Report-back from the Quarterly All-Member Meeting:
We held our Quarterly All-Member Meeting on May 7th at Word Up Community Bookstore on Amsterdam Ave at 165th Street in Washington Heights! Find about about the many ways this bookstore is serving, preserving and building the neighborhood, and their open hours, at wordupbooks.com. We hope some of us can join them for their 6th birthday party, which will be a free block party with live music, readings, painting, and more on Saturday, June 17th, 11am–6pm (plus a $10 cover dance party starting at 7pm)!
In the first half of the meeting, members performed a short skit collaboratively authored and directed by the Disappearing Task Force that was charged with planning the May 7th meeting. The skit demonstrated in a fun, interactive, plain-language, and easy to replicate manner how project selection and cooperative investment will work for the REIC. For those who were unable to attend the performance in person, rest assured we will continue to use it as a critical popular educational tool! And if you really can’t wait, please check out these videos of some scenes from the skit at the NYC REIC youtube channel.
In the second half of the meeting, we continued the work of our March 5 organizational planning meeting, distilling the tasks and timeline that were developed at the March 5 meeting into task-specific Working Groups that will carry the activities forward. The following groups were formed/re-formed at the meeting:
- Outreach Training / Relationship Building
- Project Inventory Management
- Marketing, Communications & Fundraising
- Educational & Social Programming
The aim with these Working Groups is to energize members to feel more empowered to get involved in the REIC and to carry the cooperative forward into the next phase of our development! If you would like to help out with any of these lines of work, please see below for the dates of the next meeting for that WG, or email the contact below, or the Founding Board/Steering Committee, and we can direct you.
Working Group Updates
Outreach
The renewed WG is currently planning a meeting for the end of this month. Please join us through the old mailing list:
nycreic–public-buildings-inventory-group@googlegroups.com
You may also contact Adele: adeleleda@gmail.com and K: contact.successionandnycha@gmail.com
The former PBIG: Public Buildings Inventory Group/CORB seeks new members with great community organizing skills. We are looking for those 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 are looking for professional community organizers who might “train the trainers.”
We are also looking for members who can help with translation, where necessary – whether from Spanish, Chinese, Russian, or other languages. We agreed in our May 7 break-out discussion that we should always come prepared with interpreters!
Possibilities Working Group
The Project Inventory Management group met on Monday night at Prime Produce and discussed organizing our spreadsheet of current potential projects as well as developing an intake and vetting process for new potential projects (see image below), including adding a “Suggest a Project!” form on our website to receive ideas from members of the public. We also decided to rename our working group the Possibilities Working Group. Our next meeting will be held again at Prime Produce, 424 West 54th Street between 9th and 10th Aves in Hell’s Kitchen on Wednesday, May 31st at 7pm. Join us! Plug in with Dan (dan@dantaeyoung.com) or David (davidtglick@gmail.com)
Marketing, Communications & Fundraising
A meeting is planned for Monday evening, May 22, at 6pm, at Bierocracy in LIC: 12-23 Jackson Ave. (take the 7, G or E trains) See: http://bierocracy.com
Please RSVP – contact Mara: mara.kravitz@gmail.com
Educational & Social Programming
A picnic in Prospect Park is being planned for June!
Join us for a fun day in the park, and get to know everything you always wanted to know about the REIC!
This WG creates educational programming for our membership and the public. aIf you would like to join us, please contact: nyc-reic-case-studies@googlegroups.com or John Guzek: guzekjc@gmail.com
Communications / Art & Media Update
Our new graphic identity was launched at the May 7 meeting! We owe huge thanks to Roy Rub, Seth Labenz and the Topos Graphics team for their pro bono work! Thanks as well to Caroline Woolard for getting them on board!
Here’s a peek:
Are you a video editor who cares about affordable space? Do you want to help us by editing footage of NYCREIC members, shot by The Laura Flanders Show, down to a few 30 second clips each for 10 members? If so, please email carolinewoolard@gmail.com with subject heading “NYCREIC editor” and share any links to your editing / video work.
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 us!
Save the Date! Who Produces NYC’s Culture?
Thursday May 25, 7pm-9pm
The life and death of non-commercial art and culture organizations in New York City today is tied very closely to their ability to negotiate with the market, both to maintain a physical presence and to sustain long-term programming. The spaces that ultimately succeed tend to be those that have access to wealth or the expert knowledge and social networks necessary to effectively fundraise. This reinforces existing hierarchies by limiting the ability of marginalized groups to define what New York City’s culture will look like.
Through a discussion with NYC area artists, curators, and cultural workers, we will explore ways in which non-commercial art and culture organizations can promote equity both through their programming and through their organizational structure and fundraising, while surviving in a world of decreasing resources and in NYC.
Panelists include: Taja Cheek (MoMA PS1); Noé Gaytán (Michelada Think Tank); Ali Rosa-Salas (MaMi curatorial project); Risa Shoup (Spaceworks); Antonio Serna (artists of color bloc).
This panel is organized by Flux Factory Column Shifting Fellow and NYC REIC founding board member and Flux Community Organizer-in-Residence Oksana Mironova.
Please contact Mark Read at newsletter@nycreic.com to join the Newsletter Team! We are always looking for people who can write, edit and design in Mailchimp.
Donate for the future of NYC!
We have almost completed our 2-year incubation period!
Help us get there: make a tax-deductible donation to the NYC REIC, help us find and apply for suitable grants, or donate your pro-bono professional services in real estate, finance, accounting, web design, graphic design, development, facilitation, law, or something else.
Your donation will support the creation of a new infrastructure for social investment in the places that make NYC livable and great!
Please email steering@nycreic.com to donate labor, or write a check to the New York City Real Estate Investment Cooperative and send it to:
New York City REIC
℅ 596 Acres
540 President Street, #2E
Brooklyn, NY 11215
During this period, fiscal sponsorship is provided by Spaceworks NYC, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit cultural community development organization dedicated to expanding the supply of long-term, affordable rehearsal and studio space for artists in New York City. Thanks, Spaceworks!
Contact us
info@nycreic.com
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