Community community

Is that something people would even need/want here?

Whatever happened to this market?

Thanks to some of you commenting about how you like reading my small chronicles of our local market economy I feel like I have to write something, but it's hard to put down. It's been a while and there have been so many twists and turns.

So just a few days before market 2 bf and I fell out, badly. The organizing activities we manage to brew up in our free times might paint us as enlightened, calm, peaceful and kind individuals. Which we are, until we're not. It started as a discussion about some shade to cover the market square. Before we knew it we were at bf jumping ship and me standing there with the market, having to decide whether to cancel it or continue.

It didn't take me that long to decide, it's a community market, there's been a few people who consistently helped - the right way to do things seemed to assemble them, tell them what happened and ask them if they want to continue supporting it. And so, suddenly, the market team was a small group, discussing together whether the market should happen, and how. But not just the market found support, also I found a temporary place to stay, people offering shoulders to cry on and breakfast and advice. Must I mention that the car broke down at the same time? It gave me an excellent opportunity to walk everywhere for a few days and ponder about the future.

The organizing itself didn't really need much more work, all we needed was to hang up signage, receive people and tell them where to put their stands, and let the market unfold. There was however some thunderstorm brewing at same time and we started following the forecast - orange warning, hailstorms, strong winds. There was a serious risk of damage to people and stuff. In the last hours the heavy storm turned away to elsewhere (some weather magic by the local witches might have been involved) and we decided to go ahead.

On the market day itself I was at same time numb and miserable, so pleased the market was still alive, and determined to enjoy and treat myself. On the first market I didn't even have time to sample all the goodness people brought in! You could get massages, eat vegan, vegetarian and local food, buy plants and crafts and second hand goods, leave your kids in the kid's area ... it was relatively quiet because of the bad weather forecast but there was enough life to make it worthwhile for all.

The friendly, not too hot but dry weather window lasted for exactly the market. It was me and my kid who made sure everything was back in place and clean, in a downpour of rain, after everybody else had gone home. And so endeth the second market, very film noir, very wet and dark.

All while I was left to handle things in the foreground, the bf did the right thing and forwarded all relevant emails and phone calls in the background. Most of the explosiveness of our falling out was ultimately old traumas colliding, and it didn't take us long after the market to carefully reapproach, find a helpful and qualified member of the community to moderate a first talk between us, and organize our life together in a slightly different way. Relationship dynamics, reemergence of old patterns and the struggle against the system in our heads is a long story for another day.

As the rotten parts fall away the market emerges in a new form: as a true community project. A meeting is planned to determine how this group project should work - and already, because nothing is properly defined yet, first frictions have appeared. The next challenge will be learning how to work in a group, and we will need all the good spirits who care to help this little market!

AI has gobbled up my work since the beginning of this year and there is no more funding for the market. We can pay for the next insurance, that's it. Some village politicians are keen to have a nice market like ours and seem to be much more willing to finance fun stuff like a bouncy castle and musicians, so we might have to move at some point, or even become nomadic. If you happen to know a friendly millionaire who would spend a few peanuts of 400€ per month to keep this thing happening, please send them our way.

And now go and organize some markets, even though it puts your relationships and cars at risk. It's worth it, trust me.

So I live in a touristy part of Scotland, and my street is absolutely overrun with "secondary lets" (i.e. someone buys a house in addition to their normal home, and instead of being a normal scumlord, they turn it into a short term rental situation like AirBnB). If you search on my street on booking.com or airbnb, there's a total of 9 that I'm able to count-- and we're a small street! And the next door neighbour has posted a notice on their window that they're seeking a licence to become an AirBnB themselves.

Things of note:

• They're already operating as a short term let. And it's obnoxious. And eroding the community spirit of the, well, community. Because a tourist here for a week is not a member of the street's community.
• When I say next door, I mean I live in a semi-detached house, so this airbnb is/"would be" literally attached to my house. (Americans, think duplex if that terminology is more familiar)
• I literally have not been able to meet the owner of this airbnb in the year I've lived here, which sucks because hey, I like to know my neighbours! But also because we had a rat problem in winter and their side of the building had a massive gaping hole in the front exterior wall, which the exterminator wanted to fill but couldn't because it wasn't our property. We left letters for the owner, even just to introduce ourselves, no dice. I'm salty, yes.

So on to the point of this post. I submitted an objection to this licencing, and was informed of its safe receipt today! But uh they also said in the email "there will be a meeting to discuss the licencing, you are invited to attend and make your objections in person"

I'm not exactly a stranger to public speaking, or trying to be persuasive. But I'm autistic as fuck, out of practice with said public speaking, and also like 8 months pregnant. But I recognise that showing up to speak is going to be influential, moreso than my letter. So I'm gonna haul my pregnant autistic ass to the wherever and make my statements. I do feel like being a heavily pregnant person is going to help my case from an emotional standpoint? Who knows.

But oh god. I'm nervous. I want to have solid facts, solid arguments behind my case. I don't want to come off as a petty NIMBY, I want to present myself as someone who cares about communities being eroded, who cares about people being unable to find affordable housing because everyone and their cat wants an airbnb, and I want to have sources to back myself up. I just feel a bit lost in finding those sources and knowing what to say. Heck, I don't even know what the council will ask! Or expect! Or what it'll be like!

I am taking any and all advice. I'll also be scrubbing the identifying details from my objection letter and sharing it in a comment here, if that's helpful at all.

Do note: "You can do it!" is also a VERY welcome comment right now.

