2016 . . . . . . . . . . . ANNUAL REPORT . . . . . . . . . . . .

January 2017

Dear Friends and Supporters,

In this beginning of 2017, our Annual Report is reflective of all that our planet is experiencing. We are grounded in the reality of the present, hopeful for our future, and mindful of our past.

More than ever we are challenged to remind ourselves that our core values have not changed. While our world appears to be upended, our mission and faith remains the same: we are called to strengthen our resolve to live love through the creation of intentional communities of spiritual practice, sustainability, and social change.

UUCC founders realized a dream six years ago: to provide affordable housing for Unitarian Universalists and others who wanted to live together in intentional community. We continue to live into this dream. The Lucy Stone Cooperative, named after the Unitarian suffragette and abolitionist, celebrates its sixth birthday on February 1st.

UUCC is thrilled to announce that our second house, named after Margaret Moseley, a Unitarian Uni-versalist civil rights organizer, opened its doors in Roxbury, Massachusetts on October 1, 2016. Family focused, our new cooperative is home to 18 people, including 5 children. This 6,000-square foot home is in the last phase of renovations while the community settles into new space.

The opening of the Margaret Moseley Cooperative represents months and years of planning, fundraising, training, working, and then, working some more. The project experienced several delays but the UUCC family leaned in, stepped up, and worked through every setback that brought us closer to move-in day.

We organized and planned work parties. We raised money on FAITHIFY.org to remove lead paint from the first two floors. We cajoled and dragged our friends and family to help with cleaning, hammering, sanding and painting. We spent nearly $250,000 in renovations. We got the job done.

Our financials could not begin to reflect the strength and commitment of members to creating living spaces that reflect who we are, what we hope our world can be, and what faith-based cooperatives can be.

We are thankful and grateful for the generosity of our members, volunteers, donors, and investors, and you. Whether you are giving of your time, encouragement, materials, or money, it keeps us always hum-bled and amazed.

In Solidarity, Gratitude, and Hope,The Members and Board of Unitarian Universalist Community Cooperatives (UUCC)

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This was a year of continued growth and innovation for UUCC:

• In February, NASCO staff visited and consulted on expanding our systems for two houses.

• We hired staff! In February, we received a grant from UU Funding Program and hired our first staff member at 8 hrs/week! We welcomed Myla, our Administrative Coordinator, in April.

• We tithed 10% of the $100,000 award we won from Forbes in 2015. We gave away $10,000 to local and national racial justice and housing justice organizations.

• UUCC joined the Greater Boston Chamber of Cooperatives to partner with other co-ops in advocacy, marketing, and leadership development.

• We hosted a well-received UUCC Reception at the UUA General Assembly in Columbus, OH in June, where we kicked off our summer Faithify campaign. Reception attendees created a blessing together for the new Margaret Moseley Cooperative (MMC) house.

• In the summer, we ran a successful Faithify fundraiser, raising over $5,000 from our generous donors, which was matched by the Woburn Fund. The money went toward a lead abatement project of two 2 floors of MMC to make the house safe for children.

• After an extensive outreach and interview process spearheaded by our MMC Core Team, we pared down 48 applications to a solid group of 18 housemates (13 adults and 5 children).

• In September, we held our first UUCC annual meeting with members from 2 houses! 3 LSC housemates, 4 MMC housemates, and 1 community trustee were elected to the board.

• Each weekend day in September, UUCC members and community member volunteers participated in work days at MMC, clearing trash, painting, cleaning, and preparing the house for move-in.

• We went through a 9-month renovation project on our second house, the Margaret Moseley Cooperative.

• After two additional months of unanticipated renovations delay, MCC members finally moved into MMC in October!

• In November, 6 UUCC members from both houses plus our admin staff member, Myla, attended the NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation) conference in Ann Arbor, alongside over 400 members of residential, worker, and food cooperatives.

• In November, we hired Lisa Pilat as our new Bookkeeper, which is a big step toward professionalizing our accounting and our organization. (Huge thank you to Matt, our Treasurer, who has been doing this work as a volunteer!)

• Also in November, we had our first UUCC member retreat with two houses! 25 of us gathered in Harvard, MA for games, discussion, skill-sharing, and spiritual practice.

• In December, two of our UUCC board members participated in a gathering hosted at Harvard Divinity School on millennials and spiritual community.

• At the end of 2016, two of our board members, Heather and Elizabeth, completed a two-year program on Entrepreneurial Ministry, run by the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association.

ORGANIZATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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• In 2016, Lucy Stone Coop hosted 11 UU youth groups and one adult group for a total of 213 visitors for Sunday evening discussion, dinner, and singing.

• In April, LSC hosted families from the neighborhood association for Easter Egg Dying party.

• LSC hosted their annual neighborhood BBQ in August.

• During the unexpected MMC move-in delay at the end of the summer, Lucy Stone housed 5 MMC members for 6 weeks until they could move into MMC.

• In November, LSC hosted a party for Boston Cooperative Investment Club.

• In November, LSC hosted a “Solidarity Supper” for Standing Rock.

• On June 27, MMC had their first house meeting with the founding housemates at the Lucy Stone Coop. These meetings continued on a weekly basis throughout the summer and gathered more attendees as more MMC housemates joined.

• On October 3, MMC housemates had the first house first house meeting at MMC.

• MMC had their first house event, Remembering our Loved Ones on Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead, on November 1.

• On November 22, the first “MMC baby,” Egypt Carmella Ezé Delgado, was born! Proud mama Didi Delgado moved in earlier that month.

• On December 11, the final housemates moved in, making MMC a full house!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . HIGHLIGHTS OF

HIGHLIGHTS OF . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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. . . . . . RENOVATIONS TO

• Completed lead abatement of first and second floors to meet the Massachusetts Department of Health’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Pre-vention Program requirements.

• Added comprehensive plumbing upgrades throughout the building including replacement of all service and waste lines and addition of four washer and dryer hook-ups in the basement.

• Completed electrical rewiring throughout the building including the installation of wired smoke detectors on all floors.

• Replaced the existing oil furnace with a high capacity natural gas boiler.

• Did a comprehensive renovation of all four bathrooms including new fixtures.

• Did extensive upgrades to all four kitchens including new walls, ceilings, floors, and fixtures.

• Identified and abated asbestos hazards.

• Did extensive outdoor repair of damaged and missing vinyl siding including weather proofing of 52 windows.

WHO WAS MARGARET MOSELEY?

Born in 1901, Margaret Moseley was a Unitarian African-American civil rights activist from Dorchester, Massachusetts. Moseley originally wanted to be a nurse but was turned away by every hospital-nursing program in Boston because of her race. She was a found-ing member of Cooperative Way, a consumers cooperative in Boston in the 1940s. Moseley also served on the board of the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. She was a founding member of Freedom House in Roxbury, a leader of anti-McCarthyism movement in the 1950 and president of the Community Church in Boston. After moving to Cape Cod in 1961 she helped form local chapters of the NAACP and WILPF, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a founding member of the Community Action Committee of Cape Cod and the Fair Housing Committee on Cape Cod. Moseley was active in the Unitarian Church of Barnstable as a founding member of their Social Responsibility Committee and the first woman to chair their board. She was also on the boards of the Mass Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Elder Services of Cape Cod. She worked on voter registration cam-paigns in Selma, AL in 1965 and received the MLK Award from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) established the Margaret Moseley Memorial Peace Education Fund in her honor in 1989. Margaret Moseley died in 1997.

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VISION STATEMENT FOR BEING IN RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR NEIGHBORHOOD:

• Our intentional community will not be a retreat away from the world, but a way to engage more fully with it. We strive to be good neighbors, both personally and organizationally.

• We will build long term accountable relationships with specific neighborhood organizations.

• We will invite our neighbors over to our home for special events and informal dinners.

• We will create a community that is known for its hospitality.

• We are also committed to showing up at neighborhood events to support the organizing and community-building work of local organizations and associations.

• Our house seeks focused ways to work together and with our neighbors to create a more just world at the local level.

• We are committed to ongoing learning in our neighborhood context, learning our history from elders in the community and listening to youth for their vision of the future.

• We also learn about our own values by listening to the needs of those who have been most affected by the broken system that we are working to change.

VISION STATEMENT FOR RAISING CHILDREN IN COMMUNITY

• We live in a consumerist culture which contributes to isolation of the individual. Raising children in community is a solution which recognizes our interdependence within and between families.

• We believe raising children in community offers more stability, learning, and love for our children.

• In community, we can take better care of our bodies and souls through the connections and support we provide one another.

• We believe children and adults benefit from close and supportive relationships with members of all generations.

VISION FOR . . . . . . . . . . .

WHO WAS LUCY STONE?

Lucy Stone (1818-1893) was a Unitarian speaker, editor, and organizer in the early abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements. She was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree, the first woman to make her living as a full-time speaker for women’s rights, and the first woman to publicly keep her maiden name in marriage.

