Thought: You might want to look at existing cooperative houses for possible models of how to run things. Here in Ann Arbor we have a number of them—although since most of them are part of a central organization (the Inter-Cooperative Council) which takes care of a lot of things, some of that might not generalize very well. Still, there are plenty of other ones not part of such organizations.
NASCO may have a number of relevant resources here—both in terms of, what other co-ops are there to look at, and also more direct resources on how to run a co-op (sample bylaws, lease documents, etc.). I think they have lots of stuff for helping out new co-ops, people trying to start co-ops, etc.
Unfortunately they seem to be focused on student cooperatives, but it looks like as long as your co-op is near a college campus it can join, whether it’s for students or not, and that condition can likely be satisfied. But that’s for existing co-ops anyway; not sure how it works if you want their help starting a new one. But I’m pretty sure they have some way of helping with that? Maybe not NASCO itself? Apparently co-ops which are “development service member” help with this? I really don’t know much about this. But this might make a good starting point.
There does appear to be one NASCO co-op in the bay area, called “Cooperative Roots”. Or you could talk to the Berkeley co-ops (not a NASCO member), though from what I know about them I’m not sure how great a model they would be (I hear they’re very centrally run, with individual houses having little autonomy).
Also thought: Some of the ICC houses in Ann Arbor were originally frat houses before the ICC bought them. That might be one way to get houses. Unfortunately the ones I’ve seen that were obtained this way generally didn’t have layouts that were really optimized to be a good co-living spaces, for whatever reason, but such a house will likely still be better for such than houses not really intended for co-living at all.
Hullo, I’m at the other ICC (Austin TX) and will be visiting ICC Ann Arbor next weekend for my fifth NASCO Institute.
NASCO is specifically about student housing (though it doesn’t need to be 100% students and has helped with a couple non-student co-ops), and all the big organizations I know of are as well, but Austin has maybe a dozen or so independent co-ops that tend to have many more older (as in, >22yo) members. I suspect independent co-ops are closer to what we’d want when scoping viability/structure anyway, since they manage this without dedicated paid staff and typically have a real selection process. (Large orgs avoid those because we don’t want to be sued for discrimination.)
Zoning tends to be a big hurdle in forming co-ops or similar communities. “No more than six unrelated people in one residents” (possibly soon to be four in Austin) makes it hard. It might be easier when you’re not in a college town. These restrictions often seem to be a reaction to students bringing rowdy groups into neighborhoods that don’t want that.
Anyway, I’m interested, but want to stay in Austin for the time being and may have found the co-op for me already (just need to get moving on the application process).
Thought: You might want to look at existing cooperative houses for possible models of how to run things. Here in Ann Arbor we have a number of them—although since most of them are part of a central organization (the Inter-Cooperative Council) which takes care of a lot of things, some of that might not generalize very well. Still, there are plenty of other ones not part of such organizations.
NASCO may have a number of relevant resources here—both in terms of, what other co-ops are there to look at, and also more direct resources on how to run a co-op (sample bylaws, lease documents, etc.). I think they have lots of stuff for helping out new co-ops, people trying to start co-ops, etc.
Unfortunately they seem to be focused on student cooperatives, but it looks like as long as your co-op is near a college campus it can join, whether it’s for students or not, and that condition can likely be satisfied. But that’s for existing co-ops anyway; not sure how it works if you want their help starting a new one. But I’m pretty sure they have some way of helping with that? Maybe not NASCO itself? Apparently co-ops which are “development service member” help with this? I really don’t know much about this. But this might make a good starting point.
There does appear to be one NASCO co-op in the bay area, called “Cooperative Roots”. Or you could talk to the Berkeley co-ops (not a NASCO member), though from what I know about them I’m not sure how great a model they would be (I hear they’re very centrally run, with individual houses having little autonomy).
Also thought: Some of the ICC houses in Ann Arbor were originally frat houses before the ICC bought them. That might be one way to get houses. Unfortunately the ones I’ve seen that were obtained this way generally didn’t have layouts that were really optimized to be a good co-living spaces, for whatever reason, but such a house will likely still be better for such than houses not really intended for co-living at all.
Hullo, I’m at the other ICC (Austin TX) and will be visiting ICC Ann Arbor next weekend for my fifth NASCO Institute.
NASCO is specifically about student housing (though it doesn’t need to be 100% students and has helped with a couple non-student co-ops), and all the big organizations I know of are as well, but Austin has maybe a dozen or so independent co-ops that tend to have many more older (as in, >22yo) members. I suspect independent co-ops are closer to what we’d want when scoping viability/structure anyway, since they manage this without dedicated paid staff and typically have a real selection process. (Large orgs avoid those because we don’t want to be sued for discrimination.)
Zoning tends to be a big hurdle in forming co-ops or similar communities. “No more than six unrelated people in one residents” (possibly soon to be four in Austin) makes it hard. It might be easier when you’re not in a college town. These restrictions often seem to be a reaction to students bringing rowdy groups into neighborhoods that don’t want that.
Anyway, I’m interested, but want to stay in Austin for the time being and may have found the co-op for me already (just need to get moving on the application process).