Community centers and libraries are needed and wonderful, but here are some other ideas I love to see:

"Free" cupboards From free little libraries, to food pantries, to tool sheds, and more, these variations on free community cupboards are starting to pop up around the world, and I adore them. Essentially, if you have something you no longer want, you can put it in one of these themed community cupboards so that someone else can use it. Some people are even managing to convince their apartment buildings to put one in their lobby.

Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 | Image 4

Community Vending Machines

If someone opened a vending machine where people could rent a space inside, it could be great for those who want to sell something, but can’t afford to rent a building. Instead, you can rent that spot inside, and test the market for what you are selling for a lot less risk. Even if you rent a whole unit, it could still be less than the cost of renting a full building with staff.

For an example of this in action, vending machines are being used by farmers who are buying them themselves, so that they can make back more profit than what happens in the store. Due to the demand, there are now farmer-specific machines to buy: such as ones just for eggs

“For every dollar we spend on food, only about 16 cents goes to the farmer. ” Tracie McMillan

While I do understand this brings up the whole “what about store workers” topic again, this system is nothing new for farmers. In many farming communities, you will come across a “honour code” stand, where the eggs or whatever else is at the end of the property, and they are trusting you to leave the correct amount of money for what you take. The vending machines do the same thing, but in a more secure way for the farmers.

Also, remember: the people most utilizing these systems are the ones who could not handle the cost or volume needed to have their products in a store.

So, in my opinion, vending machines could be a great stepping-stone for small businesses if more non-brand specific units were available.

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Swap Meets

Swap: If you swap something with someone, you give it to them and receive a different thing in exchange. Collins

Many people today are focused on being hyper-independent; this, however, is not how life has always been for everyone.

Have you ever heard of the term “barn raising?” Barn raisings (aka a raising bee) was when a whole community — especially in 18th-19th century North America — would get together to build a barn or other structure. With so many hands at the ready, they could build an entire barn in a day.

No one would be paid for their work, and the whole community was expected to help. Often, finishing would be celebrated with a feast and dance.

The idea of this is that you help your neighbor with the knowledge that you may need that help in the future.

Instead of taking on every task yourself, you lean on a community to take on some of the load. Here are some examples of how some people are working on this:

🌱 Seeds and Seedling Swaps 🌱

Some communities organize seed swaps, where you have a gathering for people to exchange seeds. This is a great way to swap something you have a lot of for something you have never tried before.

This system is particularly helpful for people who seed save from the previous harvest.

Can’t go with the community option? There are online seed exchanges as well.

Note: in some places, this is illegal. For example, in some of the USA states, patents are held on the seeds themselves. As well as that, there are also laws “intended to protect farmers” from weeds. Some people host these events anyways, while lobbying their local governments to make changes.

https://youtu.be/Fx3TZVi0aH8

🍅 Harvest Exchanges / Crop Swaps / Food Swaps 🍅

While seed swaps tend to happen before the growing season, harvest exchanges happen during harvest times. By then, you will hopefully have produce of some kind from your garden, and if you have extra, you can exchange it with the produce of someone else. For example, if you grow tomatoes, you could leave with some carrots and apples.

This does not have to be on a large scale, either. You could set up a plan with friends where you each grow something different, then plan to swap at the end of the season.

There are also online options f or this as well.

Some of these also expand into finished goods; such as baked food, canned foods, and so on. These are called “Community Food Swaps.” There is are online directories for these.

https://youtu.be/bAmD2VAFSos https://youtu.be/NtVnaN2Yw0Y

👚Clothing Swaps 👚

I hope you are getting the idea by now, but just in case, people gather, and exchange clothes that no longer fit or no longer match their style, for clothes they do need.

Putting it simply, the events have tables (organized by clothing type and size) for you to put your clothing onto. You can go to any table, and grab the clothes you need.

If there are any clothes not claimed by the end of the event, they can be donated.

https://youtu.be/YCXk6_GkWYY

🧠 Knowledge Swaps 🧠

If you have a skill of some kind, you may be able to swap it for the knowledge someone has on a different subject. For example, if you know how to fix jewelry, that might be worth trading for someone who knows how to mend clothing.

For these, you literally exchange the skills by teaching the other person. Any skill you have, even holding chopsticks properly, could very well be a skill someone wants to learn, so do not doubt yourself.

https://youtu.be/t4obaRqDNis

🛠 Work Swaps 🛠

Just as it sounds: you exchange a job for a job. For example, let’s say you are good at graphics design but need a sink fixed; you could give a plumber the logo they need for marketing, while they repair your sink.

The crumbles

Out here where we are organizing our market, Southern Europe middle of nowhere, many of the original inhabitants have left decades ago and there are many empty houses and abandoned farms. There has been a steady influx of foreigners in the last decades, many of them seeking refuge from something, from unsafe conditions in their countries of origin, rigid school systems and overcontrolling state powers, poverty, high property prices in their home countries, war, disconnect from nature, pollution, persecution.

With the summer heat returns the fear of wildfires - every year some part or another of the landscape catches fire, houses and farms and sometimes animals and people burn. It would help if more people lived here and cared for the land, and if the local authorities didn't encourage the planting of pine and eucalyptus monocultures. There is an underlying feeling that everyone would rather be left alone by all the rules and regulations that stifle each and every activity, but some facade has to be kept up towards an increasingly absent central power, and lets face it, some rules and regulations keep the more desperate from wrecking the last bit of landscape that is left.

