Social change this week (by Lottie)

I've been working on this new webcomic, which is a bit polyamorous and genderly interesting. I'll share a link when I've got a few more comics up; I hope to do another today. I also went to a great skill-sharing, crafty get-together with some of the Transition Crafts people, and I went to a Bi Swansea meeting, and a Golem meeting. Then there was shopping, cooking and cleaning up for the co-op. So not as much as usual, but more out-and-about things.

This week I am ill with this evil cold that's floating about, and I'm also going to Paris, so goodness knows how I'll make my 16 hours...!

The Joy of Meetings (by Hannah)

I don't know how many hours I've done this week which could count towards my social change quota, but  I do know that they have virtually all been in meetings.

Social change again (by Lottie)

Helloo, :)

This week for social change I've done 17 of my 16 hours thusly:

The last of the tiny hats, various co-op meetings, leaflets and publicity for loanstock, going to view a house, and shopping and cleaning up and cooking for the co-op. I've also been ensconced in co-ordinating the co-op for a Suma bulk order thingy, which is going quite well.

Hurrah! Not very radical, but a bit radical.

Learning from experience (by Lottie)

Today we went to have a look around the property we love so much, and because the academic year has started the rooms were full of students. We could only look around two of the eight bedrooms, and the students have signed contracts to stay in the property until June 2011. Not ideal, as tenants must be members of the co-op, so we couldn't let them stay there and pay us rent until June either.

So what we've learned is, before we view a house, to ask the estate agent to confirm with the vendor that the house is empty or can be empty right away. Twice now we've arrived at a house to have a look around, only to be told by the estate agent that the house is occupied!

We're not ruling it out right away, but it certainly looks like we won't be moving house any time soon.

Golems - or "So why are you called the Golem Housing Co-op anyway?"

Well its a bit of a long story.

We're forming a co-operative because we don't like the idea of a house being an asset. We don't care about how much the thing is worth in 10 years time - we just want somewhere to live. We'd be pretty committed to this idea regardless, but the current state of the housing market in the UK seems to be emphasising our point. House prices are too high. The reasons they are too high are numerous - we're a densely populated island, we have strict planning laws and a shortage of land. But the big one driving all of this is speculation. If a house is seen as an asset then its value as a useful item is irrelevant to how much it costs. People will keep on paying ridiculous prices for houses so long as they think that in the future somebody will pay even more. Though fortunately this may be finally changing.

So as well all of the other benefits of setting up a co-op, one really good ancillary effect is taking a house out of this crazy speculative market. This house will never need to be bought or sold again. It can go on being a housing co-op until its no longer a house. Plus, once the mortgage is paid off, the money made from rent can be used to buy more houses, to transform them from assets to homes. We like to think of it as a socially conscious, very slow revolution.

Now I'm going to take a bit of time out from talking politics, to tell you about Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett writes about the discworld, a semi-comic fantasy world where all the mythical creatures you can think of are real, and are looking for jobs. The golems of discworld however, are property. As virtually indestructable beings made of clay, from ancient times, their ownership has been passed on for far longer than anyone can remember. The golems for the most part seem to accept their lot in life, existing primarily to work. Then one day a man buys a golem, and gives that golem his own receipt.

After some initial ill-thought out destruction vested upon his former owner's business premises, the now free golem seeks employment. Seeing as he is a large clay statue, he has no need of his wages, and so saves them until he has raised enough to buy another golem, and another. Soon there are dozens of free golems, all working not for their own benefit, but to extend the freedom of their race. A truly socially conscious revolution. If they are property, what stops them from buying themselves out of the market?

Well, if it works for golems, why not for houses?

Leaflet: We has it. (by Lottie)

Ohai,

So today me and Sven wrote up a leaflet telling people about loanstock, why we want it and how much it helps us. Here it is on Google Docs ; though the format is a bit different, it gets the message across quite well. If you feel inspired to print it off and give it to friends who might be interested, please go ahead! ;) We've put posters and leaflets in our Environment Centre and the Dylan Thomas Centre.

We also checked out the Nationwide Building Society account for organisations, and it was pretty limited. Our search for environmentally-minded, co-op savvy solicitors hasn't advanced far yet. As Hannah mentioned, we'll surely have more news for you after our next meeting!

Lottie

Busy Bees (by Hannah)

Everything's gone into overdrive here, since we discovered that a house that we liked but could previously not afford is now going at auction. Last night our planned Secondary Rules workshop (click here for an insight into the idea of Secondary Rules) was usurped by a four hour planning meeting, in which I learnt more about the process of buying a house than I ever expected to know. Impressively, I found the whole thing fascinating, especially once we'd written a timeline and thuswise made sense of it all. There is so much for us all to learn.

The process may be complex, but the beauty of working as a co-op is that people can take on roles most suited to themselves, and there is always extra support available for tricky jobs. Sven had two volunteers to help with creating the loanstock flyer, and though Lloyd was happy to work on the provisional business plan by himself, there are two volunteers to help him if he feels that he needs it. Me and Lloyd's mission today was to research potential bank accounts with the Co-operative Bank. Sven and Lottie were dispatched to Nationwide, as some co-op members bank with them and we wanted to ensure we had several options. I haven't heard the Nationwide feedback yet, but I was pleased to discover that the Co-op Bank has a special bank account for co-ops. This is perhaps unsurprising, as they are a co-op themselves, but they will not give mortgages to housing co-ops, so before we went along I wasn't 100% convinced they'd be able to help us. We'll be deciding which to go for at a future meeting.

We all came away from the meeting with jobs to do, and I'm sure there will be more progress and exciting news before the week is out :-)