If you're having trouble viewing this email, you can see it online.
Welcome to the Ujima Staff WIRE! The Staff WIRE is an extension of our monthly #CO-DIRECT meeting, which happens on the first Wednesday of each month, meant to update and provide a consistent window of opportunity for Ujima members to see and participate in key activities led by staff within the Ujima Ecosystem. The Ujima Staff WIRE is a monthly publication.
Assembly & Voting Schedule
At our last Co-Direct, we unveiled our new voting and assembly structure for Members. As you may know, Ujima organizes neighborhood and citywide assemblies as a central vehicle for engaging members in the planning and coordination of Ujima’s collective investments. Below, you will find refinements to our voting and assembly processes to provide more regularity and consistency to our voting schedule. This schedule will continue on an annual basis.
Februaryteenth| Voting: Every February, we will celebrate Februaryteenth, a nod to enfranchisements and histories. Februaryteenth will be an opportunity to ratify new investment lists on an annual basis. These lists then become the investment plans for the Ujima Fund.
April | Assembly: Starting in April, we will have annual assemblies twice a year. This April 2022, our assembly will focus on recreation and public spaces.
October | Assembly: In October, we will begin our second assembly of the year. October will host our public learning workshops.
“An Act to Establish A Massachusetts Public Bank,” (S.665/H.1223) has received an extension through April 30 from the Joint Committee on Financial Services. Late last month, MA state representatives, including Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), State Senator Jamie Eldridge, Nika Elugardo, Mike Connolly and more, civic leaders and experts met for a virtual press conference showing their support for an MA public bank.
The Massachusetts Public Banking Coalition is working on next steps to build both legislative and community momentum.Now is the time to call your state Senator and Representative to help build awareness and support for public banking in Massachusetts.
✓ Reach out to your state senator and/or representative via phone or email, and let them know that you support the bills that the Public Banking Coalition have put forth. Ask them to support the bills by co-sponsoring the bill, and communicate their support to the chairs of the joint committees on financial services.
✓ You can also join our new public banking e-mail list by subscribing here to receive action alerts and information as it becomes available.
We're progressing on our participatory board design process. There will be opportunities to offer feedback on different aspects of the board structure in the months starting with our planned Assembly in April.
We hope to use our October assembly as an opportunity for members to ratify the board structure proposed by the working group.
If you would like to join the group, email us at Paige Curtis, our Culture and Communications Manager at paige@ujimaboston.com.
Crowdfunding & Real Estate Workshop
On Tuesday March 8th, 2022 at 6PM, we will be joining Co.Everything to present a workshop on crowdfunding and real estate.
We will highlight crowdfunding as an alternative financing method for real estate, and how it can be used as a tool towards collective ownership. We will highlight 1463 Dot Ave, Boston's first crowdfunding initiative for real estate, as a case study example and a live opportunity that people can invest in.
In case you missed it, earlier this month, we announced that we successfully reached quorum on the 2022 Dorchester Food Cooperative Investment Ballot, on Monday January 31, 2022. Together, members approved a $25,000 loan, at 5% interest, over 7 years.
In this ballot, over 150 members, about 54% of eligible voting members, submitted their ballot. Of those voters, 90% voted to approve the investment.
Yesterday concluded our month-long workshop series on Money. Across the month we heard from speakers like Christine Desan, Dr. K-Sue Park and Arielle Gray.
.png)
.png)