As for absent power, I'm still trying to create an association, but nobody of the places supposedly available seem to want to do it. The only powers always ready to become active are those authorized to collect fines! I've spent the last couple of days somewhat enraged about that, which isn't very healthy. The second edition of our market is coming along nicely however, with a collective spamming of posters on every surface in this and the neighbouring towns, and sharing it on social media. The old plus some new stallholders are eager to arrive, we are growing the number of stalls quite significantly ...

In the background, people are coming together and approach us about sharing costs and give advice around cutting costs. I'm not pushing any of it, it's still mainly our investment and it's worth it. People will be more comfortable to step in when we get a monthly event going, and we'll continue as long as we aren't going hungry - and there seems to be plenty of food everywhere we turn up, so it might be a while.

Which brings me back, again and again, to the idea of value. In the case of people living here, more and especially younger people provide value. So the different refugees and especially their children are quite welcome. There's language courses to help people fit in, bureaucracy seems to have a somewhat loose interpretation to help people settle around here, and we have heard many times from locals how happy they are that some life returns to the region! The return of life means the necessary work gets done. In our case, we couldn't get our car repaired. In fact, we were forced to organize the whole first edition of the market with a tiny microcar which is falling in pieces. When it didn't pass the inspection we realized getting mad at the mechanic wasn't helping, so we just made a deal and sent our resident young person to go do something useful and help the man in his workshop (or: sacrifice my firstborn to get my car fixed, depends on your perspective). I find that everybody wins, for now. No money involved, but value created. A friend seems to have been helping out in the local cheese factory and I'm considering it as well, as a learning experience and to support the tiny local business.

These developments slot in nicely with some ideas another friend had about a 'school of volunteers' where youngsters would be getting to know different eco-projects and businesses of the region. It satisfies a need: the tiny family businesses we have around here can't always afford permanent staff but often might need some people who can jump in and help. And also, people don't want to do 8 hours of the same, every day. My coop ideas are very much also connected to these issues. So this working without the formal form of cooperative is maybe even better, more flexible. Make it part of the culture again.

This invites to re-inspect my perception of value and the many ways value does not have to relate to money. To let go, at least for a while, of the idea that money provides safety, and welcome the idea of community providing it instead, and find out together how we would shape this community to be comfortable for the many different people, cultures and ideas that it is made up of. And how to integrate this manifold human community into the larger landscape of non-humans and make this into an abundant circle of life. For this to happen we might have to treat our money in more unconventional ways, to not hold on to it too much and invest in community wherever we can. And invest in handmade stuff, because handmade craft slows down the stream of resources. So it's important that the market be for crafts and second hand things and locally grown and made food - these being things of real value compared to cheaper, mass-produced stuff.

Happening as well: Yesterday I got myself a mild sunstroke walking way too fast and far through this landscape I love, with a rather tougher-than-me group of elderly locals, but it was worth it because someone explained me how to make a brush from a local plant. The feverish hours spent in a dark room afterwards were invaded by ideas of how to foster the mushroom-growing capabilities of ants for easier mushroom cultivation. Yay for multicultural and interspecies community, and a liveable future for all!

Towards the second edition

After the first market being a success we felt we had to continue building on what we started. So we called a meeting with the townhall again to confirm a second date. They took their time to receive us (we should have been professional and book the market aftermath meeting beforehand) and confirmed our date. And then, after we immediately started distributing the information and receiving stallholder registrations, unconfirmed it again two days later because apparently we are too close to a voting booth, which the law doesn't permit.

We sent them a rather unkind email. Had a somewhat heated meeting, and changed date, and then scrambled to let everyone know. One of the townhall people was really quite offended and emotional about the fact that we questioned their commitment, and I'm still confused by the fact how much emotion we stirred up with that. It's like they are completely out of their depth and make things up as they go, and they look mostly overwhelmed - not that different from what we are doing. I guess we were actually lucky that whoever came to shove that law into their faces didn't decide to wait with it until a day before the market.

We are, so far, still losing money. I'll have time to come up with a collection of things to sell to support ourselves in this one, among ram pumps, trees and used goods. We also had a long discussion about the real worth of things, worth that has nothing to do with money. The seeds that are created even when you fail, the young people inspired to try and create something one day, the connections created with these events. It's all worth it.

This is the first time the townhall confirmed not only that creating an association would be useful, but also that (and how) we could ask for financial support, and that they will support us in doing so. I feel we are now in the category of 'annoying but useful' and we also meet a lot of people who we might tag in a similar way. We know they are ultimately aligned with what we want (create a resilient community in our region) but the way they do things doesn't align perfectly with our ideas. We'd rather limit our exposure to them if we can or don't really think their methods work, but they are welcome anyway. That's the heart of community, especially a multicultural one - the daily work of getting along also with those whose goals are close enough. It means people need to have space to get out of each other's way, and that one also has to maintain a fierce stance for tolerance and being non-judgemental while keeping one's own integrity intact.

We are learning a lot about different cultures. Someone invited themselves over for coffee in a rather abrupt way, and there I was confused, scrambling to produce some coffee in my unprepared kitchen! Just to find out it's more of a figure of speech somewhere else as a way to ask if the person is prepared for someone else to pop by - actual coffee not necessarily expected.

And so edition two of the market is on the way, with a lot of friends from the last time getting ready to appear. This time the anxiety is way lower. There's so much less to organize, we'll have electricity and shade, according to the townhall.

