Essential Knowledge for Transition Times --Economics for Sustainable Communities

Worried by peak oil, climate change, the federal debt, income inequality? Dreaming of a more cooperative life in cohousing or an ecovillage?   Let's better understand the global economy, financial systems and their impact on local communities. What are the intervention points for lasting change? Explore real-world alternatives that support a more stable and thriving, creative, sane, democratic, and beautiful future!

Knowledge is power - especially the power to create alternatives that can truly sustain us and our habitats over time.

This is a special four-part series with Marco Vangelisti, from Slow Money and Community Capital Caucus, and other featured guests. Join us for 1, 2, 3 or all 4.  Bring your dinner if you like (Cafe Valparaiso is across the street). There will be plenty of time for Q&A, with refreshments and social time afterward.

RSVP here to assure space;  drop-ins welcome as space permits,  Price is $20 ($30 per household -- bring a friend); $10 for anyone who has come before and EBCOHO supporting members. Please join us!

March 22 - Session 3: What is financial capitalism and how has it driven the US and global economy? How are current systems of investment (from your IRA to big banks, pension funds, venture capital, and hedge funds) affecting our lives at the local level?  We will look at alternative ways people are already investing for a better future here in the Bay Area and elsewhere.

March 29 - Session 4: Why has housing become so expensive? What else is there besides the debt-driven

and carbon-intensive models of the past 80 years?  We'll see some short videos on the new economy, summarizing key points from the first 3 talks. EBCOHO co-host and community planner, Betsy Morris will give a short overview of intentional communities formation and current challenges, and discuss how these models contribute to a transition economy. With Marco and special guests, we'll explore working alternatives and new ideas to finance cooperative forms of housing and foster sustainable communities in the Bay Area over the long run.  There'll be time for open discussion, Q&A, your ideas for next steps, and wine and chocolate. Come help us close the series out!

If you can't make it, check out this helpful video link: How does the current banking system affect you? and check out the latest (Spring 2013) issue of Communities Magazine.

BIOGRAPHIES

Marco Vangelisti -- Marco came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar in mathematics and economics at the University of California in Berkeley. After a stint in the financial industry, Marco worked as visual artist on a full-time basis for 5 years and obtained a MFA focusing on the intersection between public art and ecology. He later worked for 6 years for Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC (“GMO”), managing investment equity portfolios primarily on behalf of large foundations and endowments. In April 2009 Marco left the finance industry and has since been instrumental in the formation and development of the Slow Money Northern California chapter where he currently leads the investor working group. Marco also serves on the Slow Money national steering committee and represents Northern CA in the national Slow Money Chapter Council. In the second half of 2012 Marco led the design and launch of the Soil Trust, a Slow Money philanthropic revolving fund investing in small food and farming enterprises around the county. Marco is currently developing an Economics for Transition curriculum for engaged citizens and activists.

Betsy Morris - is a cohousing coach, co-host of East Bay Cohousing, and resident of Berkeley Cohousing with her husband Raines Cohen.  She has been involved in community organizing and sustainability initiatives since her 20's.She created Planning for Sustainable Communities, a small research and planning consultancy in 1996, and worked primarily with community development corporations, social justice, and anti-poverty agencies in the Bay Area.  Betsy has a doctorate in City & Regional Development from UC Berkeley and has taught at UC Berkeley, SFSU, and USC. She was founding research director of Coho/US, and has written and organized events on affordable cohousing for professionals and community seekers. A convert to Slow Money investing, she is on a quest to find allies and grow a Slow Money-housing lenders group in the Bay Area.