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,  We ask $20 which goes for EBCOHO expenses; (or $30 if you come with 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 summarizing key points made by Marco in the first 3 talks. EBCOHO co-host Betsy Morris will give an overview of the strategies used to create more long-term affordable cohousing, ecovillages, and cooperatives and the current financing challenges facing them, as well as more mainstream affordable housing models.  Why are community-based housing alternatives valuable to a Bay Area transition economy? How could financial innovations such as slow money and complementary currencies slow the rise of housing prices and support the growth of sustainable communities over the long term. There'll be time for open discussion with Marco and special guets, Q&A, your thoughts, plus wine and chocolate to close the series out!

If you can't make it, check out this helpful video link: How does the current banking system affect you?, 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 for social justice and sustainability since her 20's. She started Planning for Sustainable Communities, a small applied research for urban planning consultancy in 1996, while finishing up her doctorate in City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley.  She has worked with community development corporations and anti-poverty agencies in California and other states.  She has taught at UC Berkeley, SFSU, and USC. Former research director of Coho/US, Betsy has written and presented on affordable cohousing strategies, dimensions and evidence of sustainability, and led tours and workshops for professionals, academics, and community seekers. She currently serves on the board of the Fellowship for Intentional Community.A member of Slow-Money Northern California, she is on a quest to grow a Slow Money-housing lenders network in the Bay Area.