Meanwhile our market activities are just one of many little things happening around here and bringing people together. The cultural bandwidth of events we've visited only in the last month is making us a little dizzy. And each of the places we visit brings another element to our mix. We went, pretty much in one row, to: a business-y and cautious kind of meeting with people from a large local eco-tourism project who would like to hold our event on their (beautiful but not public) terrain, the weekly clothes-farmers-food-everything market where I buy my sourdough bread, a rainbow gathering held by neighbours who will grace our next market with a vegetarian food stand, a quite surprising circus performance in the next town's market hall, a renaissance fair ... it's nice and diverse here already with a lot of inspiring stuff being created, and we're surfing through all of this inviting everyone to the market.

We have help from people distributing flyers now. We've convinced the right people to run food stands. Might be that on the next market we just can lean back and enjoy.

Fun fact: I was super pleased to hear that locals call our market the 'Come-ons market', 'Come-on' being a slightly derisive term for expats, and an excellent word-play with 'Commons'. Couldn't have come up with it myself. And I really like how the organization is playing out, with the right people already in place ready to advertise our event, and not just us this time - so it is turning into a multicultural Commons Market just as planned.

A day of plenty, and more to come

We even got a few hours of sleep before, and then the first half of the actual market day was us running to set up. I must have walked several kilometers and answered more incoming phone calls than I had time to get nervous about before noon. Just as we had hoped, there were enough people to give us a hand, plus we had hired a few young friends to help out and man our badly thrown together food stand (it didn't burn down at least, we learned how to do it next time).

The second half of the market we had some time to see the miracle unfold. Square full of colorful stands, plenty of smiles, so many happy people. People thanked us for the good organization (?). We weren't well organized and forgot so much stuff, we were making everything up as we went. It just happened that our supporters were incredibly good at finding out where they were most useful, and all stallholders patient and friendly, and everyone contributed to the magic.

We even created a questionnaire to find out what to improve next time and got useful feedback.

The result is, people want to do it again, they really loved it, with only few things to improve. And so we are, for now, accidental market organizers.

Now we have this incredible buzz and enthusiasm we can build on. Registrations for the next edition arrived the evening after the market. We didn't rest the day after, as we had hoped, but made sure to collect everyone's feedback and thank everyone involved and start planning improvements.

And the cooperative? And what about subverting people?

I spent the last night before the market printing out a presentation I had written and designed, with as little text and lots of images, to try and get make people consider their work situation, and how they would like to improve it. I don't think anybody saw it. I had a nice idea about how to present this in a sort of interactive labyrinth with a haunted house style but no time to set it up properly, so there it was, forgotten in an unvisited corner of the market. Communication and creative challenges ahead, and I'm curious how to take them on. Probably the right people will appear to help make this real.

The cultural exchange did happen, and needs time to deepen. Because of the language and culture difference locals and new inhabitants often don't interact much and some people can be very shy around each other. We managed to have a lot of locals with stands and as visitors, mixed in with the foreign crowd, and mixed visitors thanks to our careful promotion in both communities. I consider this point a very effective and very important step towards living together in peace and getting along between the different communities around here. I feel that the people in the local town hall are with us in this, and I'm glad it's that way. A whole lot of town hall folk appeared to have a look and buy trinkets. As for police, I didn't even notice them, but people reported they appeared once in the beginning, once at the end, stayed in the background and far out of the way, and left without bothering anyone during or after, as far as I'm aware.

So no concrete steps taken towards a cooperative as I have envisioned it, although we now consider forming one as a small family team for event organization, seems we've discovered a hidden talent. At same time the market as the most simple and unregulated of economical exchanges is clearly the way to go for now, without need to (immediately or ever) grow it into a factory sized project or a legal entity. I know myself to be a person to get hung up on formats, channels, ways of delivery, while missing the already there and the obvious. It must be an autism thing.

The immediate

So far it has been a great experience. It is funny how the initial project changed shape as needed. The market is hopefully to continue to happen every month, and other projects and ideas start growing out of this event as well. So picking a realistic scale can happen during the process, if you permit the process to remain flexible. In the moment the local community doesn't need or want a community center, but a spot to meet once a month to exchange news and goods in a relaxed festive atmosphere with good food and drink, and that's also the perfect place to mix and mingle among cultures and talk to and learn from each other. Seeds for further cooperation in the future are being planted like this in a fairly easy way.

Just a few days left before market

Another nailbiting weekend. We could do without these, but they remind us to return to the basics: garden, animals, each other, and not worry about too much.

The generator rental has clearly taken their business practices out of a bad dating manual: 'Don't make yourself too available. Keep things a little mysterious.' Friday they were suddenly not sure they could arrange the distribution board for our generator. (After at first claiming they didn't even have any distribution boards for rent, and then yes they did after all ... ) Monday we drove back to the generator rental, find another solution (several small generators?). To be told: 'after all, distribution board will arrive with generator on Friday'. Thanks, generator rental?

Which lead to practical problem 2: what do with generator after market? Not great to be out on the street, and worse, will be blocking the space of the usual bi-weekly farmer's market. Also, had to negotiate about some more infrastructure to use there. We met with more town hall people (this town is so small that everything is relatively uncomplicated and informal). One technical guy (of those who do actual work) quickly solved all our problems to our utmost satisfaction.

Throughout the organization I've lost most of my usual shyness. Just phone calls are still a bit of a struggle. I do answer most of them but still avoid making them and forget to note down people's names every time.

Few days missing, I've been out distributing flyers and posters. Should have printed more. We are counting with 40-50 stands, hope we fit everybody in, and sort out the last bits before market day.

