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.

If you are 18 years of age or older and live in Eugene, Springfield, or anywhere in Lane County you are eligible to join! 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 1623 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

February 4th – We will be taking a look at the Just Transitions strategy for moving to a regenerative economy. With all that is happening, it is clear that there WILL be a transition. How can we prepare for that? These readings focus on the Indigenous Principles of Just Transitions. You can expect that we will:

• Familiarize ourselves with these foundations and discover alignment or lack of alignment with the perspectives of front-line defenders.
• Explore whether we might find the Declaration to be an Agreement of Alliance that we can rally behind and with, to help identify allies and partners, and to facilitate focus and consensus process within Cooperation Eugene moving forward.

Here are three PDF files to read in preparation for the meeting.

This YouTube video offers you a brief introduction to the perspective.

Previous Readings

• “Sparking the conversation in your community: A DIY guide to planning your own community wealth building summit“, by Justine Porter
• “The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few”, by Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard
• “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.