🔊🌱 @WildFarmacy • Wild Farmacy • IPR • Intuitive Public Radio

Channel created

12:06

Forwarded from 💥🎙Think Tank Grrrl • Nancy Brew • Thisone Jones • Everage Jo Radio

Changencies Today by Thisone Jones

12 views01:50

🔊🌱 @WildFarmacy • Wild Farmacy • IPR • Intuitive Public Radio

Forwarded from 💥🎙Think Tank Grrrl • Nancy Brew • Thisone Jones • Everage Jo Radio

When we started, the term was new - “Change Agency”
now if you go online, you will find several types of changencies happening around the world.

It seems like we should specify what we are and what we aren’t.

A social changency, like (reference TBA) is designed to be more than just a school….

a creative changency, like this healing arts organization in (reference TBA)…

I think changency could easily become a household word, and in my imagined future every town hosts their own versions.

for me, a changency will never be an LLC or a non-profit organization. If we are forced to find legal structure, we may move into being operated by an independent church, or form a nonprofit association.

if folks working in a changency environment wish to start social enterprises, they may choose to pursue NP or an LLC. Some places, including washington state, do offer business charters for social enterprises that meet the criteria for their definition.

can it be done without legal structure?

of course it can. these legal structures are relatively new to humanity, and completely unnecessary to human functioning. in fact, they often get in the way.

so it might look on the outside like a social proprietorship, or a NP association (club), or a spiritual group. Be aware that almost 100% of alternative organizations do make agreements with the government as to what structure and rules they operate under. The social and political climate support this, and folks might find it scary (existentially) to have a local project operating without legal structure.

why am i even talking about it? because the pressure to conform and participate in legal business structure is now completely normalized and very strong in the USA. This was not always the case, BTW. AND, in many cases (if not all) we don’t actually legally have to form contracts with the government. We certainly don’t have to grind ourselves to dust trying to get something off the ground that we could otherwise just start doing if there were no pressure to form legalized corporate entities.

seriously. It’s okay to form a non-profit if that model really fits who you are serving and how you plan to get funding, but i don’t want folks to assume they have to take on a lot of complicated structure, paperwork and overhead in order to do what they need to do. This shift can make it possible for many many more people to operate small enterprises.

and if that fails, we can collectivize our micro enterprises into a shared legal entity….. there’s always a way to keep our rights intact, despite the assumption and pressure and normalization of corporatizing.

so far, even our own core team members have found it relevant to work under government agreements. Sadly, i think even we are too wealthy to see past our own noses.

Changency as i view it is a specific and holistic response to the challenges of making real social and environmental and economic changes to our culture, including redistributing wealth, building community and making a living.

Our Changency model might make sense quicker to those who carry less assumptions about how economy and organizing needs to work here and now. Folks who have lived with a lot of wealth among other wealthy people seem to find it hard to imagine that we even need to find alternatives to the oppressive, confusing and restrictive nature of small business in the USA today.

For instance, food coops are mostly for-profit entities. Why? because they aren’t really serving those in need. Very few are actually run collectively. There has been a lot of pressure to compromise. Food coops got political at some point, and the success of that model (serving mainly wealthy white progressive communities) might make it hard to imagine something else.

something that does serve folks in need, and truly prioritizes its communities values over being a part of the corporate coop success party.

12 views01:50

🔊🌱 @WildFarmacy • Wild Farmacy • IPR • Intuitive Public Radio

Forwarded from 💥🎙Think Tank Grrrl • Nancy Brew • Thisone Jones • Everage Jo Radio

We all love the unique, the rare, the well-loved places that operate alternatively, that are a bit more funky, less sleek and the same everywhere you go. WE recognize their value. Have you noticed, there seem to be less of these places around? Why is that happening? its getting harder and harder to do anything in some ways, especially independently.

all that to say, we can choose to make an effort to value these places and people by
1. making them more visible to others
2. supporting any efforts they make to raise funds or change structure
3. actually shopping at them more, not only when on vacay or it's convenient, or they are the only place that has what you need.

what if we didn’t assume that brand competition was 100% healthy? what if we didn’t always choose what looked clean or what our friends are doing? what if we didn’t assume that our coop was making ethical choices - and made the effort to find out and put in your two cents.

why do i want to start a changency? because i need a container to operate within, and i can get started with almost nothing.

if you dream it (and ask for materials), the builders and supplies will come. if you build it (and ask for participation), the people will come.

11 views01:50

🔊🌱 @WildFarmacy • Wild Farmacy • IPR • Intuitive Public Radio

Forwarded from 💥🎙Think Tank Grrrl • Nancy Brew • Thisone Jones • Everage Jo Radio

Note - There is a document called "Occupy the Hearth" I'd love to locate again.... The author(s) imagined what would be possible as more and more of us give up hamrful ways of doing economy, and turn toward repurposing the spaces and resourcing we already have... We the 99% still have so much... we can do A LOT

11 views01:50