Cooperative? Spent a lot of time talking with a small group of people wanting to create one, and also spoke to other community members to find out what are their needs, spent time trying to understand what is the difference between a cooperative and an association, and what would fit people's needs better, and found that by this slow way of inquiring informally I am getting a good picture. I feel that building a larger cooperative active in different sectors that could be truly democratic and benefit the larger community would take interested people quite a while to create. All would have to study how it functions, build a way of self-organizing, create a business plan together, define membership options based on that ...

For many people a coop is 'something like tool share, food and skill exchange and doing stuff together'. For what I see, creating a coop (a legal entity created for business activities) with this approach risks both self-exploitation ('we can totally run this coop shop based on voluntary work') and being accused of lack of transparency because the core group hasn't defined their setup well enough to communicate it well to others. For what I see if people want to create a legal entity for 'doing stuff together' an association might be the better option. Of course, I might be totally wrong.

I am back to considering a digital solution first because that will actually be a solution for many people - a database with frontend where people can connect and post their skills, stuff to give away, events .... but I will keep inquiring and talking about the coop. For example, I have not much from actual members of coops yet. At least one will be at the market and I'm excited to speak to them!

Happy with all the progress made so far and curious where my meanderings around people lead me next.

I'm wondering about making a voidpunk community here on slrpnk.net. I've got a bit on my plate to handle moderating it right now but it's a serious consideration for me later in the year. Is it a good idea? Do any of you here identify as such as well? I consider myself part of both communities.

Notes from the marketground

Just 12 days before the market event we find ourselves in funny mood between feeling quite simply exhausted, being a little stressed out because there's still so much to wrap up, and also satisfied because there's so much already in place.

Two weeks and two days before the event we went to rent cables because we were informed that the generator we rented does not come with any distribution, after fruitlessly negotiating for power at the new market location with the town. We followed some recommendation into a very difficult to find tiny hidden shop where three helpful guys (electric wizards?) spent an hour drawing diagrams and explaining us how our rented generator will burn if not connected to a proper distribution board (very expensive!) and how the whole thing will surely ruin us. They called quite a few people with different generators, mobile stages, ??? to try and help us out, but to no avail. We then spent a weekend biting nails and asking around for other solutions - as we have to notify the generator people two weeks in advance. Then found out Monday that generator after all can be rented with distribution board and cables, for a reasonable fee. Phew.

We went to create an non-profit association, in the hope of having an official and hopefully cheaper and easier way to deal with purchases, donations and other financial stuff for future market organization, but also to have a sort of playground to experiment with acting as a public organization and find out about the pros and cons. However, bureaucracy won't have us! Behold four different attempts:

1. walk into a registry office, be told creation of association has to be scheduled (Service is called sth like 'Association straight away')
2. email to different registry for scheduling. Be told they don't offer the service (their website says they do)
3. try to phone third registry. Nobody answers the phone
4. email them. They don't offer the service (their website says they do)

I've sent some form to the central office of registries where you can complain about stuff (my council is not in the drop-down list when I'm asked to identify myself !?) I don't think it will do any good anyways. I will try to calm down my murderous heart and try in a different registry per phone and email (will be a 80km roundtrip). It is not easy to organize as a group of citizens, and I was so frustrated about this and the chewing-gum like email exchange asking stuff from town (with really no information given as to how they will actually follow through with the stuff they conceded, further nailbiting).

Other kafkaesk emails were exchanged with the copyright authority for a music license and elaborating further on it would be bad for my health at this point.

In resume, every interaction with the famous 'system' in its manifold manifestations makes me want to scream or punch someone or burn something down, even though I'm by nature the mildest, lamest and laziest granny bog creature you will find on this server. Instead both me and bf were throwing up all weekend forcing us into a well-needed rest and re-consideration as to whether this official kind of organizing is even worth it. (Not the event and community organizing, but the closeness to government/authorities/asking permission etc. vs hiding in the bushes and connecting informally.)

For sorting my own thoughts and to create a sort of presentation/survey for local online groups and market visitors and participants, I have started writing down a few considerations and thoughts about forming a cooperative vs association vs no organization at all. Hope to get a better overview about people's needs and ideas and resume it into something actionable towards the beginning of summer in the latest (leave some days per month for throwing up?). Note to self: my notes are taking overhand, what do?)

To not finish this somewhat tattered report with vomit and worries, here's a wholesome bit: I scored a few hours of babysitting last week! Interacting with a little one resets heart and mind towards the important things, to remember who we are doing this for.

Mess up and mix up in market limbo

On Monday, instead of getting the last bits of gear for the event organized, we suddenly found out we are in major trouble with the site owner. Early on, after he already had agreed verbally to our event, I had sent him a text message to inform him of the support of the council and our event date. He (as I found out now) didn't like the way I did this and decided to simply not respond, but I booked it under 'Didn't say no, will follow up later..' and forgot about it all while we were getting busy with other details.

I got yelled at on the phone about not having his final authorization, which is not a nice experience for someone who is already really phone-phobic on the best of days. I believe I could make out 'we still would like to help' and 'agreement still on' between 'THIS IS NOT DONE LIKE THIS' and 'AN EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL WAY OF HANDLING THINGS' and a lot I couldn't really understand. It reminds me that this project is to build a future where you don't have to beg to people who have more properties than they can care for. But as things are, I had to admit I should have followed up with him, had to write a very polite email describing our event and project in detail.

