July 2016 Committee Reports

Steering Committee Update

Together with our other workgroups and committees, your Steering Committee is continuing to build capacity for the NYC REIC. At our June 12 open meeting, we presented our proposal for the legal entity that the NYC REIC should form, based on research of the Fordham Law School Clinic and input from the Governance Committee. You can see the slides from the legal team’s presentation here.

Your Steering Committee has decided to implement one of the legal structures outlined by the Fordham’s group: we will form a Member-Controlled Not for Profit Corporation with special purpose entity Limited Liability Company subsidiaries. Our reasons for going with this structure are explained here. You can view and comment on the REIC’s adopted legal structure right now by clicking here.

We hope you will join us at our July 28 All-Member Meeting and let us know your comments on this legal structure. As noted in the July newsletter, we are also developing a proposal regarding the governance model to accompany the entity structure that has been adopted. We will circulate a separate email inviting comments on this governance model proposal prior to July 28 so that everyone has a chance to comment on the governance model, either online or on July 28th

Based on your comments, following July 28, the Governance and Steering Committees will refine the governance model and work with our legal advisors to draft bylaws that are consistent with the revised proposal. This way we will be ready to come to consensus and start turning our proposals into actions by our next Quarterly All-Member Meeting in October.

We are on our way! Please write us at steering@nycreic.com with any questions or comments. Plug in to the process of forming our investment cooperative by attending our open meetings, posted on the NYC REIC calendar, and other upcoming WG meetings.

 

Scoping Workgroup Update

The Scoping Workgroup is nearly finished in its work developing a set of criteria for projects that the NYC REIC wants to collaborate with local organizers to fund. The general goals for this document are three: (1) clearly communicate an intention for the kinds of projects the REIC wants to work with / support, (2) communicate why certain projects should be supported, and (3) allow NYC REIC to say NO to some potential investment projects so that we can confidently say YES to others. The latest draft of our criteria is here and we continue to refine it with in-person meetings and online editing sessions. If you want to get involved, contact: nyc-reic-project-scoping@googlegroups.com.

 

REIC University Update

JOIN US! On July 21st, REIC U will host a public film screening and discussion of the film Rerooting the Motor City: Notes on a City in Transformation. We have a limited number of seats, so please be sure to RSVP! If you are interested but not sure if you can make it, please email John Guzek (guzekjc@gmail.com) so that we can keep an accurate headcount for the night.

In the coming months, REIC U will continue planning film screenings and panel discussions. In the future we will return to organizing a training for REIC members regarding cooperative membership and community engagement, creating an official Wikipedia page, maintaining an up-to-date and centrally organized series of presentations and printed materials to educate new members on the status of the REIC, creating blog posts about other cooperative real estate ventures and more.

Please email nyc-reic-case-studies@googlegroups.com to get involved.

 

CORB: Community Outreach & Relationship Building 

This group is seeking new members with great community organizing skills. We are looking for someone who can help us build our community engagement model and educate the membership in best practices in how to reach out to communities and work together with them, in a horizontal, democratic, grassroots way.

We haven’t yet planned our next meeting, but you can always contact us at: nycreic–public-buildings-inventory-group@googlegroups.com to get involved.

 

Arts & Media Committee Update

Post! PLEASE post to the REIC blog! Contact Leland at leland.cheuk@gmail.com to post on a topic specific to your workgroup or anything else related to the REIC

See:  http://nycreic.com/blog/

Join! Please contact Mark Read at newsletter@nycreic.com if you are interested in joining the Newsletter Team! We need people who can write, edit and design in Mailchimp.