ann arbor and back again

Just back (as of ~ 05:00) from a turbocharged weekend at Nasco Institute in Ann Arbor (A2!), I'm scrambling to get my feet on the ground in Rochester again. It was a great trip -- Ann Arbor is wonderful town, full of coffee shops and book stores and generally thriving with students and independent businesses in exactly the way Rochester is not. Hundreds of co-opers from all over the country descended on A2 for the event. For instance, the UT Austin co-op sent something like 40 people, all roadtripping out in a chartered bus all the way from Austin, Texas! Our 400 mile drive from Rochester gave us one of the shorter commutes.

It was great to be around so many co-opers again. The co-ops at Ann Arbor opened their houses to the Nasco attendees, who camped out on futons and couches and matresses squeezed into every available bit of floorspace, sometimes multiple co-opers to the mattress, all with a sort of can-do spirit which reminded me of Auberge chez Jean in Montréal. The Nasco staff (just ~4 people!) arranged an amazing conference, with (counting...) 112 distinct events to choose between. Two people can only be in so many places at one time — next time we will have to send many more to Nasco!

I now know way more than I ever wanted to know—but still not nearly enough—about starting a nonprofit cooperative organisation, convincing a bank to loan it a lot of money, and then buying a house. Amortization, liens, equity, debt service, 501(c)3 — Ahh!

The attendees of the "developing new co-ops" sequence represented quite a diversity of projects: Existing Ontario co-op wants to expand, but has forgotten how. Santa Cruz co-op interested in models other than student co-ops, and how to encourage morale and develop enthusiasm. Prescott, Az - has no student housing, wants to establish a housing co-op to fascilitate sustainable living and permaculture. Buffalo - family oriented /inner city co-op. Japan, Scotland - want to start co-ops. Berkeley - graduating from USCA but still wants to live in a co-op. Ann Arbor - same deal. Madison - starting a co-op that's more like co-housing (less dorm-like, not downtown). Montreal - starting an ecovillage. East lansing - curious about starting. Austin - plenty of student co-ops; want to start a non-student co-op. Wants to restart a bookstore co-op that was put out of business by Barnes and Noble, and put BN out of business. Bike co-op starting. Another post-USCA co-op. Maryland food co-op wants to expand to books and bikes. One of the most ambitious projects is MUCS in Montreal. In Cambridge, ON a group of architecture students has set about designing and building their co-op ("The Grand House") from the ground up. And so on.

Our fledgling house-less co-op attended Institute under the banner of "Rochester Organising Group" and joined NASCO as a 10-member organisation. At Saturday banquet a co-op flag was bestowed upon us. There was much rejoicing, but of course this co-op is at this point mostly just a dream. I made contact with the fine folks from Nickel City co-op in Buffalo and already we have great plans, for potlucks but also for a tour de co-op bicycle tour from Buffalo to Rochester (and on to Ithaca?) in the Spring. We schemed with NASCO staff, and much information was exchanged.

Even the ride home was eventful. Throttling down through the final stretches of our transit through Canada, we began hearing a horrible rattling, grinding noise from the engine, and it quickly got worse. We pulled off the highway onto the shoulder. No doubt about it: horrible noise, impeded ability to move forward. In neutral, though, the engine sounded fine. Peering into the engine compartment revealed nothing amiss, and so, with sadness, we settled on a grevious conclusion (acute death of automatic transmission!) and, with some trepidation dialed the number for AAA, wondering whether they could help us in this foreign land. The words "Canadian Automobile Association, how may I help you?" caused great relief. The tow-truck driver arrived, and when he said "Hey there boss, you've got a flat tire, eh?" I felt like a complete moron. But a very happy moron.

We bumbled on home to Rochester at a liesurely 45 miles per hour, through the towns and villages and farmland via highway 5 (which roughly parallels the thruway -- which would have been pointless in our incapacitation). On the way I noticed an odd bluish greenish glow to the north. Is that the Northern Lights, I wondered. Or some odd effect of the clouds and the moon? The effect faded and I concluded it must have been something funny with the clouds. But then maybe a half hour later, the Aurora burst forth in unmistakable ways, curtains of green, pulsing and shimmering and throbbing and fading across the whole Northern sky, punctuated by a single meteor. Up through the villages we rolled along, the aurora disappearing behind clouds and the amber glow of the metropolitan area. At nearly 5am, with a weekend total of 822.5 miles, I rolled onto our street while a very soggy first snow fell from the sky.

Now I need to take a little vacation from thinking about co-ops. Fortunately ("fortunately"!) there is a ominous monstor lurking here, ready to devour at least 150% of my time: school.