At the same time me and bf had to agree we don't really like the idea of having to make the site safe. It's a bit of a nightmare in more spots than we had initially realized. Also, the lack of tree shade and natural surroundings seems too off-putting for quite a few of the market people, and we also have had feedback that people would like to have regular markets.

So we've decided to take the market serious as its own thing. I composed another email to the council asking for a better spot (the prime recreational spot in the area). Said we would like to talk about regular markets, and could have an association in place tomorrow to more easily formalize any support from them. We've also, just for ourselves, lined up a few other alternative sites. Something will turn up. We had a talk about the anxiety that comes with all this, and concluded we still lighthearted enough about the whole thing, and will just stubbornly continue to organize, apart from Monday when my period doomsday coincided with the sudden site trouble and I spent the day crying about a range of different matters, as expected.

After a few anxiety-filled days with a market floating in empty space (while still receiving registrations for stands), we got answers from both the original site owner and the council. Council wants to meet us again and make us a proposal. Get the wedding party started. They did not tell us what the proposal is, so now we enjoy a few forced days off, slightly nervous, but we welcome the opportunity to imagine in more detail what we want to dream up here - markets, coop, a permanent space for both projects ... after talking to so many different people out there we now know more about what would be interesting and helpful for people, and what we would personally like to be involved in.

We went to a meeting of another group wanting to set up a cooperative. The question keeps floating in the room: start with one larger cooperative or several small ones? Knowing that it is difficult for most people to work together even in small groups (I explain it with the fact that we all are re-learning how to work self-organized in community) I tend to favour starting with smaller groups. For now, we all seem to be studying, learning and stretching out feelers in different directions to find out what each person wants from a coop, which doesn't always coincide. It's good to find this out before sitting in an already existing coop together, so I tend to prefer wanting to meet more people and different combinations of smaller groups during the next few months, to find out who vibes together, which isn't always obvious. Taking it slow but steady in this phase, learning together but not stubbornly insisting in walking towards one or many coops right now, we might end up with a reasonable number of stable coops with the right people working together. Imagine the positive boost for a region where more and more people work together democratically and self-organize.

Highs and hangovers of event organizing

The surprising success so far (nobody has stopped us, we did not get arrested yet, event keeps collecting registrations) and the sudden shift in our lives from hermits to socialites is taking its toll. And that is something I was less prepared for: when your plan is working and that you are creating something you are now co-responsible for this something. Before, while you are just spinning something out of nothing you do not carry the weight of the already existing.

As a person with a cycle I will have at least one PMS day of doom per moon. As my little monthly doomsday approaches, it leads to the above philosophizing, some agonizing and to me writing poems, and I start realizing how it starts to be more difficult to keep track of all the stuff I'm doing and that I urgently need a day off. Luckily a friend has invited to some adventure that involves walking lots of kilometers, so off I go for a half a day, which is usually a good recipe to get my feet back on the ground.

Next week will see us busy renting a generator, meet people about music, transport, other support, hopefully get stuff delivered to pre-assemble our compost toilets, keep collecting registrations and start cleaning the place - we don't really trust the council to do this well or in time so we decided to be prepared and pro-active. I'm trying to get the school involved, maybe have some art done by the kids during the market and bring more people in, and it looks like someone has arranged a meeting with the director next week. Back to school, ugh, but I'll happily make that sacrifice if we can fill the heads of kids with silly ideas.

Now with the market growing I start having ideas of exposing my shabby little machinery collection - the ram pumps, a solar oven, which adds another two days of work to the preparations. Probably won't have time for all that.

More people are coming out of the woodwork about creating cooperatives, which is excellent, and also leads to more, sometimes difficult to organize, meetings.

Events and markets

We've hired a bouncy castle (bf insists it's crucial for any event, I suspect he just wants to get a good bounce himself), went to the alternative fair and second hand market two towns away and distributed flyers (and got more good food, some chili plants and some good bits of talk in the process). We met the local organizer of that fair who recently came to local fame by chasing the police off the market grounds and tearing up their notes when they got too annoying taking people's identities. An approach to keep in mind.

Ideas

I have set up a meeting with a small group of people who might create a special corner at the event where ideas, wishes, inspiration for a cooperative and community center can be gathered. Incidentally: as in my mind a gradual shift from community center to cooperative happened, someone dear and close has objected to anything too business-focused, and they have a point. Where on one hand the beast having some outside legal structure would make a lot of things more easy - on the other hand the inside form of support and solidarity must be remembered, and remain the inner core of this. Edit: the small group is growing larger. Looks like we are having a full on meeting about the community itself.

Meeting

The small-ish group of people (or local witches' coven as bf preferred to call it) gathered (more tasty food) and a lot of positive energy towards the event was generated, messages sent out, support organized, it was also the first time I had occasion to present a somewhat coherent version of the whole project idea (not just the event) to a few people who all seem to be the competent, not easily offended, practically-minded types who could actually pull off something good. Whatever that might be. Someone asked me how I would feel if all that came out of the event were more regular events in the future, and no coop. I said I would consider it great, that I'd be happy with anything more than what we've got now.

Someone else reminded me of something important I must not forget: if I want people to join a cooperative I need to explain what a cooperative is. And that will force me to actually understand all the intricate details of how coop accounting and employment and decision taking works. The last person to arrive today turned out to know accounting for normal (non-cooperative) companies in the country and is really motivated to get involved, it will be super-helpful to have someone ELI5 me the terminology and concepts!

