Post-party post!
EDIT: We meant to post this weeks ago, but only got it all together today, the day after the election! So that this post doesn’t seem totally irrelevant for the moment, I wanted to add a little preface coming from our Membership meeting we held today discussing how these times relate to the project we are engaged in.
I remember that we first started meeting about this project as a group in the last summer of Trump’s previous presidency… In a way, it could be seen as a response to that disruption or more broadly a response to some of the same current underlying his support. Yes, it is about meeting our collective material needs for housing and home and safety, a theme that has come up again in particular in relation to immigration and the backlash against it. As a community, how do we want to meet the people who come here? Do we have the capacity to hold their needs and our own? The question though speaks to our ability to even have a conversation as a community about responding to impending crises through our values. To do so, we have to actually be able to build power and work together as a group. So coming into the the new reality today, I was actually reflecting on how we haven’t been sleeping since he was last in office. We have been organizing, trying things out, and seeing how we can actually build power without the permission of elected officials. We know we can’t wait for solutions from above to meet our needs. We have to do that together.
It’s in times like these where we get to decide how we want to show up in the world. We can decide to move from fear, to get our own, protecting only ourselves and our chosen group of people, retreat, and cut ourselves off from the world. Or we can step into our shared responsibility to meet these needs together, finding ways to direct our energy towards our collective safety. We will continue making mistakes and doing it imperfectly, but I hope we can learn together as we build this power and come to terms with the reality of our world and our place in it here in the US. So all that to say, every crisis is an opening, a chance to re-examine our assumptions about the world, and come into deeper alignment with our values and responsibilities. Let’s do it together! - Saul
A huge thank you to everyone who came out and helped us celebrate this big win last week! So many people from so many aspects of this journey coming together, lots of energy around the project, so good to be together!
Thank you to all those who spoke, from projects as established as the Valley Community Land Trust, one of the oldest land trusts in the country who holds the land VHC is on, to our newest land preserving entity the Valley Alliance for Land Equity, and more in between. Those speeches were recorded and are available below! In the time since we gathered, we’ve been enjoying reading articles by the Greenfield Reporter and Montague Recorder covering the event.
Crowd listens as our wonderful caterers Tortilleria Semilla speak about their cooperative
My favorite parts of the day were people approaching us with interest in living on site and interest in becoming members of our governance circles. We are a small co-op operating in a sociocratic non-hierarchical governance model. If you were excited by any aspects of our work, be it membership, housing, land stewardship, financing, or mission, please consider being a member and joining a circle. Most circles meet max once per month and are a great way to contribute to the development of this project! Consider becoming a monthly dues paying community member to support our work and join any circle meeting!
Thanks again for a wonderful day. Despite the drizzles and gray, it was so brightening to be together!
With love,
Nina, on behalf of the Valley Housing Co-op membership circle
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P.S. Check out our shared photo album and add any photos you took!
P.P.S. If you were enjoying the music, check out the land trust party playlist – thank you Meem & Matti for crafting it!
