We are members of Coop Finland ry

This is a short note that we are very proud to have joined the association Coop Finland ry (CoopFin) earlier this year. One of the purposes of Majavan tila osk is to cultivate the commons by learning and showing how to run projects in a cooperative way.

Some history

Our cooperative would probably never have started if not for some long conversations with Leo Sammallahti, an expert of the cooperative world. Federico Leva and Topi-Matti Heikkola had some vague idea about using cooperatives to make forest management “less capitalistic” and more climate-friendly; Leo helped us make such ideas more concrete. After some research it turned out that this idea was even more ambitious than we imagined, as very few real estate cooperatives have been founded in recent decades.

When Pyöräpaja had a need for a new space, this previous knowledge helped our funders come together and form the plan which became Majavan tila osk. Leo is one of our cofounders and is a member of our board (hallitus).

Pellervo services

Pellervo, the cooperative centre of Finland, has some excellent advice on how to start a cooperative. We strongly suggest to follow their lead.

We would probably have never managed to turn our ideas into actionable bylaws for our cooperative if not for the help of Jarmo Hänninen’s consultation services. Check them out before registering your cooperative!

We are quite proud of our bylaws, which we hope will be a solid foundation for many years to come. That’s why we have a copy affixed in our kitchen.

Collaboration among cooperatives

We are looking forward to some collaboration with other cooperatives in Finland and beyond.

The easiest way to help each other is to spread the word about the respective projects. The most traditional way would be an exchange where two cooperatives purchase services from each other (in our case, we can mostly provide storage space).