I had a lot of questions about the money today. I'm actually dumping some of my savings into this (as a somewhat unusual investment in the future). Not horrible amounts, but I don't really have an income right now and just set a sum aside and decided to make this event happen. I suspect some people might think I'm secretly rich, hope to be able to clear that up. I also hope that some paid work (or better, work within a coop setup) comes my way after the event, to stock up the savings again which are for buying our own small homestead. If we blow too much on parties it will be a really tiny homestead lol.

Backend

I've decided to create an instance of Agora to connect people interested in cooperative activities. It's the result of quite a few different self-hosting experiments around different collaboration online services and fediverse platforms. For the people I am trying to serve the Fediverse would be too much at this point I think, so a collaboration platform with a simple news board, file sharing, forum, chat (which I might remove as it will get mixed up with the forum) and neat email functions so send group emails.

After many painful attempts at conversations with people who go visibly dead inside when a technical term like 'server' is mentioned, I realized it needs to be very very simple. The somewhat retro look of Agora might actually help the users find their way around. Then again, someone just added me to yet another Whatsapp group around discussing sth sth cooperative, only that by the nature of Whatsapp I can't see what has been discussed already, so we might as well start at point zero, and that's where I go dead inside o_O

I hate big corpo social media with a passion, so I'm happy to start assembling a few people on this tiny Agora...

I only needed 9 users (incidentally the amount necessary to create a cooperative) to have the first disagreement. Anyway the platform will be more useful when an actual cooperative or other groups are formed that want to coordinate things. For networking to get new people to join it's not really useful, but I like to know that it works before it's needed.

People being people

In the background, some drama around a food buying group organized by another budding coop further away took place, and there always seems to be someone who ends up offended. Well. I've also been added to a messenger group of yet another currently offended party of the surroundings, and of course will try to make them un-offended and involved in the event. I'm curious if I meet anyone on this interesting adventure who manages to push my buttons, it's been a while since I've been offended. Being neurofunky seems to help, mostly I don't even notice when people are trying to be mean (and I might realize it weeks later but by then it's just funny).

Good vibes

All in all, a lot of good vibes are being generated. Yesterday I walked into the local builders shop, our potential neighbours, to drop some flyers, and they were positively enchanted, and will hopefully help out with some material. This evening, people were beaming, and thanking (?) me (??) schmorp, a simple bog creature (???), for creating this initiative!

If you are a lonely bog creature out there reading this: maybe you find it in you to try and build something for your community. Maybe they really enjoy it! What would you like to see thriving? Dream it up, and make it one step at a time! (DISCLAIMER: For some things, one step at a time can mean years. If you are a very young bog creature you might have to start small, or first learn a lot of things. But if you just proceed honestly and stubbornly, seeds will fall and grow!

Connecting with the community

This week we have been starting to reach out to the local foreign community, both personally and on social media. As home butchers, punk rockers and fairly old farts we don't have that much overlap with many of the younger folks who are mostly into yoga, spiritual stuff and vegetarian food. But everybody loves to get together on markets, and everybody is affected by the overwhelm of general dystopia combined with trying to build something better in a foreign country. People do want to build some form of community.

So just by going out there and meeting people (involving food always helps to make things more enjoyable!) a lot of things are happening already. We are eating a lot of cake. We gave away quite a few of the many trees we left to sprout over winter. Hope people care for them and plant them out! We also were gifted seeds, plants and good advice. I met someone again who had kept Harold, a long-forgotten sourdough I once made, alive over 4 years - it brought me to tears to get some of that fucker back and bake good bread again! A solar oven, built during an earlier project attempt, might resurface at some time and a better follow-up model be built.

Why I now believe wholeheartedly that even the tiniest push towards better is always worth it, no matter how weak it seems to be? All this grows on seeds that were planted in the past, where somebody went to some effort to create a world with more kindness and more diversity. A welding workshop for girls I attended when I was 12, organized by some feminist youth worker group in my city. A non-religious temporary tea temple on a beach and the most simple spirituality being a freely offered cup. Human decency in places where I was told it couldn't exist. Seeing someone daring to be different, and taking courage from that. Making a sourdough, and giving it away to someone. Someone choosing to run a decidedly hopeful Lemmy instance.

Whatever you can do, even if its immediate impact seems too small to matter, will matter. Maybe it takes 40 years to reach a noticable size, but it's never lost.

Next steps: I expect a lot more cake in the next weeks, and have invited a few people to discuss cooperative ideas.

Now we need to take care of the practical things for the market. We didn't like the mega-corporation attitude of the toilet rental, so we decided to be cheeky and will set up compost toilets on top of IBCs. If somebody wants to cause a stink because some law let them bring it on. We are also planning a pre-party to clean the space and build the toilets.

Meeting the local council

Before the meeting I wrote another, slightly more detailed description of our project, ourselves (as vague as possible) and the event - all nice and harmless and aligned with the goals for sustainable development - sent it for a last minute proofreading to my kid, and printed it 30 min before the meeting (yes, printer acted up, I should have known better, but I managed).

Four people from the council were present, and they were really friendly and really tried to help. They would have preferred to just integrate our ideas into an event they are planning and not have to think about our separate event, but we just stayed firm, pointed out again that our important community project deserved its own event, reminded that we had this incredible space available. Not like they could have really stopped us. We ended up being offered the council's collection of stands, tables and benches for our event, and maybe a cleaning of the place. Plus, we get to promote the project on the other event as well.