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Delayed renovations at the Margaret Moseley Cooperative meant a two month delay in the move-in date, which meant two months’ less income than we had budgeted for.

While our income was less than budgeted, our cost for the new house also came in under budget. UUCC had planned for $245,300 in total renovation costs, our actuals were $236,798.

We had budgeted for a loss this year as we would be renovating a new building without income from it for most of the year. While our income was lower than expected, our expenses were also below budget enough that we ended up with a smaller loss than anticipated.

All 27 rooms at both houses are now full and we anticipate a surplus of $31,932 in 2017.

A grant from the UU Funding Program allowed us to hire an Administrative Development Coordinator at 8 hrs/week. This grant also allowed us to boost our budget for education and leadership development as we welcomed 16 new members into UUCC.

Our foundation of community financing continues to expand. We now have $436,500 invested from 32 individuals, three congregations, and the UU Association.

UUCC has raised our rent at less than 1.5% every year, while the rent increases in the Boston housing market have consistently been higher than 5%. We anticipate that this will result in $6,648 in savings for our members in 2017 and $13,425 in savings in 2018.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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ALEC AMAN currently serves on the Board of Directors for Clark Mountain Community Land Trust, a community land trust based outside of Lewiston, Maine. He believes passionately in the transformative power of shared living. Alec has lived at the Lucy Stone Cooperative with his wife Rev. Rebecca Froom since 2012.

DANIEL LAURENT is a drummer and activist with the Network of Kreyol Schools that provides a quality education to youth in Haiti. Daniel is a founding member of the Margaret Moseley Cooperative and grew up in Cambridge. Daniel is committed to liberation for all people, economic justice, and asking hard questions.

DIDI PARKER is an educator and works with children. She is an avid practitioner of Afro Flow Yoga. She is passionate about creating community, self-care, and creative expression. She is a founding member of the Margaret Moseley Cooperative.

REV. ELIZABETH NGUYEN serves as the Leadership Development Associate for Youth and Young Adults of Color at the Unitarian Universalist Association. She is affiliated with First Parish in Cambridge, UU. She joined the board of UUCC in 2010 just in time to help birth the Lucy Stone Co-op. Sunday Night Singing at the Lucy Stone Cooperative is one of Elizabeth’s favorite spiritual practices.

FABRICE YON is skilled in the areas of communication, collaboration, and organization. He has been a part of the UUCC community since 2014. Fabrice was a core team member and is a founding housemate of the Margaret Moseley Cooper-ative. Fabrice is great in crisis situations, and has a knack for remaining even-keeled and focusing on whatever needs to be done.

REV. HEATHER CONCANNON is currently serving as Minister of Faith Forma-tion at the Unitarian Universalist Area Church in Sherborn, MA. Heather was raised UU in central Massachusetts. She was a founding member and currently lives at the Lucy Stone Cooperative. She is inspired by the way communities can care for one another, play together, create beautiful music, and cook delicious food.

LEADERSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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KATHERINE JENKINS DJOM is a mother of two sons, teaches Humanities and English as a Second Language at Boston Arts Academy, and is also a board member at Unitarian Universalist First Parish Church, Dorchester. Katherine works on a variety of social justice and community development projects in her community in Boston and abroad, in Haiti and Cameroon. Katherine was a core team member and is a

founding housemate of the Margaret Moseley Cooperative.

MATT MEYER works professionally as an itinerant UU musician and preacher, having lead hundreds of services for UU congregations around the country. He is a founding member and Director of Community Life at the Sanctuary Boston and was also a founding member of the Lucy Stone Cooperative and UUCC.

MYLA GREEN, our part-time Administrative Coordinator, is passionate about cooperatives as a way of living her values and being connected to many people of different backgrounds. She has lived in three coops, founded two, and currently lives in a 5-person vegetarian coop called The Attic in Jamaica Plain. She spends her free time running, traveling, and dancing.

LISA PILAT joined us in November as a part-time bookkeeper. She has been a bookkeeper and building manager for Hope Central Church in Jamaica Plain for 9 years and has worked for other churches and nonprofits during that time. Before bookkeeping, she worked at Filene’s Department stores at a Sr. Divisional Sales Manager for 13 years. She currently lives in Dedham with her three children.

LEADERSHIP (continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

STAFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

You have restored my faith in UUs. I have been UU since birth, but I am truly connected to being UU from this visit. This visit makes me want to hold to this religion.” - Matthew L. Rice

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2017 BUDGET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2016 BUDGET TO ACTUALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .