Cooperation Eugene

The Lane Service Sharing Network (LSSN) is a concrete manifestation of caring community for Eugene, Springfield, and all of Lane County, Oregon. It’s a way for people to give and receive valuable skills outside the monetary economy along the model of a “neighbors helping neighbors” Time Bank or Hours Exchange.

In this type of system 1 hour always equals 1 hour, no matter the service being exchanged. You give your time and skills to someone in the network and receive time credits which you can then use with anyone else in the network for a service they provide.

LSSN allows us to ask the questions, “How can I serve?” and “What do I need?” rather than “Can I afford it?” and “Does it pay enough?”. It gives us a structure to get our needs met through community, even if the mainstream economic system were to collapse.

We are currently in a beta testing phase where early adopters are jumping in to get things going and are helping us smooth out the rough edges in our process by giving feedback as they participate. Anyone is welcome to join at this point! If you live in Eugene, Springfield, or anywhere in Lane County, Oregon, see the “How Do I Become a Participant” page of the LSSN time banking website for more details.

The Cooperation Eugene Study Circle learns about the theory and practice of systems change for the regenerative economy. We organize monthly conversations about books, articles, movies, podcasts, videos, etc. that address “What’s next?” more than “What’s wrong?” We meet the first Tuesday of the month at 7 pm at Maitreya EcoVillage 1641 West Broadway. During the cold months we are meeting in Rob and Debbie’s living room.

Membership consists of an email list that will be notified of upcoming titles. To get on the list, or if you have any questions send email to: StudyCircle [at] CooperationEugene [dot] org or call Alberta at 818-903-6125. Members can choose to attend only the meetings with topics of interest to them.

A 4-person selection committee takes recommendations for material that members have previously reviewed and determined to be in the scope of the group.

Join us for an educational discussion!

Upcoming Meetings

December 10th (NOTE: Second Tuesday this month rather than the usual first!) – “The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few”, by Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard. The book is short and offers a hardcover, kindle, and audio version – no paperback right now. There’s also a 50-minute presentation of the book launch that provides a pretty good summary. Here’s the link for that: https://www.fiftybyfifty.org/2019/08/the-role-of-employee-ownership-in-an-economy-that-works-for-all/

Alberta has a few books left if you want to purchase one for $22 or if money is tight, you can read our library copy. Please let her know by next week, November 12, via email at apedroja [at] gmail [dot] com. They’re from Tsunami Books, our local book store.

Here’s the book’s blurb: “Society long ago democratized government, but we have never democratized the economy,” says Marjorie Kelly, co-author of The Making of a Democratic Economy, with Ted Howard. In their new book, they tell stories of an emerging economy that is designed to benefit the many, not the few. It is an economy, says Kelly, that takes us beyond the binary choice of corporate capitalism versus state socialism. It’s an economy with broad-based ownership, one that values people over capital and that works within planetary boundaries—because humans are a part of a living system and cannot survive without protecting and sustaining the planet on which we live.

January 7th – We expect an interesting, real-world discussion on January 7th. Cooperation Eugene is planning to host an economic democracy summit toward the end of 2020. This is a discussion in which leaders from around Eugene from various sectors are invited to a discussion in which we pose that the problems we all face are from a single underlying cause and the solutions lie in our ability to understand this and unite.

Poughkeepsie, NY, held a summit similar to this and wrote up a PDF how-to document which you will find here. The Study Circle discussion will consider how we can create a Eugene version of that project.

Previous Readings

• “Sacred Economics”, by Charles Eisenstein
• “The Approaching Great Transformation: Toward a Livable Post Carbon Economy”, by Joel Magnuson
• “Community: The structure of belonging”, by Peter Block
• “The Fifth Sacred Thing”, by Starhawk
• “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World”, by Paul Hawken
• “Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds”, by Adrienne Maree Brown

We have a number of ideas for future projects we would like to pursue. We are also open to proposals. The New Economy movement is ripe with possibility and there are so many great things going on all over the world that serve as inspiration. Here are a few of our ideas:

Community Development Financial Institution – We want to offer people a way to invest their money locally. This may start on a smaller scale of peer to peer lending and/or organized crowd sourcing. We hope to support purchases of land and start-ups of worker cooperatives.

Community Land Trusts – We have already had folks in our community talk to us about how to transform their private property to community assets. Some neighbors want to take land out of the speculative market and develop it for affordable housing. Creative models for this kind of community housing solution are in the works by other Eugene organizations. Let’s collaborate!

Cooperative Enterprise Incubation – There are many creative people in this community that want to put their ideas into action. Let’s build businesses that meet local needs, provide good paying and meaningful work, and give stakeholders ownership.