The session was moderated by David Modersbach. Girl Mark Alovert was also in attendance. A representative of the Oakland Medical Marijuana group was also there. Also present was another BBC member, a SOCO member(Brian), a woman from Chico, and myself, from San Francisco.

The overall gist of the meeting was that there is no one way to go about forming a cooperative. In fact, the idea that Girl Mark offered is that smaller is better. Five to six members streamline the decision-making process.

Brian, from the Sonoma Co-Op let us know that they had been meeting since September of 2002. Their first committees were Bulk Buying and Manufacturing. They held a successful gathering around a film screening of 'The Fat of the Land' along with a showing of bio-diesel cars and speakers. 50-60 people came. To get a copy of 'The Fat of the Land,' go to lardcar.com. They have a distribution sight for their members set up at New College in Santa Rosa. As of this meeting they have 28 members. The meeting process with this many people can be difficult.

Their immediate goal is to build a processor.

Girl Mark strongly encouraged facing size limitations on membership immediately. She related the size of the group to the potential for disruption at The New College site in Santa

Rosa (ie: not wearing out the welcome by too much traffic at the facility). Familiarity with other members cements commitment. There will be a core group at the meetings; others will breeze in and out.

Ways that the Berkeley Co-Op has proceeded:

• Meetings every 3 to 4 weeks.
  
• Vision meetings every 6 to 12 weeks.
  

The vision meetings are a place to brainstorm, where no official decisions are made. They take pressure off of the organizational meetings. These meetings can be valuable outlets for frustration. They are like an ongoing retreat.(David)

Some notes from experience (Girl Mark, unless otherwise noted):

• A previous effort at forming a co-op in Tucson, fell apart because the preferred methods of communication were different for different members (phone, e-mail, face to face, etc.)
  
• One year ago, the goal of the BBC was to make bio-diesel. That burden fell upon the shoulders of a few people.
  
• The process of spawning home-brew cells through the internship program fell upon the shoulders of a few people. (David)
  
• Phone trees transmit tech info on brewing poorly.
  
• By-laws don't have anything to do with the BBC's daily lives.
  
• A legitimate production site would have to be in a heavy industrial zoning area.
  

Some specifics:

• Five people brewing together would need to put up $100.00 a piece.
  
• Brewing a 55 to 100 gallon batch requires 3 hours of attended work (not including oil collection).
  
• Commuting to different locations shoots it up to 30 hours.
  

In summary:

• Do first, ask questions later.
• Get e-mail addresses.
• There is no one way to organize.
• Co-Op health depends upon vision (re-evaluation) meetings periodically.
• Having a membership cap doesn't rule out participation by all (affinity groups).