Fourth of July Fireworks return to the East River this summer, and Fine Fare is hoping to get business from those flocking to our shore.
Deborah Mills Offering Woodcarving Classes this Summer
Cooperator Deborah Mills is offering summer woodworking workshops for beginner to intermediate students (18 or older) at her studio in Long Island City.
Mission Statement — Join Us!
To reaffirm the guiding principles of cooperative living: Democratic Governance, Shared Responsibility, Constant Education, and Mutual Respect.
Abraham Kazan, the father of cooperative housing in the United States (and on Grand Street), charged all members of cooperative communities “to exert their efforts to run this cooperative and make it more useful and more interesting for all who live in these apartments.”
Cooperatively Yours chooses to accept that invitation at East River Coop.
Together, we will work to increase participation in our annual shareholders’ meeting with the goal of engaging cooperators more fully in the ongoing betterment of our community.
We will endeavor to improve communication among cooperators and with our board of directors.
We will help elect candidates for the board of directors who demonstrate a commitment to these cooperative principles.
If you support the mission of Cooperatively Yours and want to help us achieve our goals, please sign on below.
If you are ready to take on a leadership role, please indicate your interest by marking “Floor Captain” (responsible for connecting with your immediate neighbors) or “Section Chief” (managing the volunteers in your column).
Rain Today Should Clear Up Before 7:00
Heavy rain right now, with a chance of more all day — but the radar shows the rain moving steadily northeast, already having cleared Philadelphia. The ground may still be damp at 7:00, and the sky still cloudy, but we should stay dry during our open meeting tonight in the courtyard behind building 2.
Bring a chair, bring an umbrella — rain or shine!
Who Are We? Why Are We Here?
Cooperatively Yours has been a very loose association of cooperators. Having called two open meetings — one to discuss the lessons of Sandy in 2012, and one this spring to address financial concerns — we have been able to reach out and listen to a fair number of cooperators. But who are we? And what are we doing here?
A few weeks ago we asked cooperators to share their ideas in a survey. Among other questions, we asked “What kind of activities would you like to see Cooperatrively Yours engage in?” Here were the most relevant answers, with plus signs added to those that were expressed multiple times:
- Fun activities for families, meetings with local officials, parties. +5
- Unless we somehow manage to get a new management company and a new Board, the rest is all secondary. +9
- More transparency in coop decision-making, management, budgeting, and records. More 2-way communication. +18
- Amenities: roof deck, lobby furniture, more attractive fencing, courtyard wifi. +4
- Negotiate an end to the No Pet policy. +3
- Organized system for checking on elderly or disabled people in an emergency.
- Key storage with security on voluntary basis.
- Composting. +2
- I’d like to see a monthly morning event where we clean up trash in the neighborhood or do some other civic minded volunteerism to make our community a nicer place.
- Utilizing the spaces more efficiently. Our community room could be remodeled to a usable space that could bring in revenue. I didn’t know there was a Men’s Club, Women’s club or storage available to us. +3
- Provide security guards a way to call up to residents and announce guests. It’s still a big problem that they buzz everyone in without knowing who they are.
At Monday’s open meeting we will begin to consolidate these aspirations into a single mission statement, and ask for cooperators to sign up to help accomplish these goals.
Open Meeting Monday 7:00 Outside Behind Building 2
We’ll take advantage of spring (and our coop’s ample free common space) for our next Open Meeting on Monday at 7 pm. Please join us behind Building 2, in the nook between sections D and E.
Board member have not yet indicated they will attend — in fact they haven’t even acknowledged our invitations — so we may not be getting any answers to our the questions raised at our last meeting.
Instead, we’ll start to take responsibility ourselves by organizing around the guiding principles of cooperative living: democratic governance, shared responsibility, constant education, and mutual respect.
Your Neighbor’s First Novel: ‘A Replacement Life’ by Boris Fishman
Cooperator Boris Fishman has published his first novel — A Replacement Life — about an immigrant from Minsk whose complicated family relationships lead him to help Russian Jews in a scheme to defraud the German government of Holocaust-restitution claims.
The book received a juicy good review in the New York Times this week, and has been selected as a Summer 2014 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick.
Boris has an upcoming reading Tuesday evening, 7pm, at the Barnes & Noble on 82nd and Broadway. (How about something closer to home, Boris?)
Laundry Room Bulletin Board — Building 1
Again without comment, the glory that is our laundry room bulletin board. Click each picture for a better view.
Silly Games
By the time I got home tonight, all the meeting notices put up over the past 24 hours had been removed. One of the porters I’m friendly with said the order came from his boss to pull down our flyers.
These silly games are a waste of everyone’s time — ours and theirs.
So here’s the link to the meeting notice — if you have a printer at home, maybe you could just make sure your floor is covered. Or knock on your neighbors’ doors this weekend to let them know what’s going on.
Open Meeting June 9 — Bring Your Own Chair
Mark your calendars — our next open meeting will be Monday, June 9 at 7:00 pm. We’re inviting board members to address the financial questions raised at our last meeting, and hoping to continue this positive conversation.
Stay tuned for a definite location (it’ll be nearby, don’t worry).