Lots of events. What about the community center? In the last days I have been researching how to formalize our group-to-be and found someone who knows cooperative and association law and can give us advice, and I am reaching out to other existing groups for inspiration and advice.

Next weekend we will both promote the event at another market further away, and meet some people from the local foreign community to present our project ideas.

I'm confident this will manifest in some good things, and I'm also quite dizzy and surprised about the positive reactions so far.

Next steps: find more interesting participants for the event, promote the event, get the necessary equipment booked, start to outline the structure of the project with interested locals.

This thing is really starting to take off. Not bad for something conjured out of thin air and a 'For sale or rent' sign on an empty building!

Setting a date for the introduction event and creating a buzz

We decided to set our date, designed posters and started publishing, mostly on FB and local groups on different messenger apps, despite silence from the town hall until today. I messaged the owner with our date. We also started contacting local people who we would like to invite, and set out requests for market vendors and artists.

This afternoon the town hall got back to us in a polite, but somewhat concerned sounding email, about 'clearing up doubts about our project and request for support' proposing a meeting next week! We are obviously delighted to be important enough to be honoured with a meeting, and have responded that 'we will happily introduce our project, clarify doubts and talk about support'.

We have already some artists and vendors, some associations wanting to present their work, and lots of people being very curious. Somebody offered us a translation and further help, someone else has been connecting me with potential organization structure examples our project could follow.

Best thing about all this: it's a community project and I feel very light about setting its seed and slowly sharing it with others. I am usually very anxious around other people and having to speak, scheduling stuff, having to present things ... and now it's just fun and I am so curious as to where this leads to.

Today we visited the local town hall and asked who to speak with about the initial fundraising and people-raising event. I quickly threw together a paper with the basic data and a wish list to try and get their support. Took only a few minutes and someone came to talk to us, said as we are on private grounds we need no licenses other than an insurance, and to email a formal request for support to the president.

Can't say that I really thought the town hall people would downright stop our event, but talking to politicians and public servants can be a little 'ew' (it wasn't in this case and many local people had advised us to go there and that they would be friendly, but we were nervous before). I'm glad to be able to present our important points about project and event in an email, anyways, which I find a lot easier than talking to people.

So it looks like this event is going to happen! Next step is crafting a beautiful email (currently in work) for the presidente!

Parallel to this work we have started contacting artists, possible collaborators, insurance company (266€ for the event, ouch!). Our date isn't really fixed yet, we plan for 2 months from here. I've started setting up a website, designed a crappy logo and wrote up some descriptions.

I'll document our steps, maybe it can be of use to you if you would like to build a similar thing, or you have good advice for us, because frankly we are making this up as we go. And also, it might help sort my own mind.

So I and my boyfriend get bored easily, and in our local industrial estate stands a huge, empty factory - for rent or sale, with a phone number.

We made a quick list of all the things that could and should exist in a community center and contacted the owner hoping to get him to visit the place with us and agree to allow us to hold a first event in the location.

Apparently he owns another factory, so I first spoke to his secretary, then waited a few days for him to make time for a visit. In the meantime we set up a rudimentary website with a first presentation and crafted sort of a presentation email. Not handling things in my native language, so it can take some effort to come up with sth acceptable.

Then the owner called back and wanted to meet same day, so we went there, three wonderfully unprepared odd people, and since I forgot my phone and the man was late I sent bf for the phone and kid for cake and stood there alone when he and his wife drove up in a big fancy car. I was probably about as clumsy and unbusinesslike as possible presenting our project - because let's be honest, there isn't much of a project yet. I remember some 'in person activism' advice I saw recently that started with 'gather your friends' and the thing is, I don't really have any friends?

The place is huge. On 2500m2 indoor area there's huge rooms, cooling chamber, probably around 150m2 stores of office spaces, another two separate large sheds .... plus 10.000m2 outdoor area. While visiting the place I ended up talking to the woman more and she was kind enough to ask me the right questions to make our idea understandable to her and she warmed up to the whole thing, and so did he. Bf and kid arrived eventually and did another tour through the factory while I stayed talking to the owners outside.

They did agree to the event, skeptically but then they don't have much to lose really. They suggested we should speak to the local council, and get back to them with the event plans.

So, we've basically started with the location because it's just soooo neat, and are now hoping to find people by organizing this event. If we get a large enough group of people wanting to use part of the space we might be able to raise enough money for rent or purchase. We are planning to create an association once we find collaborators.

It's stupidly ambitious, we are enjoying ourselves. If this place or approach doesn't work we'll move on to the next.

Note that communities doesn't just refer to the hippie variety. Community is also: your family, your village, your online friends, your class. Community are the neighbours next door. When I moved into my new home my neighbours came and brought food - and I realized that I really didn't know enough about communities anymore, so I'm here to learn.

A village community is different from an online community. You cannot just change it from one day to the next. Not every expectation in a village might agree with you: there is a soft pressure from some people to join some of the religious festivities and have the priest bless your house, not so much my thing - but it limits full integration and makes that I remain foreign.

I moved into the first community of the hippy/punk variety when I was 17, and even though it appeared a continuous failure at the time (all the conflict, all the people arriving and leaving) it did keep me alive and sheltered and in good spirits for 4 years and the place is still in the hands of a group, not one person, till today, yay.

The real life community you would like to live in, how does it look?

The community you live in now, how is it?

Urban, rural, suburban? Where do people live, how large is their living space? Are there any kids? Animals? Plants? Businesses? How far do people travel from where they are?