer Valley that I'd like to mention in case you want to
connect with them on this idea.</p>
<p>For coops, there's Coop Power, Cooperative Fund of New England
and Wellspring Cooperatives.<br>
</p>
<p>For holocracy, there's Ingrid Bredenberg although she may have
moved out of the area.</p>
<p>If you think sociocracy is related enough, there's <a href="http://sociocracyforall.org/about/" target="_blank">http://sociocracyforall.org/about/</a>
and folks based in Amherst.<br>
</p>
<p>And I believe Paul Silva ran Click Work Space in Northampton,
maybe he started it?</p>
<p>And I know the folks at Amherst Works co-working space.</p>
<p>All that to say that there are good resources in the Valley.</p>
<p>Regards,</p>
<p>Andrew</p>
<pre cols="72">--
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<div>On 10/21/2019 8:23 PM, Aaron E-J via
Hidden-discuss wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Yes, I am, although I am looking for
a space that is conducive to setting up a small shop and
electronics fabrication space, maybe eventually a wet lab –
would this space be a good fit for this?<span> </span>Do
you have the exact address and know how much the lease is?<span>
</span>Is anyone else interested in such a thing?<span> </span>A
while ago I made some move to get a makerspace set up in the
East/Northampton/Holyoke area and I'm interested in seeing
if anyone else is still interested again.<span> </span>As
I put forward a week or two ago on this listserv, I am
interested in changing the way employment is done, or at
least creating another way to go about it (link to the idea,
also below: <a href="https://otherrealm.org/Economy" target="_blank">https://otherrealm.org/Economy</a>
).<span> </span>I would like to get a group of people who
are equally disenfranchised with the competitive nature of
employment and business dealings and are interested in
working together on creating such a worker cooperative
model.<span> </span>Please let me know if you are
interested, I will be setting up some meeting events to try
to gather support so stay tuned.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Thanks!</span><br>
</p>
<hr width="100%">
<blockquote>
<p><span><span><span> A discussion that was going on
a local tech entrepreneur listserve about the need to
work for less than a fair wage when doing contract
work got me thinking of an idea I had a while back.
The idea is a kind of 'jobs fair' that would be open
to anyone, and anyone who attended would be either
guaranteed a job or funding for a startup. The amount
of time that people spend competing for: first a
college degree, then a job, then maybe funding for a
business idea, is enormous. It can often result in
needing to compromise your moral principles and spend
most of your time doing things in areas you are not
passionate about. Constantly needing to be judged and
being told that you are not as good as someone else
who got the job you wanted, puts a tremendous toll on
your wellbeing and desire to interact with others. On
the other side, someone looking to hire the right
person has to spend a considerable amount of time
wading through tons of applicants before eventually
arriving at someone you actually want to hire. And if
you have an ounce of empathy, constantly needing to
turn people down because they are not the right fit
feels horrible.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span> The way I conceived of the 'job
fair' working would be in two stages. </span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span> The first stage would be a sign
up and stakeholder gathering phase. Job seekers would
fill out an online form detailing their skills and
interests and any ideas for solutions to unsolved
problems they had. Employers (worker coops and
businesses that agree to not throw their employees
under the proverbial bus if the job does not work out)
would sign up and agree to employ people to work <i><span>with</span></i>
them and not <i><span>for</span></i> them. Business
investors and venture capitalists would sign up and
work on forming business ideas with people who do not
see an existing role with any of the existing business
that are hiring.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span> Then the second stage would be
the actual conference where everyone gets to know each
other and job seekers and job fillers seek mutual
skills and interests. The people who do not have
career goals and skills in line with those being
sought, and those with business ideas they are looking
to actualize, would work with the business investors
and venture capitalists. Together, they would form
new worker cooperative businesses around the solutions
previously identified in the first stage that everyone
on the table can get behind. These cooperatives would
act as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon_(philosophy)" target="_blank">holons</a>, each independent
entities, but with the ability to utilize each other's
resources to some extent. There would also be a
buffer fund established that all the cooperatives
earning a positive income would contribute to and
those needing more income could draw from. The way
the investors would get compensated is that they would
be seen as one of the cooperatives. If the investors
want to withdraw some of their investment, their
financial balance would be negative and therefore a
proportion of the buffer fund will go to them. This
siphoning of money to an investor will only continue
until a previously agreed upon return on investment is
achieved or the person invests more money back into
the system. Because the contribution will only be a
portion of the <i><span>profit</span></i>, if some or
all cooperatives are not earning a profit, they will
not need to contribute to the buffer. Obviously exact
details will need to be worked out when more people
get involved, but that is the general way I am
envisioning the financing working. It may also make
sense to involve colleges and others in the education
sphere. They could be seen as business investors.
Although they may not be providing financial support,
they can still provide significant resources and as a
result have a share of the profit. However, the exact
nature of their compensation would need to be figured
out because education is rarely easily quantifiable.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span> The important point in all this
is that people are not competing – there would be the
explicit edict that no one is left out and no one is
forced to do things they have no desire to do (of
course it may be necessary for some people to do
undesired tasks, but these tasks should be for the
purpose of fulfilling desired goals).</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span> What do people think of this
idea and is anyone interested in working on it with
me? I would not be surprised if we could get some
grant funding to get the ball rolling.</span></span></span></p>
<p><span><span><span></span></span></span></p>
<hr width="100%">
<p><span><span><span><br>
</span></span></span></p>
</blockquote>
<pre cols="72">Aaron E-J
The Other Realm LLC
<a href="http://otherrealm.org" target="_blank">http://otherrealm.org</a>
<a href="http://theotherrealm.org" target="_blank">http://theotherrealm.org</a> (Blog)</pre>
<div>On 2019-10-21 5:13 PM, Val Nelson
via Hidden-discuss wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">HI HTers,
<div>Have you considered forming a coworking space? I know
of an amazing space that just opened up that just looks
like it's waiting for a coworking space to step in. It's
in Northampton, in a beautiful setting. With off-street
parking. Close to town but tucked away.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm not looking to do this but it occurs to me that
maybe one of you might be. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Let me know if you want more info.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Val</div>
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